Are we scared of the "culture"???
[As I finished this little paper this morning I realized that I had to return to the top and give a disclaimer. I did not have the time, nor space, nor perhaps the inkling to unpack all of my thoughts on the following subject. Please forgive me in advance if I have failed to fulling develop my on thougts. This blog is really my own journaling concerning the random thoughts that move through my own soul. So if it doesn’t fit just hit delete. If on the other hand it creates some thoughts for you.... be blessed and don’t be scared to live in the 21st century]The church is running scared of the 21st century culture. Most of the church is completely unprepared to deal with the nuances of this moment. Possessing a spirituality that is impoverished and models that are simply outdated she is at the very least hiding or running from her assignment or in the worst case shedding her identity and embracing the culture.Listen to just a few real stories (the names are changed; I think; I hope; I really don’t remember): “Pastor, just a heads up,” a concerned usher whispered.” “ What?” I responded, “is the problem?” “Well, I don’t know how to say this, but you know that Bob and Joanne went through an ugly divorce last your?” “Yes,” I remembered it far to well, I had spent hours with them. “Well she’s on the east side near the back and well, he’s on the right and he has a girl friend with him. What should I do?” Real story! As if I was suppose to know the answer to that question. I mean for one thing they are in church, but on the other hand they are divorced and they are sinners and God can’t be pleased and just what will people think. Oh, come on you’ve seen this yourself and you’ve had some of these thoughts.I’ll say it again, the 21st century culture is scaring the church! I’m telling you we are scared. Scared of who might really come to hear the gospel. We are scared of the 21st Century Culture! I had someone the other day, a good man tell me that if we could just bring back the morals of the 1940’s then we could fix the 21st century.The problem is that we are not living in the 1940’s. The 1940’s did not have television, let alone You-tube, internet, I-phones, or 24 hour news channels. We could not see what was happening in real time all the way around the world. Everyone on our block went to the same church and we all wore the same clothes. For that matter, we all had the same hair cut.Hello, this is the 21st century and we must be called to live in it and I’ll bet that the Holy Spirit can give us real wisdom and power to live as “salt and light” right now, right here today!I read somewhere in the Bible that God prepared a girl, “for such a time as this.” This is our time, our opportunity to live for Jesus and I for one am not going to live scared or unintentional just because it’s different.It appears to me that the church has responded in a number of ways to the 21st century culture. First, she has “disengaged.” I get it you simply ignore it and divorce yourselves from it and act like you are not really living in the midst of it. You just simply have nothing to do with it.Second, you “fully engage” or in other words you “accommodate” it. You forget any thing about your history and you focus on the needs of the people. In attempting to meet every felt need you simply face consumerism with another product. In many ways you become their therapist or chaplain.Thirdly, “you stand against” the culture. After all you are the pure expression of God’s design and you are the “holy other.” In this posture you stand in prophetic judgment of the coming disaster that you are praying comes quickly so that you can leave, or you attempt to take over areas of authority.The problem with each of these responses is that they miss the calling of the “Great commission.” You remember, the assignment that Christ gave to us when He ascended and sent the Holy Spirit to us, approximately 2000 years ago?Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen. Matt. 28:19-20
“Go and make disciples of all nations.....” You can’t do this and “disengage,” and to “fully engage” won’t work either. And if you “stand against” you miss the point.
The reality is that the people of God, individually and collectively, are called to give expression to the redemptive work of God in all of their lives. Again let me state that the challenges to this calling in our time and culture are formidable to say the least. What is missing is a leadership that understands the nature of these challenges and offers a vision of “spiritual formation” adequate to the task of discipling the church and its members for a time such as ours.
The “Great Commission” is the task of “making disciples,” of being conformed to the image of Christ. In lieu of a fearful response what is needed is a “vision for formation.”
I have to believe that there is an alternative way forward besides that of “disengagement” (or defensiveness) or “relevant accommodation” or “to stand against (the pure other). But this will mean that we understand the mission of “formation.”
The Christian community (or at least parts of it); think that after conversion discipleship will simply take care of itself. Others think that introducing the “spiritual disciplines” are the way forward. It is true that evangelism and spiritual disciplines are central in formation. However, this too is a reductionist philosophy.
As a pastor in the 21st century I think that Christians have faith in Christ and for the most part they believe the core truths of the Christian faith. And yet while they have faith, they are also informed and formed, in a large part, by the stronger and larger post-Christian culture in which they rub shoulders every day. We must respond, with real thought to the time in which we live.
I want to submit that healthy formation is impossible without an exposure to another culture that is living along side the existing culture. A culture that is not the “kingdom” but represents the kingdom, an embassy if you will where we find a supporting culture of the gospel to which we have been exposed. This will require “intentionality” on our part. I suppose is some ways it is a sub-culture into which we call people.
The vision of this culture, of this community; the very hope for which it longs and the ideals to which it holds; is the vision of the Peace of Christ. It is a vision of order and harmony, faithfulness and fruitfulness of goodness, beauty and truth.
The entire biblical story centers around the Peace (shalom) of God that He intended and that He will one day restore in it’s fullness.
The greatest event in this story is when He became a man. He came to rescue His fallen creation from it’s own chosen path. He modeled peace to all (by forgiving, feeding, healing, raising the dead, loving all, and caring for everyone). “For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation,...(Eph. 2:14). He manifested the “kingdom of heaven,” or “the peace of God” was at hand.
The gospel of the Kingdom (The presence of His Peace) is the culture where the received faith is formed and shaped into the soul of those who are following the “prince of peace.”
He became present to us. He did not “disengage” or “accommodate” or “stand against”. No, He became “flesh,” He was present to us and yet intensely different from us. He asked us to follow Him. It is in the following of Him that they were “formed” into different men.
Perhaps we could become “present.” Perhaps we could become the models of peace in a culture that is lost. Perhaps when peace (the kingdom is revealed) people might follow that peace into a culture that is prophetically revealing the “not yet known” Kingdom of Heaven.”
Just a few of my favorite verses on Peace!!!!
“...God has called us to peace.” (1 Cor. 7:15).
“Therefore let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another.” (Rom. 14:19) “Finally, brethren, farewell. Become complete. Be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.” (2Cor. 13:11)“Now may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace always in every way. The Lord be with you all.”(2Th. 3:16)“And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. ¶ The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.” Rom. 16:20