The gospel...plus (part three)

Culture is unavoidable. The language we speak, our interests, jobs, food, humor, etc is all cultural. The idea that that the church needs to avoid cultural fads is simply an excuse to choose one cultural expression over another. It is impossible for the church to do things the same way for centuries and it obviously hasn’t happened.

There is one thing that should not change. It is the central teaching that we are bad, God is righteous and we can only be made righteous by God saving us through Jesus. This is the gospel, the only teaching the New Testament has.

The battle though, is often not fought for the gospel, but for how the gospel is applied in culture. We keep waiting for the ‘right’ cultural expression of the gospel and when we think we’ve found it, a little time goes by, our culture changes, and we are searching for it again. Some examples:

The Salvation army seemed to have it right when they sought to enroll people in ‘God’s army’ in the post-WWII culture. It was well respected until a new generation grew up in a country no longer at war. It was then criticized.

Dressing up for church, standing during services, removing hats at the church door seemed to be part of the Christian life for those who grew up respecting royalty. Since we took off our hats, dressed proper and stood at attention when the queen came to town, so much more should we do the same when we are in God’s house. Now that royalty looks less and less like God we don’t think this is so important anymore.

Reformers like Martin Luther wrote lyrics to songs sung in the pubs and the puritans brewed beer. Alcohol and Christianity went together like steak and red wine until prohibition 100 years ago. When drinking was associated with criminal activity drinking was heavily criticized. Only recently has this cultural trend swung back again and Christians once again drink beer and talk theology.

Since culture is not right and wrong, there will never be a perfect expression of the gospel. Rather we should seek to apply the unchanging truth about the work of God to love us in every culture. The application should constantly be changing, but the message not. Drinking or not drinking isn’t always right, but applying the gospel to the current culture.

I find this to be detrimental when churches create a culture that is so different from the surrounding city that they demand the people’s culture change so they can be forgiven by God. They ask them to listen to a specific style of music, do certain activities, speak a certain way, dress a certain way, vote for one particular political party, etc. I hope that our church looks like the cultures of Kimberley, but with the marked difference that the gospel makes.

I believe in the gospel, not the gospel plus common interests, not the gospel plus my position on a specific non-essential issue, and certainly not the gospel plus some cultural element.