Cultural Relevance Part 2

A while back, I posted an entry on the challenge of cultural relevance for the church. In a nutshell, I believe that the church must be incarnational in both its forms and means of communicating the gospel without compromising the gospel. Our model for this is the Apostle Paul's declaration "I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some." (1 Corinthians 9:22, NASB). Even more, we see this in Christ's ministry to us. Jesus took on a human nature and accommodated Himself to a particular culture -- language, dress, communication style, etc... -- in order to redeem us. Since we are now the body of Christ on earth, we should do the same.

However, the problem is in our modern attempts to be relevant to our culture--particularly in our consumeristic society--I believe we have catered to, and even created consumeristic churches where Jesus' extreme call to discipleship has been lost. ("If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me" (Matthew 16:24, NASB).


Recently, Leadership Magazine published an article entitled iChurch: All We Like Sheep that illustrates this growing problem. It is long on diagnosis and short on prescription. However, that in itself may not be a bad thing. The first step in solving any problem is acknowledging that there is one. This article moves us toward that end.