May I take the liberty of quoting several passages on pages 22 and 23 of his book:
"New churches have an opportunity that established churches often do not. They have the opportunity to contextualize the unchanging message of the gospel without any preexisting patterns to copy. They don't return to a romanticized past, but they incarnate the gospel in a biblical present."
"Many among conservative evangelical churches retreat to a preferred past in order to maintain a sense of spiritual nostalgia. Yet the church must never become too comfortable with any culture,... What the church must be comfortable with is becoming missional, always looking for the best way to reach the culture it lives in at that point in time. If anything, the church should err on the side of becoming futurists (rather than historians) in regard to culture."
It is entirely possible that many of us have become too comfortable with our American culture. We seem to be having great difficulty in separating from the culture around us. New churches are desperately needed to present a Christ who changes lives when sinners repent.
Are you comfortable with the culture?
David P Smith
5 comments:
Amen!
I would say "seperating from the culture that was around us". We no longer live in an agricultural society. America lives in cities.
America is integrated. A greater percentage of the population has been to college than ever before. There are more lost people living in america than ever before. This is not the america of the 70's and 80's. That being said it is the culture of the 50's and 60's that we are having trouble seperating ourselves from. That being said, What was so great about that time period. It was the 50's and 60's generation that has basically destroyed the moral fiber of our country. Why weren't we buying TV stations instead of preaching against Elvis?
Dear Sir,
I find that to be true, the changes that came in the 80's were fought against and now they have become standard, unfortunately we are still behind. I think 'church' has to be more flexible, more tied to the need sof the people and what if instead of having 3 small churches in a community, we had 1 large church that had someone available 24 hrs to meet the needs of a 24 hour community. we can buy liquor all night, we can go the gym all night, why not amalgamate small churches into bigger one bigger church, it allows the pastors to be paid better, it allows access to the care for needs and it would smash the Sunday church notion. But too often, each church is tied to its individuality more than its purpsoe for the service of man.
Sean
What if we made the culture part of the church. Doctrines would remain the same, but the way we excersize those doctrines would be different. There are many parts of our culture that are good, maybe we should build churhces that accentuate the good parts of the culture, incorporating the word of God and by so doing we make it easier for those we serve to recognise and avoid the areas where culture opposes the word of God.
Sean
I liked when Ed said: "If anything, the church should err on the side of becoming futurists (rather than historians) in regard to culture."
My mantra in preaching is: "look forward, ALWAYS look forward" -- our feet were not placed on us pointing backwards BECAUSE we are supposed to ALWAYS be going forward. Its a very simple "duh" concept.
And, I agree with anonymous that its the culture of the older generations that is the worst stumbling block we have holding us back today. If you have pastored an entire church of that sort, you know this firsthand.
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