Keeping up With the Competition (pt. 3)
Posted by Duane Garner
I’ve suggested that the various efforts of pastors and churches to ride the currents and model their worship in the image of pop culture are evidence that these Christians are essentially uneasy about the sufficiency of the Word of God and the sacraments. I’ve also pondered the question of whether unbelievers and the unchurched are even really demanding this sort of thing of the Church.
I have just a couple more thoughts on this.
In so many discussions about this type of thing, you will hear someone suggest that it is our evangelical duty to make the gospel relevant to the culture. And there is a seed of true concern there. We don’t want to conduct worship in Latin. We don’t want to be cold toward outsiders. We don’t want to put unneccessary barriers between them and worship. But at the same time, it isn’t the Church or her message that is to be made relevant to the world, the mission of the Church is to make the world relevant to Christ.
If we are caught up in the thinking that everything that we do must be packaged in user-friendly forms in order to facilitate individual understanding or to meet individual expectations of spiritual experiences, we effectively give unbelievers dominion over the Church and her faith. The nations then become the judges before which the Church must plead its case—with her hat in her hand. Cultures, not Christ, are then the authorities which will decide whether the faith and life of the church are meaningful and worthy.
But what does Paul say about the wisdom and the authority of the world in all of is judgments? “Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? The world through wisdom did not know God.” So then “The foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” (1 Cor. 1:20ff)
Let us not subject our faith and our worship and our preaching to the world in order for it to tell us whether or not there is any substance, or any worth to these things. Let the world come to Christ to find its relevance and meaning in Him.
4 Responses to “Keeping up With the Competition (pt. 3)”
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February 19th, 2008 at 8:28 am
Duane, I have really enjoyed this series of posts. The church has allowed the world to dictate for too long what she should and should not do. This must end. Not simply for the sake of the church, but also for the sake of the world. The world will not be redeemed by giving her more of the world.
Peter Jones
February 19th, 2008 at 11:06 am
Steve and Duane,
Glad to see you blogging. Duane, a correlary to this is a “keep up with the Joneses” or “me too” philosophy, having to offer program xyz because other churches do, and if we don’t have it, people will go somewhere else.
What the church needs most to do, is to represent in worship, in teaching and learning, in fellowship and prayer — as authentic a representation of what being a follower of Christ involves. In other words, let them see what we want (or Christ wants) them to become.
John
Junction City, LA
February 19th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
Thanks Peter and John. Good thoughts all around.
February 20th, 2008 at 11:49 am
Bravo, Duane. Just linked this to one of my recent posts.