The scripture today was John 17:9-23 and the topic was "Cultural Engagement."
Jon started the discussion by showing in scripture where the message of the gospel goes across cultures. We are going to see things differently and that's OK. Can we allow space for our differences? Can we be a community and love and serve each other?
Historically, the church has engaged in culture in 3 different ways:
1. Christ against culture: be out of the world, culture is too bad so we remove ourselves. An example might be an Amish community. John 17: 9 states how he is praying for the church and how we are to be IN the world. We have to navigate being IN the world but not OF the world by still being Christ-centered. Vs 11: We are called to be present. Jesus engaged culture. We are His messengers/ambassadors.
2. Christ relating to culture. (Relevance). No obstacles, accepting all so we don't offend. John 17: 14-17: We must be willing to be hated. We must be willing to love, care for and serve those around us. We cannot ignore truth.
3: Christ transforming culture: As a church we sometimes feel we can change the world's culture. Or, we feel our culture is the correct culture and we must get everyone to agree.
WE MUST DO ALL THREE. We are to be IN the world, stand for historical truth, and be transforming through loving God and loving our neighbor.
Jon discussed code-switching and how minorities may be much more used to doing this. Broadly, code-switching is the practice of adjusting one's style of speech, appearance, behavior and expression in the ways that will optimize the comfort of others. The bible calls us to do this. We are to step into someone else's world. We need to make people of all cultures feel welcomed and respected.
This is an excerpt from The Lausanne Covenant on culture and what Redeemer believes:
"The development of strategies for world evangelization calls for imaginative, pioneering methods. Under God, the result will be the rise of churches deeply rooted in Christ and closely related to their culture. Culture must always be tested and judged by scripture. Because man is God's creature, some of his culture is rich in beauty and goodness. Because he has fallen, all of it is tainted with sin and some of it is demonic. The Gospel does not presuppose the superiority of any culture to another, but evaluates all cultures according to it's own criteria of truth and righteousness, and insists on moral absolutes in every culture. Missions have all too frequently exported with the gospel of alien culture and churches have sometimes been in bondage to culture rather than to scripture. Christ's evangelists must humbly seek to empty themselves of all but their personal authenticity in order to become the servants of others, and church must seek to transform and enrich culture, all for the glory of God." (Interesting that this was written in the 1970's)
