Damn, The word "Rant" is being used a lot lately.  Words can really f**k with you. (Read that last sentence again... it's deep.)  Too many well meaning pastors are trying to find meaning in the wrong things.  Too many pastors get a hold on a, love and hug, squeeze and suffocate the newest trend, model, word or phrase in desperate attempts to get a grip on life.  They learn a new word and then beat it like a coked up, wide-eyed, demon-possessed, monkey playing the drums.  When the awe and mystery and might I add, coolness leaves a word, it gets discarded quicker than a Bible in a United Methodist Church. 

We USE words, we don't appreciate them.  Words like POSTMODERN. RANT. MODERN. COMMUNITY. get more abuse than the kids in “Mommy Dearest.”  Well let me be the first to say.."No More Wire Hangers, Mommy! No More Wire Hangers!"  Can we just back off a bit. Relax. Please.  Some poor junkie pastor one week finds afix in a "community", and he finds that he's not alone in a rant that he reads, then 6 months later grows tired of the term.  He sounds like aspoiled child who doesn't like the kind of candy he's been given…after he's eaten 75% of it.  Pastors are about as steady as the weakest trickle squeezing out of the driest stream. No matter how hard you try you can only get a few squirts and a couple of drops out of them.  God is a roaring river. Our models are leaking faucets. 

When you attack words you lose imagination. The best words come from silence.

Also there is too much critique of critique. (how's that for an ontological statement). Look people, this whole "conversation" or "movement" is in the beginning stages. We're still brainstorming.  The #1 rule in a brainstorming session is "No Blocking". Let it flow. Relax.

I say use the words "Rant", Postmodern etc as much as you like.  If you are a more "enlightened individual"(pardon the irony) then don't use them at all. But you were using them 3 weeks ago, so perhaps you can get off your brother's and sister's back.  If you can find it in yourself to be gracious to those who are just a few steps behind you on the journey, then God bless you.  Otherwise you look more like Johnny Knocksville in Jackass.  Sure we might laugh, but it's really not as funny as it is sad.  Because your new found freedom is now a cage for you to put on others. 

So let people rant. Use words that make sense to you... but don't abuse them.  Stop looking for meaning in models, trends, churches, candles and conferences.  You will not find meaning there.  The first step for a junkie is admitting he has a problem. For a pastor it might mean closing his mouth.