The Building of Bridges: Culture and The Church
Sir Issac Newton published his Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica in 1687. Included within that published work was Newton’s third law of motion, which states that whenever one object exerts a force on another object, the second object exerts an equal and opposite force on the first. Even though this is a law applied to motion, it also creates a framework within which we can consider the culture and the Church: when human culture exerts force into the Church, does the Church exert force back into the culture? Does the Church have a clear picture of what culture was created and intended to be, and should the Church attempt to shape human culture outside its walls?
To answer these questions, we first need to see the responsibility of interaction between God and humanity. If Adam and Eve were the first culture-formers, how did their relationship with God affect the newly created culture? As we look through this lens, we see God taking the first action by creating man in His image, and then He gave Adam responsibility to name the animals. Thus, God exerted force by creating Adam and then invited Adam to exert influence and have a creative role in the creation story. In this God-ordained process, Adam observed that every creature had a mate, and He was alone in his humanity, at which point God exerted force once again and created Eve. Adam’s response was to rejoice that she was like him and to name her. At this point, other assignments were given to the man and woman: be fruitful and multiply, and to fill the earth and subdue it (Genesis 1:28), once again demonstrating God’s action and our invitation to respond. The story changes with the Fall, when man rejects God’s invitation to respond correctly. At that point, consequences occurred, but ultimately God, who initiated a relationship with man, promised to save humanity from the results of its own decisions. Through most of the Old Testament, we see this foretaste of the message of the New Testament, as God chooses a people group, saves them from bondage and oppression, and equips them with laws and codes of how to live life. The paradigm set forth as the Israelites left Egypt established a foundation for culture on earth. Jesus was able to speak into that cultural model and tell his followers how to fulfill it so that their life on earth can be aligned with the culture of Heaven.
In our modern context of the Church, one primary source of debate is how much we allow a non-religious culture to shape the culture of the Church, and in contrast, what is the role of the Church in shaping culture as a whole? Through the story of history, we know that the creation of hospitals and orphanages came from the work and values of Christianity. Before those contributions that helped develop culture, the Apostle Paul wrote in 1st Corinthians 9:19–23 concerning how we interact with the culture surrounding us. Paul’s example was finding common ground with whatever environment he was in, adapting and utilizing the local culture, as long as it did not violate God’s law. This was a means to create pathways for the Gospel to advance and influence a wrongly shaped culture. This methodology is in harmony with the perspective of the whole of scripture. In Romans 12:2, we are charged to be formed by Heaven. Romans 12:2 (ESV) states, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Even though we are to find common ground with the culture around us to advance the Gospel, we are not to be formed by it in ways that go against the culture that God has determined.
How do we bridge the space between the culture established by God and the culture that has developed in humanity? What is acceptable and appropriate for use in the gathering of the Church? Every church will place its lines in different places, but I believe this is why the methodology of the church is not fully dictated in the writings of the New Testament. It allows for culture to develop but for the values of the church always to be our direction. In our desire to build bridges culturally to be understood by those outside the church, we must not participate in anything that would violate God’s word. This perspective is necessary for identifying what is acceptable and appropriate for use in the gathering of the Church.
The intersection of culture and the Church can be highly contested and opinion-driven, but it is an important place to build bridges to further the Gospel to an unbelieving world.
