The Church & Culture

The discussion of Church and Culture has been going on for literally centuries. I don't expect it will discontinue anytime soon. And quite honestly I'm good with that because there are no clear boundary lines between the two. It's an ongoing tension that we need to feel the pull of regularly.

Kim Meyer of Granger Community Church recently posted about this topic in regard to a church who invited author William P. Young (The Shack) to speak to their church. Here are Kim's comments.

I recently had a conversation with a church who invited William P. Young (author of The Shack) to speak during a weekend service. Now, they're getting hit hard by some of their congregants. Hit hard with comments like "This author belongs no where near this building."

Really? Really.

We get this type of feedback at Granger every single time we touch anything secular. The argument isn't new news. It spans hundreds of years. I'm not interested in arguing an old debate. And, for the record...nobody asked me to. But, they did ask me this: "When you find yourself fielding this type of feedback, how do you respond? How do you cast vision?" Here's how I responded.

"It is always good to communicate a simple WHY behind WHAT. For example:

• This novel gives a voice to real, deep human longings. We’re going to explore the themes in this book to start a conversation about how the Bible, God, Christ and the Holy Spirit meets these real longings.
• We listen to mainstream songs and read mainstream books to observe the spiritual journey revealed in the lyrics and storylines. This book is no different.
• I also love what the president of Notre Dame recently said to the unruly Christian protesters who were bashing Obama when he came to speak at the ND Commencement ceremony (the protesters argued Obama shouldn’t be allowed to step foot on the Catholic campus because he is pro-choice). He said, 'You can't change world if you shun the people you want to persuade.' Well put.

So, keep it simple. Focus on the why behind the what: Love God, Love others. Keep open heart & mind to what we have to learn through the process. As Christ-followers, we do NOT have all the answers and Christ didn’t call us to be the judge and jury for the world. He called us to show them we are different because of our love. Some of these vocal congregants have just forgotten the main thing. You can help remind them."