Engaging our culture is not dressing the part, or speaking the lingo, or even adapting music to fit the younger generations tastes (Nothing makes me sicker than to hear a 40 year old man trying to speak the language of 16 year old kids in the name of bridging the generational gap. Kids are not as dumb as we who are older, and hopefully wiser, suppose them to be. It sounds just as fake to them as it does to everyone else).
The fundamentalists get a bad rap (and rightly so) for focusing so much on outward appearances. In reality the fundamentalist movement does not stand alone in this regard. When speaking of engaging our culture with our hipper brethren the talk inevitably turns to a standard that deals mostly with dress, music, lingo, or the color of the praise band leaders hair. In other words, the younger and hipper evangelicals of today are just as hung up on outward appearance as those who occupy the seats of the more 'legalistic' and conservative generation of evangelical/fundamentalists. What we all need to realize is that we cannot fix what is broken by performing simple cosmetic surgery. With that said I would like to take a closer look at we are engaging when we engage our culture.
This story should shock us all to tears but it probably won't:
"Philadelphia, PA (LifeNews.com) -- An abortion business in Pennsylvania is drawing criticism for giving away free abortions on Tuesday in honor of slain late-term abortion practitioner George Tiller. The Philadelphia Women's Center said the free abortions were meant to show appreciation for Tiller, who was allegedly killed by extremist gunman Scott Roeder."
What a disgusting demonstration of the depravity of our culture today. Over 1 million babies are murdered in the US alone every year in the name of reproductive freedom and this murder factory gives away free abortions as a way of honoring one of the more proficient doctors of death.
Homosexuality, adultery, fornication, drunkeness, idolatry, disrespectful youth, haters of good, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, and a lascivious pursuit of all things evil--This is our culture and we had better wake up to that reality.
We are not engaging a culture that is a little bit sick and just needs to be convinced that they are a little off course; and that by dressing like them, speaking like them, or mimicking their mannerism and musical tastes in Jesus' name we are somehow impacting our culture for Christ. In reality we are engaging a culture that hates God and celebrates its depravity. Our culture is one that is wallowing in its spiritual deadness and sees nothing wrong or shameful in it's behavior. It calls evil good and good evil. We need to wake up and see that the culture is not becoming more godly. Instead we have a Church that is becoming more worldly with every passing day. All of the sins mentioned previously are being accepted by the Church today in some way, shape, or form. We have lost our desire to stand in the gap and declare the holiness of God and His demand that all men everywhere are to repent and believe. We do not preach the Lordship of Christ but instead preach a god who will be what you need him to be when you need him to be it. In place of a holy Church that has Christ as it's Lord and Savior we have a social group that is more concerned with being culturally relevant and views everything through the lens of pragmatism. Everyone who claims the name of Christ is our brother and it is bad form to call into question anyone's claim of being a Christian. After all God is love and all this negativity is bringing people down.
We must not continue to engage our culture as if its problems are nothing a little paint won't fix.
Paul declared in I Corinthians 6:9-11(ESV):
"Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God."
Our culture is on its way to hell and our becoming like them is not going to fix that. We must live lives that loudly declare that we have been washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of God. We must declare the holiness of Almighty God, and the Lordship of Jesus Christ over all things.
Do I have the all the answers for what is ailing us? No I do not. However, it is evident to anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear that the current methods employed by fundamentalists/evangelicals and the hip non-denominational emergents are failing. I do know that we will not reach our culture by conforming to its ways or by presenting a legalistic, extra-biblical list of things people should adhere to if they want to please God. Nor will we reach them by avoiding confrontation in the name of being seeker sensitive. We will reach them by preaching the Word of God without compromise. We will reach them by presenting ourselves as yielded servants to our King. We will reach them by presenting ourselves as a living sacrifice and by our non-conformity to this world. We will reach them one person at a time. Our culture will be saved God's way or they will not be saved at all. We must stay faithful to our King and seek to glorify Him and Him alone. Paul admonished Timothy to preach the Word even when people refused to hear it. We are not to change the message in hopes that people will listen to and like the new and improved culturally relevant message. Our culture needs people who faithfully proclaim the truth instead of these masters of illusion that have lulled people into a stupor with a message that is nothing more than smoke and mirrors.
May God awake us out of this sleep and open our eyes to what He has called us to be.
Chris Connally
Romans 8:28
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