The Western Recorder, the weekly publication of the Kentucky Baptist Convention, recently ran an article entitied, “Is the Church Out of Touch?” It focuses upon a study commissioned by Lifeway Christian Resources. The gist of the study is found in its conclusion … the clergy and laity in our churches are largely ignorant of the very culture in which we live.
In providing some summary and analysis to the article, the Baptist Press author states:
Ron Sellers, president of Ellison Research, said the survey raises the question of whether churches are having an impact on how people interact with culture.
“There’s a long-term debate within Christendom about what is an appropriate level of involvement in popular culture,” he noted. “Some Christians believe separation from the world is part of godly behavior, while others believe involvement in the world is necessary in order to reach out to the world. Either way, one might logically expect church involvement to change how a person looks at culture—either becoming more involved in order to have more effective outreach or becoming less involved as they seek to lead a less worldly lifestyle.
“But the data shows no difference in cultural awareness according to how frequently people attend church, how long they’ve been there or whether they are in a leadership position,” Sellers said. “This raises the question of how much churches actually impact how people live their daily lives.
“The data shows ministers are, generally speaking, not all that informed about the culture in which they seek to minister,” Sellers added. “The people in the pews feel much more informed about the Internet, movies, videogames and other expressions of popular culture than do their pastors. People are definitely impacted by the culture they consume—the Web sites they visit or the music they listen to, for instance. Pastors need to be informed about what’s out there in order to understand how the culture is influencing the people they are trying to reach.”
How sad. If our goal is to reach the people in our culture with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, how can we intelligently do so when we are basically ignorant of the world that is within our immediate reach? And we wonder why the church has become increasingly irrelevant in our North American culture.
What is our problem? We have created a church sub-culture that is out of touch with the culture around us. We have our own languages, customs, and expectations. We expect the people of the world to conform to us before we accept them.
How wrong. How pathetic. How absolutely opposite of the approach of our Savior. Jesus ate and made friends with tax collectors, outcasts, and sinners. He went places where the religious folk would not go … and they judged Him for it. Now, we have become those religious folk. If someone in the church dares to step outsid of our sanctioned, sanctified methodologies, they are labeled a heretic and made into outcasts themselves.
Lord, please awaken your church and reveal unto us the beauty and complexity of the culture around us. Give us hearts that are broken for, not protectively sealed from, our cultural mission field. – Amen
