Cultural relevancy

Part of the impetus of the emerging church movement is the criticism that the church isn't culturally relevant and people, particularly the young aren't interested in the church as it stands today. So what's the problem? The emergent folks say that the church isn't culturally relevant since that's what people are saying so we have to make the church culturally relevant. But is that really what the problem is? And has God ever been culturally relevant?

After spending some time thinking about whether God has ever been culturally relevant, I have to say the answer is no-God has never been culturally relevant. I would submit that a culturally relevant God would not have cast Adam and Eve out of the Garden, destroyed the world with a flood saving only a family of 8 and some animals, causing mankind to disperse at the Tower of Babel, destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, punished the children of Israel and Moses for their unbelief, punished the nations of Israel and Judah with captivity to name a few. Furthermore, why would a culturally relevant God feel the need to sacrifice His only Son to provide a means by where humanity could be restored to fellowship with Him? That should tell us something about humanity's culture throughout the ages-it's wrong and an anathema to God and He punishes people and nations for their culture. So why would we think that making the gospel of Christ culturally relevant to our time today would be acceptable to God? When Christ interacted with religious leaders, tax collectors and prostitutes he did indeed met them where they were but He challenged and in some cases changed their culture. He didn't make them better prostitutes and tax collectors and religious leaders. For that matter, Christ meets each of us where we are, it is only our notions of being better than others or not quite as bad that prevents us from seeing that in God's eyes we are all equally evil and in need of salvation. Romans 3:10 says that none are righteous. Society might say that one person is better than another is but God does not. He is not a respecter of persons (Romans 2:11) nor does He pay any attention to our social status, ethnicity or gender (Gal 3:28). When people truly meet up with Christ their culture is changed to His culture-not the other way around.

So this gets to the heart of the first question. Is it really that the church is not culturally relevant? As with many things there is always a kernel of truth that Satan finds and twists. I would agree that in some cases the church buildings have become enclaves to be away from the world. We do sometimes seem to spend an awful lot of time saying "Thou shalt not" instead of "Thou shalt do". So from that perspective most of us are probably guilty as charged.

We have forgotten that our primary purpose is to preach the Good news of Christ (Acts 1:8) to the four corners of the earth and you can't do that sitting in your warm comfy pew and you might actually have to associate with people out side your social strata who do things most of us would condemn or might make us feel uncomfortable. Some of us lack joy and it shows. We judge people by our first impressions and on their outsides without considering what they need on the inside. We also might be guilty of not ministering enough to the actual physical needs of those around us while preaching the good news but for the most part I think this one is lame. I think that more good has been done for the physical needs of people in Christ's name while preaching the good news than not. The Salvation Army, the old Catholic hospitals & mission hospitals come to mind. We want people to change up front and be like us before we fellowship with them. We seem to forget that change happens AFTER someone meets Christ not before. Besides, are any of us perfect in our faith and walk? Do we not all have weakness and temptations that cause us grief?

But, the seeker sensitive folks, those who say we have to make the church culturally relevant have forgotten something- We are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds and hearts (Romans 12:2), conforming not to the world but conforming to the image of Christ (Romans 12:2 and 8:30). That to me means we should be engaging our culture where it is and changing our culture not the other way around.

I Peter 2:9 reads "But ye [are] a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light:"

2 Corinthians 6:17-18 says Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean [thing]; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

Both mean to me that we are to be different from our world. Actually the whole of 1 Peter 2 is amazing to read in light of what is happening today to make the church relevant and what we are do to, be and look like.

People want absolutes. People are looking for truth and they are looking for certainty. They may say they don't believe in absolutes, truth or certainty but I think they do want it or hope that it exists. God is a God of absolutes. We are created in His image. We crave spiritual fulfillment and fellowship-it's encoded into us. People don't really want wishy-washy or may be.

If the church has failed in its mission I would submit the reasons are multifactorial but mostly because we're trying to be culturally relevant and not too different.

Cries of exclusivity abound-that only our way is the right way. So then we try to be politically correct and agree. We forget that Christ claimed to be the only way to God, John 14:6. Is Christianity exclusive-you bet. Don't apologize for or try to be politically correct about Christ's claims.

Folks today seem to think that just because something is widely done, admired, or culturally acceptable, that the behavior must be ok. Problem is that scripture frequently takes a different view. God is unchanging so it follows that His opinions of what is right and what is wrong must also be unchanging. (Hebrews 13:8) So instead of changing us we try to change the message, we try not to be offensive especially when dealing with sin and sinners because we don't want to offend, we want to be liked by everyone. When we call parts of our culture wrong and sinful according to that which is written in scripture (sexual sins coming to mind) the general populace is going to be offended and they won't like us much. Christ took the religious leaders of his day to task more than any other group (man what does that mean for us, consider that). He called them whited tombs full of dead men's bones (Matthew 23:27), an evil and adulterous generation (Matthew 12:39), a generation of vipers (Matthew 3:7) none of which sound politically correct to me. Keep in mind the religious leaders of the day were the ones that delivered Christ up to be crucified. Have we forgotten Christ's own words in John 15:18-20- "“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also." Why would we think that our message would or should be popular? Christ's message wasn't all that popular when He proclaimed it Himself. In fact, His message got Him killed. Today's leaders and Christians want to focus on God being a God of love forgetting that God is also a Holy God and hates sin. We need to find a balance here people. Yes God is a God of love and that has been forgotten by some in the past but now we've gone the other way and completely abandoned the concept of a Holy God to whom sin is an anathema, needing to be punished.

My bottom line take on the emergent church is that their priorities are out of place. John F Kennedy Jr said "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country". We seem as a society to have this backward wanting more to know what our country can do for us than the other way around. I think that this attitude has permeated the spiritual as well. We no longer want to know what we can do for God but what is He going to do for us?

My solution is that we as individual Christians need to have a different culture, the culture of God. Galatians 5:22-25 I think says it best- "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit." We need to have a different culture than the world around us and then be faithful to that culture. We need to keep our priorities straight.

My goal-to be transformed, conformed, separate and exhibit the Fruit if the Spirit. I won't be popular but I will be found faithful.