The Church Amidst Culture
A culture at odds with the church seems like a normal stance a church should seek to have in its context. Frequently, those that believe this would ground their thoughts on bible verses paraphrased to say “be in the world, but not of it.” Instead of adapting to this sort of mentality, the church should adapt and grow with culture while still preserving the character and message of the Gospel we called to share in every context.
It may seem that the call to be countercultural, as stated in the Nairobi Statement of Faith, requires believers to stand against the culture they are placed in, but it is far from that. “Some components of every culture in the world are sinful, dehumanizing, and contradictory to the values of the Gospel. From the perspective of the Gospel, they need critique and transformation” [1] The call to stand countercultural then is to recognize what does not align with the values of the Gospel and draw attention to those things in compassion. The Gospel itself is the prime example of this. God saw us in our darkness, and instead of standing against us, He engaged us. He sent His Son to die in our place and showed us great compassion. Because of the work of Jesus on the cross, we can know God.
The Great Commission is every believer’s mission, and in a very practical sense, the church must adapt to the culture to reach the culture. The concern of some is that the Gospel message may be diluted to fit the culture, but here again, that is not what we are stating; we align with the thought that “While the Bible must certainly be considered through the lens of culture, one must take great care not to relativize the Bible’s content to something like a purely human product.” Paul models this for us in Acts 17:22–23, where he shares the Gospel with the Athenians. He says, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: To The Unknown God.[2]” Paul shows an understanding of the culture of Athenians; they are religious people. He carefully considers their religious practices and engages with them. How can we hope to share the Gospel with a culture if we are never to engage it?
Thirdly, the church must adapt to the culture, especially in regards to communicating its message. How often have we walked into a service where the archaic language used in worship makes us question what we are even singing about? Words such as ‘bulwark’ and ‘fortress’ have lost their meaning today and must be adapted or at the very least explained, so the unchurched can understand and the churched can worship with understanding. If we desire for our congregations to fully engage with the worship of the church, our songs and messages should represent the lives of the people.
Lastly, our God is a creative God, and He gives us the ability to create and change the world around us. We see His gift of creativity abundantly in the world through arts and music, even in secular settings. Creating requires changing elements, and when we discover relevant and cultural ways of sharing the Gospel, perhaps we are also engaging in the act of creativity. We are telling and retelling the story by adapting it to the understanding of the people we are around.
Although the Gospel the church shares must remain uncompromised in its message, where culture is concerned, every church has one of two paths to follow. In standing against the culture, the church will ultimately lose its relevance and meaning and eventually become an obsolete museum of artifacts of a glorious past. The other choice is that in adapting with the culture, it will find its message reinvigorated, its masses engaged, and its future sure.
