Some Christians won’t like this. It puts us back in the world in order to fulfill God’s mission for winning the lost. It will require us to give up some of the “Christian” things that we surround ourselves with. To fully understand what I am talking about, check out this short video by Mark Driscoll. The subject matter ties in pretty powerfully with some of the things Pastor Jeff shared with Parkview’s staff in our “all staff” meeting last Wednesday. How does the challenge of becoming culturally immersed in the lives of lost people sound to you?
NOTE: This is one of many videos that has been released in preparation for a John Piper conference on Postmodernism that some from Parkview will be attending in September. Mark Driscoll is a bit of a controversial figure, but really hits the nail on the head with this clip.
2 comments:
Scooter- Yeah the "added" videos are pretty good (especially the Driscoll ones). I'd recommend an old, but good book called "Christ and Culture" by H. Richard Niebuhr. We just finished a series about this in our Young Adults class (Gospel & Culture). I'm also going to do a post soon on FirstTheology about the difference between "culture" and "worldliness" which we as Christians often mistake.
Amen!!
One of the things I've said for a long time (its not original to me, but I've always liked the saying) is that we are "in the world, but not of the world."
What I mean by this is that we need to be relative and tangible to the culture around us. We need to understand the issues and not pretend like we are to be secluded.
At the same time we obviously need to be aware of maintaining a Godly life.
The concept of "Christian things" being safe or being the only things appropriate for Christians is really pretty interesting. I actually had a talk with an elder at my church in regards to music... he suggests (and I agree) that God has the ability to place beauty in all kinds of music, after all... is there such a thing as "Christian" music? Is music capable of accepting Christ as its personal savior?
I know this could open up a whole debate on the morality of lyrical content and such, but that's not my point. I *do* understand the need for Christians to have safe influences for their kids or for us to have safe content to fill our minds with.
My point is that we spend so much time building pretend walls around what we consider sacred by associating labels with them, that we forget to stand before the people who NEED to hear about God.
I'm not sure why so many of us have concluded that the proper way to live as a Christian is by doing what is safe and comfortable... and I'll be the first to raise my hand and say that I can suffer from it as much as the next guy.
Very interesting video... I'd love to hear more.
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