The church should always be relevant

Such a great article, I had to re post it its entirety. Good stuff to think about.

Church and Contemporary Culture—Always a Challenge
By Ed Stetzer

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.

Ed Stetzer is director of LifeWay Research and LifeWay’s Missiologist in Residence. He will be featured at several of Threads’ 2008 Connect Conferences. Ed’s message of connecting today’s generation to God and the church will be a great addition to these regional training events. Learn more about Connect Conferences

The video says it all

In the world but not of it

James 4:1-10 "In the world, but not of it.”

Intro…
The light turned yellow, just in front of him. He did the right
thing, stopping at the crosswalk, even though he could have beaten
the red light by accelerating through the intersection.

The tailgating woman was furious and honked her horn, screaming in
frustration, as she missed her chance to get through the
intersection, dropping her cell phone and makeup.

As she was still in mid-rant, she heard a tap on her window and
looked up into the face of a very serious police officer. The officer
ordered her to exit her car with her hands up.

He took her to the police station where she was
searched, fingerprinted, photographed, and placed in a holding cell.

After a couple of hours, a policeman approached the cell and opened
the door. She was escorted back to the booking desk where the
arresting officer was waiting with her personal effects.

He said, ''I'm very sorry for this mistake. You see, I pulled up
behind your car while you were blowing your horn, flipping off the
guy in front of you and cussing a blue streak at him. I noticed the
'What Would Jesus Do' bumper sticker, the 'Choose Life' license plate
holder, the 'Follow Me to Sunday-School' bumper sticker, and the
chrome-plated Christian fish emblem on the trunk, so naturally....I
assumed you had stolen the car.''



Text: James 4:1-10

• “NOTW” logo
• John 15:18-19, 17:13-19
• Matt. 16:26, 5:14-16

Thesis: The Christian life is a tricky balance between being a light in the darkness, but not letting that darkness pull you away from living a godly life.

James 4:1-2 Defines worldly behavior (just in case we forgot).
• Fights/quarrels, Selfishness (wanting, but not getting)
• Sinful desires from within…
this is our natural born sin nature, we are born into sin and will
spend our entire lives fighting it.
Notice how these are really just childish behaviors?
• These are the kinds of things we teach our children not to do. This is rudimentary in the shaping of our kids character…don’t be selfish, don’t fight…
And you know what? If we can’t control things like fighting, sinful desires and selfishness, it could lead to death or killing someone. V. 2
• Matt. 5:21-22

Why do all these things happen? V. 3 Because we are not asking God and trusting him for the outcome. It has to do with our prayer life.
• James lists the most common problems in prayer: Not asking. Asking for the wrong things. Asking for the wrong reasons.
• Self quiz on your prayer life: Do you talk to God? When you do, what do you talk about? Do you only ask God for things you want? Do you seek God’s approval for what you are going to do any ways?
• Do you want a powerful prayer life? Pray with the flexibility that God may change you in the process. Ask God to change your desires to fit his will. I John 3:21-22
• "Life is work, play and prayer. Prayer, once you get past the crying, asking and begging... is listening."
• Instead of being so selfish and grabbing what we want, we need to submit ourselves to God asking for his help in getting rid of those selfish desires. From there we need to trust him for what we really need.
James. 4:3-6 Ungodly, sinful, worldly behavior has its consequences.
• Just this week in the news we saw yet another politician who has had an affair. This guy is a Christian etc….
• It’s one thing to see ungodly behavior in the ungodly, but to see it among Christians…
What leads up to this kind of behavior? (right from our verses)
• Too much friendship with the world.
• Here we are reminded again that we are naturally born selfish people. We don’t have to try and do that, it comes naturally! V. 3b
• Hence the need to constantly fight it. It’s a battle that wages within.
• As Christians, God has called us to be holy, yet there is a constant
• temptation to “act naturally” which is sinful.

“Worldliness” is a battle and if we’re not careful, we’ll end up “adulterous people” v. 4) meaning creatures who are unfaith to God.
• When we act worldly or ungodly we are cheating on God.
• There is nothing wrong with wanting a pleasurable life.
• I believe God wants to bless us..IF the pleasure we are seeking is godly.
• If that pleasure comes at the expense of someone else or at the expense of obeying God, then it’s not right.

Becoming a friend of the world will make us an enemy of God. V. 4
• And here is the paradox of the scriptures.
• God has called us to be “in the world, but not of it”
• John 17:13-19, (not that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the evil one)
• Romans 12:2, (do not conform to the world, but be transformed..) Matthew 5:14, (light)
• We need to be aware of the allure, the pull, the temptations of the world (anything that goes against the character of God) and stay clear of that.
• Especially if it is an area that you may struggle in or an area where you know you are weak. Don’t tempt fate.
• Yet, we can’t forget that God has called us to be a light in the darkness.

“Darkness” will be defined differently by every Christian.
• For some people, watching TV is darkness.
• Some people could never walk into a bar or a casino and share their faith.
• Some people need to stay away from all you can eat buffets.
• Some people should never dance….(they can’t) or the temptation may be too great.
• Some people have to be really careful who the hang out with.
• Yet, in the midst of being careful not to be too influenced by the world, we also have to ask ourselves, who do I have regular contact with that needs to hear about the hope Jesus offers?
• And that’s the tricky balance we are talking about this morning…
• We’ve got to remember that God is a jealous God…V. 5
• If we can just humble ourselves before God, we will please him.

So what’s the answer to worldly behavior? Drawing near to God. vs. 7-10
• Submission and humility…to God.
• Pride makes us self-centered. It leads us to believe that we deserve all we can see, touch or imagine. (advertising)
• Pride creates greedy appetites for far more than we need.
• What we really need is God’s approval, not the worlds.
• When we are filled with godly desires, we quickly find out that the seductive attractions of the world are shallow and cheap substitutes for what God has to offer.

Take action. 5 steps
• Resist the devil, evil, temptations, especially the subtle.
• Come near to God….and he will come near to you.
• Wash your “hands” (hearts, minds) purify your hearts (lead a pure life)
• Grieve, mourn and wail….recognizing the gravity of sin
• Enter God’s presence (church) with a mindset of humility and repentance.
• “Lord, I need to be changed today, show me the details.”

Conclusion:
baptism video…coming out of the “world” What a great example of rising above the world and its influences.

God is calling us to be a difference in this world…

“Let God work his will in you. Yell a loud no to the Devil and watch him scamper. Say a quiet yes to God and he’ll be there in no time. Quit dabbling in sin. Purify your inner life. Quit playing the field. Hit bottom and cry your eyes out. The fun and games are over. Get serious, really serious. Get down on your knees before the Master; it’s the only way you’ll get on your feet. “
The Message INVITATION

Cool Christianity

I helped out Mission Trails Church today in their annual community parade. As you can see, my Bus was the "float" and it was decorated Hawaiian style. This is the third year in a row I've volunteered my Bus for the parade and somehow this year it hit me that as churches we have a tendency to do our best to present ourselves "cool." As the church members walked beside my Bus they were dressed in Hawaiian/beach gear and passed out beach balls. I heard one of the ladies say to an onlooker, "We're a really cool church, the service is only an hour, no pressure."

I have to admit that for many years I promoted our church in Pacific Beach with similar verbiage. It struck me today though that it's a bit sad that we feel like we need to convince people that our churches will be cool, brief and lite on the pressure. In reality, God calls us to a radical life of non-conformity to the world. If we truly seek to live a God-honoring life then there will be pressure from both God and man to live as a Christian that accurately represents Jesus Christ.

I have to admit that there are times I long for a church service where being cool and relevant are the least of our concerns. I long to worship with a group of people who's only concern is true repentance before God, deep worship of him and authentic community.

Please God, help me be a pastor that can leave the coolness factor out of the equation when it comes to promoting our church. Give me the nerve to ask people to come and worship a holy and righteous God as we are humbled in his presence.

Taming the tongue

Here's my sermon notes from Sunday:

James 3:1-12 Taming the tongue
Intro…things we learned growing up…
• “Sticks and stones may break my bones”…(but words will never hurt me.)
• “Oh be careful little mouth what you say”…(for the Father up above is looking down in love)
• Verses from Proverbs…lots of 'em
• "Before the tongue can speak, it must have lost the power to wound."
• “Everyone should be quick to listen…(slow to speak…) James 1:19
• “No man can tame the tongue…(it is a restless evil, full of deadly poison)

Thesis: By taming the tongue, one has a much better chance of keeping the whole body in check.
Text: James 3:1-12
What James is saying is that it all starts in the mind and from there leads into what comes out of our mouths, off our tongues and into our actions.
(Then he gives obvious, practical examples)
• Horse (bits)
• Ships (rudder)
• Body (tongue)
• Fire (small spark)
• Tongue (can be a fire, setting the whole course of life on fire, set on fire by hell…
• A wicked tongue and resulting actions come straight from hell, that is sin, wicked intentions., yes it’s that serious!)

Recent example, Ukrainian parliament

• All kinds of animals can be tamed…but no man can tame the tongue.
• Yelling/arguing

What does it take to tame all these things? (Something small)
• For us humans that small thing that needs to be trained is the tongue.
• We do that by immersing ourselves in the word of God.
• Garbage in/garbage out?….godly character in/godly character out.
• Meditate day and night on the scripture, memorize it.

"The tongue like a sharp knife... Kills without drawing blood."
"Better slip with foot than tongue"

Now that we’ve been reminded of the deadly potential of our tongues, let’s keep a couple things in mind:
v. 3 Let’s not rush into teaching (the word of God)
• Years ago at youth camp I was asked what I fear…misrepresenting the word of God.
• This verse applies to teaching little kids all the way through adults, but especially with adults and in particular to pastors/preachers.
• James writes this because there was a prevailing desire among those to whom he wrote to become public teachers, without much regard for the proper qualifications for that office.
• Hopefully a teacher/preachers gifts are easily recognized and there are fruits to his teaching, saved souls.
• If someone feels like God has given them the gift of teaching his word, then they need to be given a chance to exercise that gift.
• The body of Christ, the church will then know if that is a true calling.
• The dilemma of volunteer SS teacher at Coastlands, those with questionable Christian lifestyles…

v. 9 Let’s not speak with a “forked tongue.”
• Just this week I had a conversation with one of my children about “cussing” and we talked about the broader subject of calling yourself a Christian but having actions that would cause someone to question that.
James once again gives such good, practical examples:
• Praise our Lord, yet curse men who have been made in God’s likeness
• We can’t get fresh water and salt water from the same spring.
• A fig tree can’t bear olives
• A grapevine can’t bear figs
• In the same way, a true Christian isn’t going to spew garbage out of their mouths.
• It just doesn’t make sense, it doesn’t sound right or look right.
• It’s easier to preach ten sermons that it is to live one.
• Some people are kind, polite and sweet spirited…until you try and sit in their pew.
Our Wed. night meeting/discussion on the changes here at church…it went well, people held their tongues….
• That will be key as we look for God’s direction.
• “God promises a safe landing, not a calm passage.”
• "A sharp tongue is the only edge tool that grows keener with constant use."

Conclusion:
v. 2 is the theme for our section today.
• It’s a fact we will all stumble in many ways
• However, if we are never at fault in our speech, we’re perfect (that’s the goal at least)
• Then we are able to keep our whole body in check.
• A calm tongue and proper speech brings honor to God.
• "I have often regretted my speech, never my silence."
• It would be better to leave people wondering why you didn't talk than why you did.
• If someone paid you ten cents for every kind word you said about people, and collected five cents for every unkind word, would you be rich or poor?

GOSPEL
INVITATION W/MUSIC