Trying to Blend In
POSTED IN: Authenticity, Blog Posts
[photo: Don Solo]
Why are Christians so desperate for the approval of the culture we live in?
That’s a question I’ve been thinking about as I’ve been reading this book. So many churches and Christians today spend a great deal of time wondering and worrying about how to be more “culturally relevant.” We want to be “undercover Christians” – secret agents that infiltrate culture without anyone noticing.
We try to blend in…
We have all kinds of buzzwords in church circles today about how we want to interact with culture – we want to engage culture, impact culture, if we’re really ambitiously evangelical we want to transform culture. Those are all excellent things and there are some amazing churches today doing just those things and reaching many people.
What we forget is that every time we interact with culture, it changes us too – we can’t evangelize in a vacuum. If we’re not careful we begin to allow culture change our worldview instead of the other way around. We’re not called to blend into culture but to enter it and call people from darkness into light. We love them and engage them where they’re at but we have to call them to something more.
Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. – Romans 12:2 (The MESSAGE)
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January 7, 2010
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That is a great reminder and is so very timely.
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January 7, 2010
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Great point, and I love that verse in the Message. Good stuff!
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January 7, 2010
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Resonates with me like an undercover cop show – a person goes so deep in their cover that they forget their objective.
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January 7, 2010
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What do you think of Culture Making? Yesterday, a friend encouraged me to read it and I had never heard of it before then.
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January 7, 2010
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Great post! Something I’ve struggled with off and on my entire Christian/ministry life!
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January 7, 2010
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Eric – Great book so far. I’m only about a third of the way through it. That’s kind of what sparked the idea behind this post. It’s such a struggle of balance because you can very easily swing to the opposite extreme and not care at all about the presentation of the gospel in the context of our culture. Both extremes are dangerous. Finding the balance is like walking a tightrope
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January 7, 2010
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Fantastic post. God can use individuals in different ways, so we should be open to that and not try to do what we think is best. Of course, I struggle greatly with this and it is like walking a tightrope….
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January 7, 2010
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I have wrestled with the phrase “cultural relevance” for about 5 years now and have decided not to subscribe to it. Does it mean that we have to shape the Gospel a certain way to give it to someone in 21st century America so that it would be “easy” for them to digest?
The reason I struggle with cultural relevance is that I have found the Gospel to be very counter cultural.
Maybe that’s just me or the coffee just hasn’t kicked in and I’m missing it.
Anywho, good to see you blogging again my friend. Been missin’ ya on the interwebs!!!
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January 7, 2010
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Culture Making looks like an interesting book.
It for sure can be challenging to be “in the world, but not of it”. We have to connect with people, have to live in relationship with them, if we hope to share the gospel with them in a meaningful way. Still, I’m conflicted, because when it comes to impacting our culture, I think it’s more important to be revolutionary than relevant. (Grace is always relevant; I just mean I think we worry too much about fitting in to our culture.)
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January 7, 2010
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Maybe I’m biased based on the places where I’ve lived, but I see *WAY* more churches who err on the side of not being relevant enough. I know it’s always important to make sure you don’t overcompensate and water down the message – but in my mind we have such a long way to go to get many chuches to the point to where they’re relevant to culture 20 or 30 years ago (let alone sometime more recent) that we shouldn’t stop trying to achieve that goal.
My Biblical studies have led me to believe that Jesus was pretty into using the traditions of the times when it came to HOW he shared his message. He just didn’t compromise on WHAT he shared. But it doesn’t appear that he used out-of-date methods (“Sorry, I’m only going to speak in the ancient languages, not the ones these heathen Romans use today”) just for the sake of tradition, and that’s where I think so much of church culture falls short today. I work in an area that is heavily Amish/Mennonite, and I don’t want to see the evangelical church get to the point where our approach and methods look that out of date to surrounding culture!
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January 7, 2010
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Am I off-base to think that we try to blend in because we are not wanting to seem out-of-touch with reality? We don’t want to stick out like a sore thumb so we hedge our convictions. Churches want to be relevant and so they “play church” or copy the world’s way of doing things (not that I think it is wrong to have variety and excitement but maybe we have gone too far sometimes????) More to say but this is long enough. Good post Brad. Thanks for making me think.
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January 7, 2010
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Tim – Obviously this post is speaking to a particular subset of churches and Christians who go so far down the “culturally relevant” road that they become the people Paul is talking to in Romans 12:2. These churches, pastors and individuals strive after acceptance – sometimes at the expense of speaking the truth.
On the other end of the spectrum are the churches you’re referring to. They fail to recognize the cultural significance of the scriptures in our world today and favor heavy theological and religious terminology when presenting the gospel.
Probably the best example of presenting the gospel in a culturally relevant way is Paul at Mars Hill in Acts 17. He didn’t quote a single piece of scripture and yet presented the gospel in a way that connected with and challenged the Greek philosophers he was talking to.
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January 7, 2010
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Interesting. It’s choosing the tension of being “IN but not OF.” We can’t draw our identity from the culture or we become IN and OF. We draw our identity from our God-relationship. But if we reject and protect ourselves from the culture to the degree that we can no longer interact with them on any meaningful level, we become OUT OF and not of. Then we have no platform. Great post Brad. Thanks.
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January 7, 2010
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Thanks for the reminder Brad. You hit the nail on the head with this one. As one who came out of fundamentalism where nothing was culturally relevant, it’s been a tough transition. Love The Message translation of Romans 12:2, such a great reminder.
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January 7, 2010
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Great post and conversation from all above. Cultural Relevancy can be such a challenge in some churches that the pursuit of it is just plain scary. In the past year of traveling we have seen the full spectrum, from the progressive and uber-seeker friendly to the most conservative and fundamentalist. Ironically, both had people in them, and in both cases, those in them were being fed, grown, nurtured, and even healed of church hurts from the other side of the fence…
Paul had to shift and become “all things to all people that he might save some”. Is there a one shoe fits all answer? I don’t think so. I personally prefer the more progressive, culturally relevant approach, but I am always impressed when I go to a conservative assembly, open up the hymnals, join in with the heart of the congregation for the God of the Universe, and look for him not in the method, but in the message. Its sure not my style, but amazingly, there he waits. I just have to be a little more attentive to realize it.
Thanks Brad.
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January 7, 2010
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I read this post this morning and couldn’t put my thoughts together then.(not enough caffeine, e.g. Coke). Have thought about it off & on throughout the day. Bill (cycleguy) really jolted me with the “hedge our convictions”. Wow. I don’t want to hedge my conviction, but I do it so I’m not the “sore thumb”. I don’t wanna be the one who stands out! I spent my life hiding! From God, from pain, from being in charge. Active addiction took me to an unGod place in my mind. Yet, God was always there. As relevant today as 2000 years ago. We still have beggars and homeless. We still have cheaters and gossips. God didn’t hedge His Love to be culturally correct. God’s message should not need to be molded to 2010. His Word is, well, His Word (all translations aside). We live by example. Let’s just do this!