Church and Culture
Some may ask, “Is that a picture of a church service or a rock concert?” The church throughout ages have fought with this idea of the church looking too much like the world or the culture of its day. Should our music sound different? Should our stages look different? Should we have dimmed lights? These are all questions that we have heard argued over for a long time. What should our church look like?
To answer that question, we probably should look to scripture. The problem however, is we don’t see anywhere in the New Testament on how a Church service should be ordered or what the proper liturgy for a service is. The New Testament does, however talk about much doctrine, theology, and application to the Christian life within the church. So what do we do with that? I think it’s safe to say that the most important thing in a church is the teaching of God’s Word correctly and with sound doctrine. Titus 2:1 says, “But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine.” That is our goal. Paul tells Timothy to “Preach the Word.” Paul also talks to the Corinthians, and tells them that everything done in church needs to be done in order. These are just a few examples of what the New Testament says about how the Church should operate.
So now when culture shifts and things start to change, what is the Church to do in that situation? Well there are essentially 5 ways we can approach the culture in the world and how it relates to the Church.
First we have Christ against Culture, which basically views all culture outside of the church as evil and corrupted by sin. Culture has no place in the church. It entails full loyalty to Christ and a full rejection of culture. Culture and Christ do not mix at all.
We then have Christ of Culture, which seeks to accept culture the way it is without much of a spiritual filter. As opposed to Christ against Culture, this philosophy says that Christ and culture mix very well, and that Christ encompasses what it means to accept culture.
A philosophy that is more popular with the Roman Catholic Church, is this idea of Christ above Culture. Culture isn’t necessarily bad, but the Church acts as the supreme ruler over culture. Culture should be enhanced by the Church and because of that, the Church will seek influence over the world system.
The fourth idea is Christ and Culture in Paradox. This philosophy sees our culture as a good thing that has been spoiled by sin. Culture has tension in it between good and bad. The bad in culture we are to reject, and the good in culture we are to accept to further the Gospel of Christ. Culture isn’t bad just because it’s culture. Certain culture is bad due to the fact of sin’s influence.
The fifth and final philosophy is Christ the Transformer of Culture. Similar in some ways to the above philosophy, this one believes that human culture is good, but the fall corrupted it and therefore needs to be transformed by Christ. With this, the Church uses the good culture, but instead of total rejection of bad culture, we seek to transform the bad into good. Our purpose is to change culture back to God through the power of the Gospel of Christ, and restore culture to its intended state.
I personally believe a well rounded belief in Christ and Culture in Paradox and Christ the Transformer of Culture is the most effective and Biblical way to approach culture outside of the church. Paul talks at the end of 1st Corinthians 9 about how he basically “became” who he was speaking to, so they would not be tripped up by culture barriers. He knew who his audience was, and he preached the Gospel and acted in a way that was acceptable to whoever he was ministering to. We never see Paul mention changing the message of the Gospel, but we do see that he may change how he presents it. Changing the presentation of the Gospel to adapt the culture often gets confused with changing the Gospel itself.
We must be aware as ministers of the Gospel, that adapting to culture trends and allowing certain things in culture to be used in church can advance the Kingdom in great ways. Now obviously there are things in culture that on the surface looks innocent, but are influenced by evil demonic powers of this world. This is where discernment comes in as a minister. We must filter what our congregation sings, what they participate in, and what “relevant” things that our churches permits to be presented.
If we choose to be influenced by the arts in modern culture, we must be careful that we don’t trade doctrine for relevance. That is a slippery slope to the destination of heresy. The presentation can change, but the message of the Gospel must stay the same through all the ages.
