Why I do what I do?
 

Thought I would share a viewpoint or opinion that has impacted me, I think it will shed light on why to me wearing shorts and the other pastor making a deal about it matters.

You may not agree with this, but at least read it and understand my thinking and why somethings are not important to me as they used to be.

Is Pentecostal Culture a Museum Culture?

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Lengthy but good article, those with ADD look at the Highlighted portions.

Why is cultural relevance a big deal?

The scriptures are relevant to this and every culture. They do not need updating, correcting, or revisioning. On the contrary, what needs revisioning is our understanding and obedience to God's word as we live out His mission in context.

When we live a humble orthodoxy and humble missiology, we will be salt and light in contemporary culture—a biblically-faithful, culturally-relevant, counter culture. Here is a brief article I wrote for our friends at Catalyst that might be an encouragement:


The fight goes on. Like a giant tug of war, each side is pulling hard. The battle lines: Cultural relevance versus biblical faithfulness—a classic tyranny of the "OR." Yes, cultural relevance can be confusing.
On the one hand, the church can be so focused on cultural relevance that it loses its distinctive message. Don't think it won't happen—it has happened to countless churches and denominations. On the other hand, it can decide that culture does not matter. That leads to a church whose message is indiscernible and obscure to those who are "outside." Let me propose an alternative: our churches need to be biblically faithful, culturally relevant, counter culture communities.

Not everyone buys into what I've just said. Whole ministries exist just to tell you not to pay attention to culture. To them, a virtuous church is one that is culturally irrelevant. In their view, a mark of holiness is not just being disconnected from sin but also being disconnected from sinners and the culture they share with us every day.

Preaching against culture is like preaching against someone's house—it is just where they live. The house has good in it and bad in it. Overall, culture can be a mess—but (to mix metaphors) it is the water in which we swim and the lens through which we see the world. And the gospel needs to come, inhabit, and change that and every culture (or house).

Preaching against culture is not the pattern of the New Testament church (see Dean Fleming's Contextualization in the New Testament), the historic church (see Ruth Tucker's From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya), or today's church (see Breaking the Missional Code).

Culture clearly does matter! For 2000 years, missionaries have courageously sought to take the message and make it understandable.

Through these two millennia, changing cultures have impacted the church and its missional strategies. Conversely, in many cases, the church has also impacted culture. The reason ministry models have to change is because they have an unchanging message that must be conveyed in a changing world.

That message is Christ, the gospel, and the Scriptures. Jude 3 says that we are to "contend for the faith once delivered for the saints." That's essential.

But, the Bible also clearly gives us a mandate to make the message understandable. We do more than just translate it into a language. We also have to translate it into a culture. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9:22-23, "I have become all things to all men." Why? Because the message needs to be contextualized. The "how" of ministry is, in many ways, determined by the "who, when, and where" of culture. That's also essential.

We have to both contend and contextualize. This brings a balanced focus in our proclamation and practice. When we contend for the gospel, we remain biblically faithful. When we contextualize, we communicate the message effectively. When we contend and contextualize, our churches are biblically faithful, culturally relevant, counter culture communities.

Those who preach against culture are often unaware that they live in one.

But the dynamic culture around them is often not the culture of their church. What they yearn for is typically not a scriptural culture, but rather a nostalgic religious culture of days past. The irony of this is that every church is culturally relevant. It is simply a matter of whether the culture of the church is in any way similar to the culture of its community or only meaningful to itself.

Contextualizing does not mean that your church needs to look like Northpoint (Atlanta) or Mosaic (LA). It may mean something very different, and a culturally relevant church in your community may look very different from culturally relevant churches in other communities. Yet, many of us miss that. Why? Because too many leaders pastor their churches in their heads and not in their communities.

But the truth is, if you can't pastor the people God has given you (not the ones He's given Andy Stanley or Erwin McManus), then you don't love them. John Knox said, "Give me Scotland or I die." He had a passion for the people of Scotland. We need to have the same passion for the people where we are, and to love them and their culture (though parts of every culture should make you uneasy and call for a biblical critique—see Acts 17 and my message from The Resurgence conference).

The alternative to this kind of passion is "community lust" and "demographic envy." Lots of pastors are lusting for someone else's community. They want a church that is culturally relevant to Los Angeles, Seattle, or New York even though they live in Des Moines, Iowa. But that's not the answer.

Biblically Faithful

Before anything else, the church and its ministry must be biblically faithful. A lot of great conferences on creativity and ministry are helpful. But, we need to remember that our purpose is to apply that creativity in biblically and culturally relevant ways. The reason we engage culture is not to be cool, trendy, contemporary, or cutting edge—words that have become idols to us—but so that those who live in culture can hear the message of Jesus. That message is more than just "come to Christ," it involves how we live and structure our lives, and it matters deeply. Our churches should share the gospel message wherever they are and whatever their cultural context. They should be known as people who love God's Word and seek to live differently because of it.

Culturally Relevant

Churches that are biblically faithful to God's mission will work to relate to people in culture.

We who are Christians should look similar to, but not be identical to, our culture. If we don't, people will assume that being a Christian simply means being different—dressing differently, listening to different music styles, and voting the same way.

They'll confuse Christianity with a change of clothes, music, and political party registration. That means that Christians should use language, dress, and live life in the "house" of culture, while living differently because they are in the family of God.

Counter Culture

Jesus said that we should be "in" the world but not "of" the world. Many churches today do just the opposite. They are "of" the world but not "in" it. We must teach people to look similar to the world, but live differently. Most churches in the U.S. today do just the opposite.

For example, born—again Christians divorce at a higher rate than the unchurched,
while many of their church services feel like a trip to a museum. It's like going back to a time when culture was more "holy" and divorce was unheard of. Today, we've kept the museum culture but jettisoned the biblical morality—the wrong choice. Rather, Christians should be counter culture—in family life, values, finances, and every other aspect of their lives. They should reflect their culture while living in contrast to that culture.

Why, if we have the timeless truth of the gospel, do we need to concern ourselves with culturally relevant ministry? Because if we don't, the message of the gospel gets confused with the cultures of old. The unchurched think that Christianity is a retrograde culture rather than a living faith.

Our job is to remove the "extra" stumbling blocks of culture without removing the essential stumbling block of the cross (1 Corinthians 1:23). Unfortunately, the stumbling block of the cross has too often been replaced by the stumbling block of the church. Most people aren't being recruited by other religions; they are being confused by the practice of ours.
The easy route is to go to a conference, read a book, and create a great church "in your head"—a cutting edge, cool, trendy, and contemporary church. But the biblical route is found in Paul's activities in Acts 17. Wander through your Athens. Look at the cultural idols. Let this break your heart and burden your mind. Let godly passion drive you to say "Give me Athens or I die." Then confidently take the gospel to those who'll see its uncluttered message, trust its validity, and receive its Savior—Jesus Christ.

GREAT article!!

It was literally overflowing with plain old common sense!

Moses saw his "back" becaus the glory of God is ever-moving .... if you're not careful the God that never changes will pass you by.

they've mistaken their portrait ideals of the Victorian Era for the Glory of God ...

they've taken a snapshot of what they perceive holiness is ... and have made subsequent carbon copies for us later generations to accept as the standard of an infinitely HOLY GOD.

I, however, must alllow God to keep painting!!!

Great sermon on this ....

If you're interested ... you can download it

I Must Keep Painting ....
http://respiracreative.com/keeppainting.mp3

and the sequel ....

Welcome to Brick World -
http://respiracreative.com/bricks.mp3


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Does this article give any practical applications other than read Acts 17?

Paul must have found on his mission journeys many different cultures where the style of dress, music, politics, customs were very diverse and yet we don't find where Paul preached a uniformity of these things.

Gee, are you sure? You dont think Paul adapted himself to certain cultural practices to reach that community? In fact 1 Corinthians 11 is about cultural relevancy (regardless of what you may have been told)

Paul was not conformed to the sin of this world, but he certainly adapted to the culture in which he ministered...

The victorian standards of the apostolic church are quickly making it irrelevant to all but the very worst of society... whom do have great testimonies... but what about the other 80+ % - who dont need some way out radical extreme, they just need Jesus?

The irrelevance of the practice(not necessarily the message) keeps the gospel hid

You make to much sence Keith....are you sure you're pentecostal? j/k

Great article. even the parts not bolded.

When it comes to dress, I think Paul dressed like a Jew. I think he ate what was put before him, clean or unclean by Jewish standards. How do you think Paul adapted to different cultures?

I don't think the gospel is hid by the practice of not being culturally relevant because there are souls saved in conservative Oneness churches. But it may be there are some who would be saved who are turned off by unnecessary rules of men.

I totally agree. We are able to reach some, but how many just can't get past the outdated culture? If I wasn't raised in the church, I honestly don't think I would ever attend a UPC church.

Very insightful article.

Kieth, I understand the shorts thing - providing they were reasonably long ones... and providing you were not wearing a long sleeved shirt at the same time! LOL!

Daniel, Who's preaching the "Keep Painting" sermon? It's very good!!!

hey pianoman, make a button that says, say yes to shorts, please, i want it, lol, dt:hypercoffee

Now that was funny!

I'll see what I can do! :killinme

do it, wear a nike shirt and do it, lol, that is cool , you are the man, lol, dt:hypercoffee

20 years ago a couple of idealistic and visionary young boys in their early 20's sat and discussed the problems in the world back then.

We decided this about our particular organization of association.

We decided that were born & bred to be adventurers... to forge new territory... to go forward... forever expanding...

And we also decided that we had, instead, become park rangers. We had become those who could lead you around and dazzle you with astonishing details that our decades of study of "here" had filled us with and in the midst of the amazement of all we knew of "here" we had forgotten that we were born to be adventurers, moving on, going further. But instead, we had, somewhere, made a conscious decision to master "here" rather than continuing the onward trek.

We are all grown up now... and we still feel the same.

I am a tad of an adventurer by heart I suppose. I don't hang around the park and the exhibits like I used to. They don't do for me what they used to. I sit close enough to the unexplored wilderness ahead of me to stare off into it wondering what is out there but, some 20 years later, I haven't wandered far enough from what I have always known to cut much of a path forward. I still dream that I will.

Gotta work tomorrow though... and there are bills to be paid...I need to finish that room in the back....

And today I read this thread and an article tugs a memory from my distant past and first shirks me with a quick "we were right" and then quickly asks me to be seated with the knowledge that, right or wrong, what have I accomplished?

Maybe I will die a dreamer. Maybe I will finally step out and do....well... I'm not sure what... but it sure needs to be done.

There's room on this park bench.... anyone else been there?

I think that in some cases this is true. However missionaries often encounter cultures that have been that way for many many years. On the other hand WE are living in a culture that is constantly changing.

There ARE some things in other cultures that are biblically wrong and need to be corrected for those individuals who convert.

For example, I saw a documentary on an african tribe that regularly swapped wives. If someone converts they should conform to scriptures, however God called us to convert the lost and not necessarily to fix cultures.

Yes, I must sit at the same bench. I find myself compromising so much to be the Park Ranger because so many are there, when my heart longs to be the explorer finding new ground, being the risk-taker. Your heart cry is my heart cry.

How is this?
http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...llowbutton.jpg

:highfive

that is just too cool you are the man, pianoman, lol, dt:highfive:thumbsup

Thanks! :)

Bro.Keith4him where can one get ahold of the reference works mentioned in your article ?

Taken from Ed Stetzer Blog.