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“Reaching Our Culture,” blah blah blah!
Orginally published on Wednesday, February 25, 2009 at 8:15 AM
by Todd Rhoades
James MacDonald writes, "Why does it seem that most of the people talk talk talking about reaching the culture are doing such a meager job of it. Why is it that from frustrated old college professors to angry young mega church haters, the vast majority of people waxing eloquent about their passion to penetrate the culture with the gospel are bearing such scanty, sparse, spartan, even scarce fruit? By fruit I mean actual living breathing men and women turning from sin and self and embracing Jesus Christ as Savior and Master of their souls..."
James continues…
I think some people need to be a little more honest about what they really mean when they say “reaching the culture.” Here’s three things I think they mean:
1) They mean reaching people very different from themselves.
2) They mean reaching secular people who have no interest in God
3) They mean reaching cool people who make them feel cool.
“Cultures don’t come to Christ, Individuals do.”
The above is just a small synopsis of what James has to say… it’s excellent, and makes me think… Read all of his thoughts here. Then, I’d love to hear your comments…
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Hi... I'm Todd Rhoades. I'm a Christ-follower, husband, father and I love to connect leaders with other leaders. Hopefully you'll find something here at MMI you like and will return often. If you want, you can find out more about me or follow my every step on Twitter.
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Wednesday, February 25, 2009 at 8:53 AM
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Wednesday, February 25, 2009 at 10:26 AM
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Wednesday, February 25, 2009 at 10:58 AM
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Posted by Peter Hamm
Thursday, February 26, 2009 at 9:10 AM
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Thursday, February 26, 2009 at 10:20 AM
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Thursday, February 26, 2009 at 3:37 PM
Post Your Comments:Thank you James MacDonald for being a voice of truth and clarity. In my opinion, the average pastor/minister/church staff person reads more books from the Christian book store or B & N than the Bible.
MacDonald hit the nail on the head with this article. I especially thought that the third paragraph was the most profound:
“Who is all this really about? Is it about lost broken people in these areas dying without Christ and without hope? Or is it about me choosing a place of ministry that advances my personal mission of self expression? I’m just asking . . .”
The draw to be, “cool,” is so viral by people who want to, “impact the culture.”
--
CS
So is the problem semantics, laziness, hoping on the popularity train, or lack of knowledge on how to reach the culture? I think to say “the average pastor/minister/church staff person reads more books from the Christian book store or B & N than the Bible“ is very demeaning to individuals who are trying to learn from people who have had success reaching culture. If anyone relies on one, two, or three books to find all the knowledge to run God’s Church then there is a problem. I think the real problem with the lack of fruit is we have no idea how to reach the culture.
the man is right, we are to reach people not a culture, culture has nothing to do with the gospel, it is the same gospel for everyone, it is the same word, the same god, the same jesus who died for all, when someone talks about reaching a culture it makes me think they are going to preach another gospel, the holy ghost knows how to minister to each person, our part is to preach the true gospel of god and he does the rest,
This is relationship ministry out there where those that dont know Him are. Shout this message in all bodys
I think it’s semantics. What makes up a culture? People. If we are penetrating or reaching a culture, then we are reaching people. And yes our culture may mean different things. My cultural context is different then yours and who I will reach will be different from who you reach.
I agree that some groups just want to be cool for coolness sake. They may even get people in their church doors. But it’s about real life change in real people however we come into contact with them whether or not we’re cool.
If we aren’t about reaching the lost for Christ, then we aren’t doing what God calls us to do.
I don’t think any of us would have a problem with this terminology if we were talking with a missionary about his/her ministry.
Culture to me is at least a relevant topic in a ministry/outreach discussion, even if “penetrating our culture” is an annoying buzz phrase bandied about by some people who may not have a passion for evangelizing anyone.
Yeah,
If we are reaching people in a manner that is not culturally relevant to them, we’re not reaching people.
I’m interested in reaching people. To do that, I use music, I use drama, and I use a translation of the Bible that was not created for people who were living 500 years ago. (KJV had language that was already 100 years out of date when it was finished! --not that I don’t love it, I do.)
Genius of the &! Reach people by engaging culture.
Right on Peter… the beauty of & is something we lose. My take on number 3 is that the church in reality has not had much room for over 300 years for artists. We have room for certain kinds of music but for other expressions of art and the interesting people that create them, the church has not had much room.
One positive of the emergent church is the creation of room for this type of person. It is however interpreted by many as an attempt to be or look cool. In other words I think number 3 is very simplistic.
I think so too. I think some of this conversation is just people who have an issue with change.
Yes, there are always some who do things or talk about issues and use buzz words because it’s the thing to do and they may not have the right motives.
But does that make the discussion irrelevant?
I think culture is an issue. Maybe because we are serving in a ministry where the culture is so different from anything I’ve ever known.
And I’ve also served in cross cultural ministry environments. We had to evaluate every word we said, the way we sat even.
There are a ton of churches still stuck in the 1950’s and that kind of church isn’t even on the radar of the people in my community.
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