I ran across another great article from www.churchrelevance.com, which is another one of my favorite blogs. The post I am referring to listed stats that compared the cultural knowledge of pastors vs. churchgoers. It was interesting and can be found here. I am a firm believer that the church needs to know the state of [...]
I ran across another great article from www.churchrelevance.com, which is another one of my favorite blogs. The post I am referring to listed stats that compared the cultural knowledge of pastors vs. churchgoers. It was interesting and can be found here. I am a firm believer that the church needs to know the state of the culture. Now I am talking about more than football games and politics. I’m referring to what makes people tick… what do people respond to… and is the church presenting herself in a way that they will respond. Does that mean we degrade our morals to meet people where they are? No, I believe it means we show Jesus for who He is and that is a God who is attractive. If people see the real Jesus they will be attracted to Him, it might take some time for them to react to the attraction but it will happen.
Jesus new the culture when he was here on earth. He talked about what was going on, he answered the questions that others were wondering (to their surprise many times he answered with a question, which was customary), he was familiar with what made people tick. Paul even spoke about becoming all things to all men that he might win a few. I think Paul was talking about be aware of culture. He became a Jew the the Jews and a Gentile to the Gentiles. He tried to understand where they were and met them there. Maybe there is something we could all learn from that. Just a thought… what are your thoughts?
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2 Responses
We need to meet people where they are. Romans 12:2 says"Do not be conformed to this present world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may test and approve what is the will of God – what is good and well-pleasing and perfect." Somewhere else in the Bible states that we need to be in the world but not of the world. I read this post yesterday and have thought about it since then. It seems that "we" as Christians or as the church tend to present the gospel as a bandaid, giving the impression that being a Christian means that your problems are solved, financial problems, relationship problems, depression problems etc. If you have enough faith, then your life will be good. That may not be the direct message, although sometimes it is, but we tend to mask ourselves, not revealing our weaknesses, insecurities and failings. We tend to sell Christ as a fix then cry ourselves to sleep at night. Ok maybe that’s a bit dramatic, but it’s clear the Bible instructs us to meet people where they are and the reality is we tend to live not far from them. We struggle, we doubt, we have fears, we have bad days, but the difference is, we have Christ, we have eternal hope. We shouldn’t be afraid to be open and honest, it’s harder to be a Christian than not, really, but the reward is eternal life with Him.People will listen when they respect you. There’s no respect in saying "I’m a Christian and you should be too." Whatever! When you can tell someone, "Man, I hear you, I’ve been there, that’s a weakness for me too and I wouldn’t survive without having Christ in my life." Something like that is more of a connection, people can realize that you’re a real person and you struggle with similar things. I respect pastors alot that are transparent in their messages, not just high and mighty.We all need to be aware of the culture and reach people where they are, great reminder.Good stuff and challenging. Sorry for rambling.
Jim,
You’re not rambling at all… you make some very good points in your response. I think you said it best when you mentioned that, "We tend to sell Christ as a fix then cry ourselves to sleep at night." The church today seems very… well superficial. There I said it… I feel better
We have our routine that everyone goes through that for some reason we believe is the best in the world and the best way of presenting Jesus to people. We put all our focus on programs, music, events, sermons, and everything in-between that we forget our real purpose. I guess the church gets too busy trying to have church that we forget to be the church. I am convinced that the church of today is missing it. But I am also convinced that we will find the right way but it is going to take a drastic change. The church needs to relearn what being the church is. Thanks for your comment.