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by Robert N. Nash, Jr.
In the last twenty years Americans have witnessed dramatic changes in the wider culture. Yet the local churches have hardly changed. We pretend that people want the same things from church in the 1990s that they wanted in the 1950s. For this reason, Christianity in America in the late 20th century is deeply troubled.
Loren Mead states in the foreword, "Nash is helpful to us in exploring the painful cultural divide we straddle--between a world he describes as the 'modern world' and the world emerging around us, 'the postmodern world.' He clarifies for us how that very change is shifting the ground under our feet, making obsolete the practices of yesterday; making obsolete, even some of the institutional structures and the ways we have articulated the deepest things of our faith... New language and new structures will be needed for gospel truth to be articulated in this world of postmodernity."
For a future to materialize, though, the church must first take a hard look in the mirror. Only then can corrective measures be taken to help make the church a more relevant part of people's live in the 21st century. If changes aren't made, the church will become obsolete-much like an 8-track tape in today's digital world.
In the first half of An 8-track Church in a CD World, Nash provides a clear picture of the problems facing the church. The second half of the book offers a look ahead to changes and approaches that can help churches minister effectively in the postmodern world.
Robert N. Nash, Jr., a popular seminar leader, often directs workshops designed to assist churches to understand the influences of cultural change upon Christian ministry. He is Assistant Professor of Religion at Shorter College in Rome, Georgia, where he teaches in the areas of American religion, church history, and cross-cultural theology. He holds the Ph.D. degree in American Christianity from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and the M. A. degree in American History from Georgia College and State University.
The son of Baptist missionaries in the Philippines, he has served three churches. He is the co-author of The Bible in English Translation: An Essential Guide and contributed to an edited volume on cross-cultural ministry entitled Many Nations Under God: Ministering to Cultural Groups in America.
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