New Beginnings: Engaging the Culture

One of the things that Paul was masterful at was engaging the culture in which he found himself and reinterpreting the culture understanding for them into a commitment to follow Jesus Christ.  He did not go into any one place and say you have been doing it all wrong, and your way of doing things is wrong, do it this way now or you will go to hell.  Quite the contrary, he would go into a places and latch onto the things that the culture held most dear, and helped them to understand that the things they were good at doing, are gifts from God.  He also showed them new possibilities about how as followers of Jesus committed to serving one another, other things did not have to be this way. The person on the street need not be on the street, because God calls us to give them shelter and food.  The widow who is abandoned need not be because God has proved through Jesus, that none of us are abandoned, so we too will not abandon a widow or a sister or a brother in need.

So to be a church that is interested in growing in grace and extending that grace to more and more people, means we need to be conscious of the culture we live in today, and how that culture translates faith into action and being.  Culture today is about instant communication, instant connection, and instant results.  We can critique this idea all we want and stand against it, if we choose but in the end we will find ourselves on the short end of such a stance.  The connections people make are primarily through their job, through their school, and through kids activities.  The church for better or for worse is not the place that people come to make those connections initially.

This is a hard conversation to have, but we need to have it. We also have a culture that is spiritually connected even if they are not connected to a church.  If posed with the theoretical question of why should they get up on a Sunday (morning which may be their only morning off) to go to a place where they will not necessarily be welcomed, potentially be objectified and not have in place a mechanism for them to connect God with their everyday lives and how to serve, the answer would most likely be no.  The spiritual person can listen to a good engaging sermon online specifically even on our church web site and download the podcast, read through the passage of the bible in their own home on their own time, and schedule a day to volunteer at the Salvation Army or Habitat for Humanity, and they have been served.

This is the culture we face.  Notice I did not say up against, but it’s the culture we face, because in reality, just as Paul reminds the Corinthian Church, we are not up against anything.  All of us are seeking to understand God and how God works in our lives through Jesus.  It’s the method and the means, and the understanding that are different.  The other thing you may notice is I have used a lot of us they language.  It’s really not appropriate, but I think our language limits us in this regard.  But it is not us vs. them, it is about understanding how we fit into the whole situation that grace will extend to more people, so that we all may be built up.