“The ability to teach and preach and lead is taking a back seat to the pastor’s capacity to create and facilitate open-source faith experiences for the people of the church” (Doug Pagitt, Church in the Inventive Age, 33).

Doug Pagitt prefers a dialogical preaching style that invites everyone in the audience to participate in the sermon. All attenders, Pagitt, and even the Bible are participants in the dialogue. What does Pagitt mean when he says “open-source faith?” This is a fancy way of saying that all in attendance regardless of their beliefs (Christian or otherwise) are invited to experience Christianity without changing their beliefs. Why should Pagitt take back-stage to his audience when it comes to preaching? Well, his target audience, postmodernists, prefer personal experience as they explore their spirituality, and participation in the sermon would seem to cater to this desire.
While experience may be preferential to a postmodern audience, one must question the biblical grounds for Pagitt’s approach. Why does the Holy Spirit distribute the gifts of prophecy, preaching, and teaching if the Bible is merely to be presented as a part of a larger conversation. While dialogue about the Scripture will find biblical support, it would seem that the preacher’s role as a gifted, authoritative, Spirit-filled, knowledgeable voice in the dialogue should silence the others for awhile. Maybe this sort of preacher will have some words to say that are more important, more biblical, and more likely in line with the Spirit’s voice than the rank and file.