October 13, 2002 – Covington, IN
BEING CULTURALLY RELEVANT
1 Corinthians 9:19-23
It is a common mistake. Pastors and churches can be trapped by this misunderstanding and never know it. Specifically, that the church must do little more than open its doors on Sunday, and the non-Christian will come. Research over the past decade undermines this mistaken notion. People are staying away from churches in record numbers. It is time to ask why some churches are not vital links to the unconverted and what can be done to change a faltering outreach to the lost.
In some cases, Americans are turned off to both the message and messengers of organized religion. Too many, the church has appeared narcissistic and self-serving. Leaders often leave behind shattered lives in the wake of their compromised leadership. The church’s reputation was dramatically eroded and confidence in church leadership greatly shaken by the scandals of the 1980’s. In 1974, nearly one half of the adult population expressed confidence in religious leaders, but that number plummeted to 22 percent by 1989.
The church must consider the serious question of relevance. In the early 90’s, a denomination surveyed a southern city where it wanted to plant a church. The survey centered around a single question: Why don’t you attend church? 74% of those surveyed indicated they felt there was no value in attending church. 34% believed the church had no relevance to the way they lived. While the church does not exist to accommodate secular definitions of relevance, we must also face up to the dilemma framed in the lyrics of an old song: “Why spend our time answering questions no one’s asking?”
There is a high cost of not understanding a generation, not doing the homework necessary to gain a fair hearing of the gospel. We must understand that it is possible to be culturally relevant, and at the same time biblically sound in our approach to the unchurched. These two ideas are not mutually exclusive.
It has been said, “The only person who likes change is a baby with a wet diaper.” That might be a bit of an exaggeration, but from my own observation, most people have some hesitancy toward change. Change takes us out of our comfort zone, it doesn’t allow us to relax, it doesn’t give us the assurance in life we long for. It’s like one deacon in a small Midwestern church said, “Change is sin, and we sin as little as possible around here.”
A. Those who have reached the age of 100 have seen radical change in their lifetime:
Ø They are unexpected witnesses to an era that brought forth Band-Aids & penicillin, Kellogg’s Corn Flakes & Camel cigarettes, the World Series & Reader’s Digest, jazz & the theory of relativity.
Ø They remember not just when man landed on the moon but when he first soared into the sky.
Ø They remember the terrifying toll of the worldwide influenza epidemic of 1918 & the wrenching despair on the soup lines of the Great Depression.
Ø The last century opened w/the first telegraph message being sent across the
Atlantic & concluded w/millions of e-mail messages being sent around the world everyday.
B. The moral climate has also seen radical change.
Ø 50 years ago, who would have believed we would have abortion on demand, legalized homosexual marriage in some states, physician assisted suicide, open nudity on TV, that performers like Madonna, & talk show personalities like Howard Stern would not only be tolerated, but admired & adored?
Ø Who would have ever guessed that these types of changes would take place?
C. Even though we are uncomfortable, & should be uncomfortable, w/many of the changes in our culture, we must also understand that this is the culture we have been called to minister to.
Ø This is our world, & God has placed us here for such a time as this.
Ø We have been called to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to the people of this generation.
Ø If we are going to do that, & if we are going to do it effectively, we must take Paul’s example as our own, & present the message of Christ in a culturally relevant fashion.
Ø I believe the church should be culturally relevant while remaining doctrinally pure.
Transition: Before we examine some specifics concerning cultural relevancy let’s consider some things that never change.
1. SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE
I am well aware that some are uncomfortable w/the subject matter this morning. I am also aware that it is very easy to be misunderstood when talking about something like cultural relevance. So I want you to be assured that we are not talking about political correctness, or about watering down the gospel, or anything of that nature. And I believe it is important for us to realize that some things will never change at First Assembly of God or in our Christian lives:
1) Jesus
"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday & today & forever" (Heb 13:8). In a world of constant change it is good to know that Jesus Christ is always the same; that He is always here for us; that He will always love us; that His sacrifice on the cross & His resurrection from the dead will always be sufficient. Jesus’ sameness yesterday, today, & forever is a comfort in this day & gives us a rock solid foundation regardless of the changes in our culture.
2) The Bible
(Isa 40:8) "The grass withers & the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever."
(1 Pet 1:23) "For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living & enduring word of God." The Word of God stands for all time as a revelation from God’s mouth to our ears. It will never change, & it will never take second place in this church. The Word of God is where we get our directives for worship, for our lifestyle choices, for practical instruction, for our salvation. This will never change.
3) Divine Principles
Titus 1:9 is an instruction for those who will hold leadership positions in the church & it says that those who hold these positions, "must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine & refute those who oppose it."
The doctrinal truth taught in the Bible does not change & anyone who tries to change it or water it
down or take it away from the pulpit or church classroom will be confronted from the Word of God & taken away from a position in leadership. God’s truth & the divine principles He has given us do not & will not change.
Transition: The 2nd truth we need to understand this morning is that while these things I’ve mentioned will never change…
2. SOME THINGS ALWAYS DO
A. We change as we grow older. Hopefully we get wiser, more mature, & are able to
have better discernment as we age. We change physically, don’t we?
Humor:
Someone said, "There are four signs of approaching age: baldness, bifocals, bridges, & bulges!"
B. The ethnic make up of our culture is changing. The Caucasian population is at zero
population growth, while the African American, Hispanic, & Asian populations in our country are experiencing double digit expansion. In fact, by 2050 only half of the nation’s population will be Caucasian. The concept of multiculturalism will be increasingly significant in our language, customs, values, relationships, & processes. Unfortunately, the Church has not kept pace w/society. More than 30 years ago Martin Luther King noted that eleven o’clock on Sunday morning was the most segregated hour of the week, his observation is still accurate. How will we reach out & minister to the different ethnic groups in our culture?
C. The church has always adapted ministry & methods to the culture in which they
lived.
Ø While Jesus, the Bible, & Divine Principles will always be w/us & do not change; many other things are in a constant state of flux.
Ø Worship styles, technology, outreach methods, teaching styles, & much more, are always being adapted to reach those who are unchurched, as well as to disciple those who are already Christ followers.
Ø Jesus preached from a boat on the Sea of Galilee, creating a natural amphi-theatre -- I use a lapel mike.
Ø Paul wrote on papyrus w/a quill & ink, this week I used The Millennium edition of Microsoft Word on a Pentium computer system.
Ø The early church studied from the scrolls & parchments, we have dozens of translations bound together in our choice of bindings & colors, & Bibles on computer where we can look up Scripture in milliseconds.
Ø Paul wore a Toga (a robe) while he was preaching, aren’t you glad I don’t! The church cannot minister to the people of 2002 w/methodology designed to reach the people of 1950’s.
D. The very first verse of the Bible tells us that God is a God of change.
"In the beginning, God created…" -- God is Creator, & He is not happy when His church tries to stop His creativity.
Humor:
Once an American pastor went to see one of the new church members in the hospital. The hospital patient had recently arrived from China & could not speak English. When the pastor arrived at the hospital, he took hold of the man’s hand & had prayer w/him. As he finished his prayer the patient began to shout something in Chinese. The pastor didn’t understand what he was saying, & the man continued in vain to communicate something to him. But the pastor could not understand Chinese. Within a few moments the patient made one last attempt to communicate, gasped for air, & then he died. The pastor was called to preach the man’s funeral. During visitation the pastor repeated the phrase the man had been shouting to one of the man’s relatives to see if he knew what the man’s last words might be. The relative listened & then gave the interpretation: "Move over, you’re standing on my oxygen tube, I can’t breathe!
I think an analogy can be made between this story & the modern church. We, like the pastor, are capable of sucking the life out of the ministry God has called us to. God wants to breathe new life into His church, He wants to minister w/all of His creativity & power, but many in the church refuse to change their methodologies because they are worshipping their tradition.
Lest you think I am against tradition, let me state that I categorically am not. What I am against is traditionalism. Tradition values the past & the way God has moved in history. It has the ability to embrace God’s movements in both past & future. Traditionalism embraces only what has gone before – it puts God in a box & tries to trap Him & tell Him what is & is not acceptable.
When I read through the Bible I find verses that tell me about a "new song", "a new heaven & earth", "new wine", "new life", "new covenant", "new creation", "new man", & a "new command". Our God is a God of change, & He calls the Church to be willing to change w/Him.
Transition: So we see that some things never change, & that some things always do, now let’s consider:
3. SOME WAYS TO MEET THE CHALLENGE
What is the challenge before us? "We must minister to our culture without compromising our message." Let’s try to tie this all together with four ways we can answer this challenge:
1) To Meet the Challenge of Ministering to our Culture W/O Compromising our Message, We Must Have Biblical Worldview
A worldview is quite simply the lenses through which we see our world. Whether you realize it or not, we all have a worldview. What we need to do is make sure our worldview is in line w/the Bible’s. Gal. 3:28 "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." If we are going to see people through Jesus’ eyes, if we are to have His worldview, we will not base our feelings & attitudes on a person’s skin color, their nationality, their language, or their social status. We will love everyone as God’s special creation. Not only do we love these people as God’s children, we embrace them as equals.
2) To Meet the Challenge of Ministering to our Culture W/O Compromising our Message, We Must Be Willing to Embrace New Methodologies
The Pharisees approached Jesus & wondered why His disciples weren’t fasting – why they weren’t keeping the Law. Jesus responded in Mark 2:21-22 "No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. {22} And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, & both the wine & the wineskins will be ruined. No, he pours new wine into new wineskins."
These two brief parables of the old garment & old wineskins illustrate the incompatibility of the old system of Jewish law & tradition w/the new cloth & new wine of the gospel of Christ. Jesus was always being questioned about the different methods He used. Jesus embraced what was new & effective for ministry. Jesus was the Master of presenting truth in the language of His culture. He used objects, seeds, soil, situational parables, coins, camels, and fig trees – all things that his audiences could readily identify with. And much of the methodology we will employ will do the same thing -- whether it be drama, video, art, music, or stories, they will be used to present the gospel in ways that our culture can identify with.
3) To Meet the Challenge of Ministering to our Culture W/O Compromising our Message, We Must Be Creative in Worship
(Psa 149:1) “Praise the LORD. Sing to the LORD a new song, and his praise in the congregation of the saints.” (Rev 5:9) “And they sang a new song: "You are worthy to take the scroll & to open its seals, because you were slain, & with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe & language & people & nation.”
God wants His church to sing a new song – He wants us to creatively worship Him in our services. This in no way means that we cannot continue praising God w/the grand old hymns, but neither does it mean we can shut out the new songs God is calling His people to sing. This is not an either/or situation, it is a both/and situation.
4) To Meet the Challenge of Ministering to our Culture W/O Compromising our Message, Practice the Art of Becoming
TEXT:
To follow Paul’s example is not easy – in fact, it does not come naturally, it only comes supernaturally. We can only adapt to, & minister to our culture, when we make an absolute commitment to it, as did Paul. We are not talking about compromising biblical truth, but being flexible in our approach to both evangelism & ministry.
Paul says that he was “free from all men”; that is, he was not obligated to conform to any man’s ideas of opinions. He had been set free in Christ and was obligated only to be conformed to Christ. But Paul surrendered himself, actually made himself a servant to all men. Why? So that he might win more men to Christ.
Paul’s going along with the opinions and customs of others does not mean he was compromising his convictions nor being two-faced. It means that he was getting next to men, gaining their confidence and trust so they would pay attention to his witness for Christ.
1. Paul became as a Jew to the Jews, that is, to those who were under the law. When Paul was ministering to the Jews, he went along with their customs and laws just as long as nothing violated his walk in Christ. His standard was Christ, not the law. But he placed himself under the law when ministering to the Jews in order to get next to them and win their confidence and trust so he could witness to them.
2. Paul became a non-religionist to those who did not observe the law. But note a critical fact: he does not mean he became lawless and immoral. He still obeyed the law of God; that is, he was as always under the law to Christ. He still obeyed the will of Christ which actually includes the commandments of God and more. Paul lived as a Gentile when among them in order to get next to them and win them to Christ.
3. Paul became weak to the weak Christians. That is, he went along with their petty rules
and regulations. He refrained from doing some things that were perfectly legitimate. He conformed to their ideas and opinions just to have an open door to help them grow in Christ. He laid his personal liberty and rights aside in order to reach the new and weak Christians. He would not dare become a stumbling block to them, nor would he cause them to shut him out of their lives by offending them and thereby lose his opportunity to help them. He became as one of them in order to win them.
4. Paul clearly states his purpose for conforming to the customs and opinions of men: “I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some” (v. 22). Paul is declaring that he went to the extreme when necessary in order to reach people for Christ. What mattered in life was not him and his rights, but the gospel. The gospel was the consuming passion of his life. Why? He wanted to do whatever he could to win people to Christ.
CONCLUSION:
Ø In 1865 an editorial in the Boston Post read, "Well-informed people know it is impossible to transmit their voices over wires, & even if it were possible, the thing would not have practical value."
Ø In 1897 Lord Kelvin said, "Radio has no future."
Ø Thomas Watson, Chairman of IBM in 1943 said, "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."
Ø Ken Olson, President of Digital Equipment Corporation stated in 1977, "There is no reason why anyone would want a computer in their home."
Ø When the railroads were first introduced to the U.S., some folks feared that they’d be the downfall of the nation! Here’s an excerpt from a letter to then President Jackson dated Jan. 31, 1829: “As you may known Mr. President, ‘railroad’ carriages are pulled at the enormous speed of 15 miles per hour by ‘engine’ which, in addition to endangering life and limb of passengers, roar and snort their way through the countryside, setting fire to crops, scaring the livestock and frightening women and children. The Almighty certainly never intended that people should travel at such breakneck speed.
Ø Grady Nut once said, “A man bought a new radio, brought it home, placed it on the refrigerator, plugged it in, turned it to WSM in Nashville TN, (home of the Grand Ole Opry), and then pulled all the knobs off. He had already tuned in all he ever wanted or expected to hear.” Some churches are rutted and rather dreary because what has been will still be.
While I’m sure these were all fine men, they were not visionaries & they did not understand the changes that were to come to their world. As the church, let us not make the same mistake that they did. Our culture is radically changing before our very eyes, let’s be ready for it with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Stay open to newness. Stay open to change.
