I'm sitting here on a gray, snowy Saturday, looking out at flurries and longing for that warm, sunny time before we'd heard the word postmodern. It's hard to remember now, but a decade ago, seminars were given on preaching, not on "Preaching in a Postmodern Age." Books were written on plain ol' youth ministry, not "Postmodern Youth Ministry." Of course, we were all unenlightened, unwashed then, locked in a dead, Newtonian modernism.

How quickly we've learned.

Even six years ago, Leadership could publish "The Riddle of Our Postmodern Culture," because the concept was largely unfamiliar to ministers. Now we all toss off words like "deconstructionism" and "abductive." We've been blessed by conferences that are cool and collective, and we expect our websites to be flash-animated and our coffees dark-roasted.

Proponents of postmodern ministry (PPMs) have made important points for the church: We live in a time of transition from one worldview to another; Christianity must not be constricted by ...