I had a chance to hear Donald Miller speak last night at Lipscomb University in Nashville. Miller is the author of several books, including the best-seller, Blue Like Jazz. Jazz is a writing of non-religious thoughts on Christian spirituality. It was amazing to see how Miller’s humor & candor resonated with a college crowd. It was a refreshing evening as we listened to Miller read excerpts from several of his books. He writes with a clarity and authenticity that I find so fresh and appealing.

I’m thankful for the shift in Christian literature toward a more honest and authentic dialogue. As Miller said, we should be the truest voice in literature; for far too long, we’ve been the phoniest.

I continue to find the postmodern shift, especially with regard to faith and orthodox religion, simultaneously refreshing and scary. I guess we have a unique vantage point: we’re witnessing the deconstrucion of a 500-year-old worldview and the emergence of a new one. We should be excited and a little scared.

My only concern is how the emerging postmodern worldview can be reconciled within a greater respect for scripture as the divine revelation of God. There is a sense of “anti-establishment” that I find in the writings of Miller and McLaren and others of a postmodern stripe. I detect a not-so-subtle irreverence toward church and, I’m afraid, perhaps even scripture. Granted, I’m making gross generalizations here. And Jesus himself was anti-establishment to the degree that the establishment, with it’s emphasis on man-made rules, had been deified. But Jesus was never anti-authority. He fully acknowledged the sovereign rule of God, as evidenced by His prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. He spoke and taught as one having authority, even claiming the authoritative title of Messiah. I’m still trying to wrap my mind around some of the finer points of post-modernity, but I pray we don’t lose sight of the authority of God along the way.