There comes a time when all things must be laid to rest no matter how important or vibrant they once were. Imagine if you saw your neighbors watering their tomato plants in the middle of December with six inches of snow on the ground. What if your crazy neighbor has a taxidermy pet that he still talks to and tries to play fetch with. We laugh at these images; however, often in the church we are not far off from this.
When the church was finally accepting that it was ministering to baby boomers and baby busters, it was already well into dealing with a clearly postmodern generation. And now that decent books about postmodernism in the church are finally being written, and we are finally accepting and getting a handle on it, I can’t help but wonder if once again we have missed the death of one paradigm and birth of another. Are we running in at the last moment with the much-needed transplant just as the patient is coding on the table? Are we watering the tomatoes in December?