Where Do Preaching and Culture Meet?

Comments

• Aardvark1

  Wed Apr 09, 2008 12:28 am : 0 : 4 Flag

  Every church is to blame for this! They have concentrated so much on buildings and programs etc that they forgot the Cross and the Lord who brought us here!
  
  Secondly, the same seeker-sensitive movement which dumbed down the Bible, gets to now define it! Look who is giving the sermon on Wednesday - RICK WARREN!! Was Joel Osteen unavailable?!!
  
  It is so-called (by the left-wing media) "America's Pastors" like Warren, Hybels and Osteen (WHO?) who are responsible for Biblical ignorance, which leads our kids astray when they go to even some of our best "Christian" schools like Wheaton etc!
  
  So conferences like this are good at addressing problems, but they will never go back to prayer, repentance and the Raw Word of God, which is the only way to reach a lost world of our youth!

• DannyPoo

  Tue Apr 08, 2008 4:56 pm : 3 : 0 Flag

  the statement that our culture is "fundamentally atheistic" is probably not correct. Most people in our culture are "spiritual" in some way or form, however many are Christophobic and this is where we need to encounter the culture.

• gmac0961

  Tue Apr 08, 2008 2:12 pm : 2 : 0 Flag

  I don't necessarily agree that we live in an atheist society. Most people profess a belief in God, although what they think of as God varies alot (which is, of course, part of the problem). I think the main problem is that the Church makes a good case for why you should care about Jesus after you die, but not a great case for why living before the Lord is truly a better, happier existence in this life. The world has the idea that we are all repressed and just dying for some fornication if only God would look the other way for a while, Our task is to show them that way is destruction and we DO NOT long for these things, as they think we do.
  
  We need to get back to why it is better to live the Christian way. For example, we have huge problems with violence in this world. Go to the Sermon on the Mount and you will see how Jesus' way solves that problem. There are 1000 more examples, but that is just the first.
  
  Be clear, I am not saying water down any of the Gospel and tell people it will all be angels and white light. Just make the case that the Gospel is as relevant to this earth as it is to the next.

• JHS

  Tue Apr 08, 2008 1:34 pm : 0 : 6 Flag

  White's church is southern baptist, I wonder why they try so hard to hide that hmmmmmm

• canadianchristian

  Tue Apr 08, 2008 12:48 pm : 5 : 0 Flag

  serbant424,
  Amen and well said !!! Sorry feet you are mistaken, the church is a body of believers who willingly serve the LORD JESUS CHRIST and NOT the culture they happen to live in, whether here or across the world. Followers of CHRIST should expect to be mocked, ridiculed, hated,and killed possibly for the message they bring- they are not to conform to the world and it's cultural sin's but to be a shining light in the darkness of man's culture, IN JESUS NAME

• servant424

  Tue Apr 08, 2008 12:09 pm : 5 : 0 Flag

  Amen and amen to the comments of Evans and Batterson. In our sincere efforts over the past decade to reach an increasingly hostile and Biblically illiterate culture, we have watered down the Gospel to a "feel good, be happy, Jesus loves you" message. However, the Word - Old Testament and New - clearly illustrates that the God's amazing grace and love can only truly be understood and accepted - and eternally change lives - when they are presented side-by-side with the Holy God Who hates sin with a judgmental wrath. We are under His wrath unless and until we accept His grace provision of Jesus Christ. Music styles, dress codes, service times, and much more can be altered to "fit" today's culture and attempt to attract the lost - but the message must not be compromised. We've tried - it didn't work. We now have churches full of undiscipled and, in many cases, unconverted attendees whose lives and lifestyles attest to that fact. It is God and His Word that never changes - and it is only the Word of God, through His Spirit, that has the power to reach the lost, regardless of their culture.

• feetxxxl

  Tue Apr 08, 2008 11:31 am : 1 : 9 Flag

  without a doubt the church is the culture and the culture is the church. you cannot seperate one from the other, as is evidenced by the recent article about divorce.