www.TheWellNYC.life<\/a><\/em><\/p>\nThroughout my pastoral experience over the past decade, I\u2019ve noticed a new demographic emerging through questions that I\u2019ve been asked by other congregants. There is a growing sub-demographic in the secular population that is searching for a spiritual experience, and it hasn\u2019t received a lot of attention from the church. Whether it\u2019s feeling stressed at work, increasingly dissatisfied with a relationship or money, postmodern Americans are increasingly seeking a spiritual remedy.<\/p>\n
In 2017, the meditation market (as it has been called) was a $1.2 billion industry in the U.S. Some project it will be worth over $2 billion by 2022. This growing trend is everywhere. For example, meditation rooms are the hottest new work perk, and CEOs are personally seeking out a practice of meditation in order to become better leaders. One observation is that the meditation movement is where the yoga movement was in the mid-90s, which means the ceiling for the meditation market is still miles high.<\/p>\n
The meditation market represents a spectrum of practices\u2014such as mindfulness, transcendental meditation, or various forms of Buddhism\u2014and promises an experience of peace, productivity, happiness, etc. This is done by taking back control of the mind and taming it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Consumers of these practices are generally not \u201cskeptics\u201d\u2014the Richard Dawkins of the world who are hostile toward spirituality\u2014nor are they \u201cseekers\u201d who are exploring the Christian faith and dialoguing with other Christians. These two groups have been engaged with success through various evangelism programs. Rather, those in the meditation market are what I\u2019m calling \u201csearchers\u201d: seculars searching for a spiritual experience.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Is it true? Vs Does it work?<\/h2>\n
This difference comes down to Modernism and Postmodernism. Modernism attempts to construct a coherent worldview through the pursuit of an absolute truth. The Church\u2019s response was to make a fact-based case for Christianity\u2014e.g., eight reasons why Jesus was historically real, five reasons why the resurrection is true, etc.<\/p>\n
\tPostmodernism, on the other hand, is marked by relativism and individualism, which has produced a culture defined by the phrase \u201cyou do you.\u201d The value proposition for a Postmodern person is whether or not something works. \u201cWhat works for me works for me, leave me alone.\u201d This is where searchers reside, and they are not initially looking for a 200-page book of claims or a bulletproof sermon. They would rather taste and see whether what is offered is good.<\/p>\n
\tIn other words, the modernist asks the question \u201cIs it true?\u201d whereas the postmodernist asks, \u201cDoes it work?\u201d And if it works, then for the postmodernist, it is true\u2013because truth is found in something that works.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This is not to say that facts do not matter to the postmodernist. But the searcher says, \u201cIf something gives me peace, relieves my stress, gives me satisfaction, or provides a feeling of transcendence, then it works, and it surely must be true.\u201d This is the story I\u2019ve heard when Ivy League-educated lawyers in New York convert to Buddhism\u2014it gives them an experience of peace.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Re-imagining Ministry<\/h2>\n
The church must respect the searcher posture if it\u2019s going to make any missional inroads into today\u2019s culture, and the Bible gives us a picture to consider. In John 4, Jesus first told with the woman at the well \u201cI work.\u201d He said \u201cI know you\u2019re thirsty. I\u2019ll quench your thirst forever.\u201d It\u2019s only after that that he has a theological conversation about mountains and her sin. He interacted with what she wanted to satisfy most\u2014her thirst\u2014and showed her that he works.<\/p>\n
What is it for the church to take a \u201cDoes it work?\u201d approach to ministry? It means we must consider how we can help others experience God in non-modernist ways. The Bible and prayer give great opportunities for such a mission.<\/p>\n
Regarding the Bible, the skeptic\/seeker approach (modernist approach) would seek to show that the Bible is presenting facts: spiritually, historically, and scientifically. The searcher\u2019s approach is more reflective in nature, asking questions such as \u201cWhat does this mean?\u201d This question points to the importance of story, because what drives a story is meaning\u2014\u201cWhat\u2019s the point?\u201d And, if it\u2019s true that the best stories always win, then a ministry approach for searchers does the hard and important work of learning how, as the hymn says, to re-\u201ctell me the old, old story, of unseen things above, of Jesus and his glory, of Jesus and his love\u201d in a way that is less about facts and more through the lens of the story of the power of Jesus in one\u2019s life. For what could be more powerful than quenching your thirst forever?<\/p>\n
Regarding prayer, the claim of Jesus working in one\u2019s life is not the prosperity gospel: follow Jesus and your life turns around. Rather, it\u2019s saying that even if your life doesn\u2019t turn around you can still have peace and joy amidst the chaos and unmet expectations, which is exactly one of the promises in the meditation market: peace in a chaotic life. Except unlike meditation, which is a form of control (and any therapist worth his or her weight knows the problem emotion of control is anxiety), the path of Jesus is one of prayer. This is significant because when you pray, you learn that God is in control\u2014not yourself. Therefore prayer is not a posture of control but a posture of surrender, and it is that posture of surrender that the church needs to introduce to searchers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Up to this point, this demographic has largely been ignored by the American church. Like the woman John 4 who told her friends \u201ccome and see\u201d the one who told me everything about myself, the church too must decide to strive to introduce and show searchers the same claim that Jesus revealed of himself at the well: I work.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aaron Bjerke\u00a0is planting a church in NYC out of Redeemer Presbyterian Church. Having been an Assistant Pastor there for seven years, he is excited to see a new expression of the gospel take root in the city for those searching for a spiritual experience. Originally from Minnesota, he lives with his wife, Erica, and two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7948,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[]},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7947"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}