Yesterday's Techniques don't work for Today's Audience.  This article first appeared in Group Publishing's REV magazine.  It explores what cutting edge pastors are doing to connect with their audiences

When Security opens the doors, a couple thousand people rush into the low-lit room. Within minutes the room is filled to capacity and the band starts playing. The music is loud--really loud. People stand, and Tuesday night worship at TNLC (The Next Level Church) in Denver, CO begins. 

At Graceland in Santa Cruz, CA, people hang out everywhere. Some stand around the perimeter, most grab a chair and a few sit around tables and sip coffee. The room is dark, partially lit by accent candles and like TNLC, the music is loud.

No Baby Grand pianos. No choirs. No plexiglass pulpits. No cheesy livingroom scenes. No floral arrangements. The atmosphere at these churches is more like a night club than a church. But they are reaching people that are missing from most traditional and boomer churches. 

Genesis

In 1986 Dieter Zander went after a missing generation, and in the process began the first Gen-X church in America. The church's mission was to reach"betweeners"--people who didn't fit in the family section of the church because of their marital status or the youth ministry because of their age. Before Zander left to join the staff at Willow Creek, the church grew to twelve hundred in attendance. The average age of attenders was 26.

The focus of Generation X ministry has expanded from reaching "betweeners' to targeting people who have accepted the world view of GenXers--postmoderns. 

Postmoderns are willing to admit that they need help but have discovered that education, technology, and philosophy will not solve the problems--they are increasingly turning to spirituality. But their spirituality does not resemble Biblical spirituality. Postmoderns in America are as likely to attend a pagoda, temple or mosque as a church.

In the postmodern age, people reject the notion that rational thought can solve society's ills. Objective truth is out. Postmoderns' world view is dominated by subjective reality and relativism. In his book, The New Absolutes, William Watkins concluded, "Roughly three out of four Americans claimed they embraced relativism and opposed absolutism." (p. 26) If Watkins is right, the world is now dominated by a postmodern world view. Everyone is affected by this world view, not just people with spiked hair, piercings and tattoos.

At first glace, this shift seems daunting to the church, but Zander is optimistic. He said, "Postmodernism is a better soil for the gospel than modernism." 

Though most pastors will be unwilling to transform their auditoriums into rooms that resemble a night club, there are some things a pastor can do to upgrade their communication skills for the postmodern age.

Get Common

When Dan Kimball, the pastor of Graceland, the two Sunday night church services geared for postmoderns at Santa Cruz Bible Church, in Santa Cruz, CA walks to the microphone, he seems like just another guy-he could be any one of the 800 members of the audience. And it's not just his casual dress. (A preacher can be condescending in a golf shirt as easily as he can in a suit.) It's his persona. He's a peer preacher--a man preaching to his peers.

Maybe it's because of his journey.

A "Jesus freak" witnessed to Kimball on the streets in New Jersey in the late 1970's. "You're going to hell and will perish in a lake of fire if you don't repent." The man said. Kimball had never heard that before. His mother did drop him off at a Dutch Reformed Church, the same one George Washington attended, but never really paid attention.

He knelt with the street preacher and received Christ. But Kimball didn't attend church until he graduated from college and started going to a small church in London, England while playing in an 80's rock-a-billy punk band. Because he didn't have a church background, Kimball didn't understand the church terminology the pastor used, but under the influence of the Bible, his life began to change.

A year later, he was baptized in the Jordan River. 

After Kimball's band folded, he headed off to Israel to see the land of the Bible. He joined a Kibbutz, picking grapefruit in the mornings for $5.00 a week plus room & board. The rest of the day belonged to him and he spent it reading his Bible and exploring the lands he read about. Later he would attend Bible College and Seminary, but he spent his formative years in a self-guided, spiritual quest.

Kimball relates to his audience. He was one of them. He is one of them.

"Don't assume postmoderns know the Biblical story or what Christians believe." Kimball said. "You can't just say 'gospel'-what does 'gospel' mean?"

With humility, Kimball explains everything. He doesn't assume his audience has a Christian background or that they understand church customs. "The Bible characters, our language and our terminology need to be explained or redefined for a postmodern audience," Kimball added, "Postmoderns may know the term but not have a Biblical understanding of it."

Kimball is up front with his audience. "We need to be open and honest about the mysteries of the faith." Kimball said. "[Studying] theology is grappling with the mysteries of God, not solving a mathematical puzzle." 

He avoids theological "bait and switch." Last year, Kimball did a Stewardship series, he didn't call it "Keys to Financial Success," or "How never to have Financial Worries," he entitled it "Money, Money." The first night of the series, he said, "The Bible talks about money a lot. God must want us to know about it." And he taught them what the Bible says.

Get Real

Jack Allen, pastor of the Cottonwood Church in Albuquerque, NM, never felt comfortable preaching "How-to" sermons. "I always felt like I was trying to sell a used car." Allen said. "I don't say that to be ugly, it's just how I felt when I did it." 

After completing a Ph.D. and pastoring a couple of traditional churches, Allen moved to Albuquerque to chase after unchurched postmoderns. His preaching style has changed over the years. He doesn't use acrostics or alliteration anymore and preaches with a casual, conversational tone. But those changes were small compared with another shift he made.

Allen doesn't try to give every sermon closure. "Postmoderns aren't looking for closure. It is perfectly fine to admit the realities of life." Allen said. "I struggle too when little girls get shot by some drive-by junkie, and I think it bothers God, too."

Zander agrees. "Postmoderns don't require nicely wrapped up endings." Zander said. "In fact, if it's too neat at the end, that discredits what you've talked about. There is a gut-level sense within them that life is too easy to summarize in a 30 minute message."

Postmoderns want their preachers to be real. "Authenticity is important." Allen said. "Postmoderns will openly mock and ridicule a preacher who has all the answers."

Instead of offering easy answers Allen explains the Bible and helps his audience find hope in its message. And Allen believes that God can transform lives through the preaching of His word.

One Sunday he illustrated Luke 4, "Bind up the broken heart . . . " with a role of duct tape. He said, "If you have a broken heart, I want to give you a piece of duct tape and pray with you." About 35 people, a third of his new congregation, came to get duct tape from their pastor and have prayer with a counselor. Allen admitted that he couldn't take their broken heart away, but he was willing to help them bind it up, and he didn't let what he couldn't do, keep him from doing what he could.

Get Visual

"Did anybody bring any corn with them today?" Bron asked. "I did," a member of the congregation replied. As Bron walked into the crowd, the audience member pulled an ear of corn out of his sock and handed it to his Pastor. Holding the corn in both hands, Bron asked, "Will you lend me an ear?" 

The crowd laughed. 

"Pastor humor," he added as he turned to walk back to the teaching platform, "is like normal humor, except not as funny." 

The crowd laughed again.

Slowly, Bron peeled back the shucks and taught about generosity. "All of this corn, came from a single kernel, and each stalk has many ears of corn on it." He continued. "If you want to harvest something, you first have to plant it."

Trevor Bron, the Senior Teaching Pastor of the Next Level Church in Denver, CO uses visual illustrations to connect with the weekly crowd of twenty-five hundred Postmoderns who attend his Tuesday evening services. His teaching style appeals to people accustomed to "interactive learning."

Bron illustrates complex truths with simple objects. One week, he used an artichoke (like truth, you have to pull it apart to enjoy the meat), another week he took ten watches out of his pocket, (everyone has time on their hands, but godly people use it wisely), and one week he used corn.

Bron doesn't always use a prop. Sometimes he shows a movie clip and other times he simply uses a strong story. "I don't feel the picture has to be 'physical' for the audience to 'see' it," Bron said. "That's why people read fiction."

Get Narrative

Like a weaver, combining strands to form a tapestry, Zander, a postmodern communicator, takes his story and weaves it with God's story, allowing his listeners to insert their story. He isn't trying to "prove a point," with a propositional sermon, instead, Zander simply tells God's story. "Postmodern man is as open to the gospel as any has ever been," Zander said, "you don't even have to prove God, all you have to do is tell His story." 

"It's like the strings of a guitar." Zander said. "When you put your face next to an 'A' string and begin to hum an 'A'--that string begins to vibrate. The 'D' won't. The 'G' won't, but the 'A' will." Zander continued. "When we hear God's story, something inside our heart starts to vibrate, regardless of whether we are a Christian or not, because we were created for our hearts to vibrate with that story."

Preachers don't have to convince people. Because people are created to worship God, they will respond to His story, and they will believe, if we will tell His story. Sermon preparation begins by asking, "How can I put this propositional truth into the overall context of the story of God?" For Zander, the most thrilling thing about preaching is helping people see the God that is standing right behind them and walking with them. And when he tells God's story, something inside them begins to vibrate.

And they ask, "Could it be true, could it really be true?"

• Will I be bruising anyone's sternum with this sermon? I don't like people pointing their fingers at me and I sure don't like them poking me in the chest, and I'm not alone. My job as a preacher isn't to step on anyone's toes, it is to proclaim good news to hurting people. Many young preachers prefer to call themselves communicators or teachers instead of preachers because "preaching" has such a negative connotation. That's why people say things like, "Don't preach at me."
• Am I being "cutesy?" I've tossed out techniques like alliteration and acrostics and try to just talk to the people. Now I don't sit in my office for hours saying what is a word that begins with "R" that means sinful? I don't have to waste valuable study time trying to impress people with how clever I am.
• Am I using elements of narrative preaching in the sermon? Not every sermon can be narrative in structure, but even a propositional sermon can be supported by good illustrations. Whether it is a visual illustration, or just a good story, I try to help my people "see" what I'm saying. Some sermons can be narrative. This Easter, I didn't talk about the evidences for the resurrection, I simply told the story of his death and resurrection. The story has power, I didn't feel the need to prove it, just proclaim it.
• Am I being simple? I try to edit out theo-terms or make sure to include a good explanation of what they mean. But I want the message to be significant. So I ask another question.

Am I being too simplistic? I use what I call the 5/5 rule to judge the weight of the message. I ask myself, "Could the average Christian, who has known the Lord for five years be able to figure this out on her own if she thought about it for five minutes? If the answer is "yes," I go back to the drawing board. I also ask, "Am I forcing closure or oversimplifying complex truths." For years I thought I had to have "the answers," postmodern preachers have taught me that all I have to do is honestly grapple with the questions, and God will speak to His people.