I’ve been realizing over the last few days that I’m getting neglectful again about posting new content. For any of you that read this regularly, I apologize, but it has been quite a couple of weeks.
First, we had our daughter’s first birthday party. And being that her mom had been planning it for about the last twelve months, it was quite an undertaking. What an amazing time though. It all came off beautifully. I’m truly blessed to have a wife and daughter like I do. I can’t thank God enough for them.
Then, when I thought I’d finally have some time to write, my new church called and asked me to play for their Christmas Eve service. I haven’t played in nearly two years, and my wife has never seen me play, so needless to say I was pretty excited. But, as I said, it’s been two years so I’ve been putting in a lot of practice time trying to knock off the dust and re-form my calluses.
Regardless, I realize that I need to keep posting at least something. I know myself too well, and I know that the longer I go without doing it, the easier it will be for me to continue to put it off. So, in that spirit, I wanted to leave you with a little something I heard recently.
I have a wish list on Amazon that I mostly use just to keep track of the books and music that I want to buy, but don’t have the funds for yet. I finally bought a CD that had been on said list for quite some time. It’s “The Alter and the Door” by Casting Crowns. The first track contains a spoken word section that was not only thought provoking, but happened to associate very closely with what I’ve been writing about lately. Here is the text of that section:
“People aren’t confused by the Gospel, they’re confused by us. Jesus is the only way to God, but we are not the only way to Jesus. This world doesn’t need my tie, my hoodie, my denomination or my translation of the Bible. They just need Jesus. We can be passionate about what we believe, but we can’t strap ourselves to the Gospel, ‘cause we’re slowing it down. Jesus is going to save the world. But maybe the best thing we can do is just get out of the way.”
There’s a lot I want and could say about this, but I want to know what you think. Are we slowing down the Gospel? Are we so concerned with making the Gospel “culturally relevant” that we miss that fact that it’s timeless? Do we need to just get out of the way sometimes?
2 comments:
I just want to start by saying that what I am sharing is only my opinion and should be interpreted as such. We can never be in the way!
2Pe 3:9 The Lord is not slow to do what he has promised, as some think. Instead, he is patient with you, because he does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants all to turn away from their sins.
Personally I don’t think that it is possible for us to slow down the Gospel. God is working on His own pace and He need no man to do His work. In the process He is inviting us to become part of great work. By neglecting to do so I am withholding from myself one of the greatest privileges man can have and that is to be in partnership with God. It’s not because I am well educated or very clever or even because of my background that He chose me, no it is mainly because of God’s favour and grace. He had been putting things in place to expand His Kingdom for many centuries and in this time a lot of attemts was made not only to slow down the Gospel but to totaly destroy it, but God kept on coming through. If there is one thing I have learned in Missions it would be that if I don’t do something, God will get somebody else and that person don’t want to do It, HE WILL DO IT HIM SELF!
So lets look at it this way;
1. God is working, he did this even before the beginning of time.
2. He invites us to become part of His great work
3. I can decide to accept or reject His invitation.
4. He will continue to work His Magic, just because He is God.
Now lets look at the second part of your question, to be culturally relevant is crucial to the spreading of the Gospel. The difficult part is not to lose the power of the Gospel while adjusting it according to culture. Making something culturally relevant really helps to simplify the Gospel, within different cultural contexts. I love God and really want to see His Kingdom grow and from my side God had given me certain skills and tools to bring the Gospel to people in a language they can understand and as a servant of Christ I will make use of every means possible to make sure that the people I talk to understands the Gospel clearly. For me It is about bringing people to the knowledge of Christ.
Act 17:23 When I arrived here the other day, I was fascinated with all the shrines I came across. And then I found one inscribed, TO THE GOD NOBODY KNOWS. I'm here to introduce you to this God so you can worship intelligently, know who you're dealing with.
Act 17:30 "God overlooks it as long as you don't know any better--but that time is past. The unknown is now known, and he's calling for a radical life-change.
Go and read the entire Acts 17 to keep the context. Then we can continue the discution.
Thank you for the comment my friend. I'm sorry it has taken so long to respond.
I agreee completely with you in that we can not slow down the Gospel. God has a plan that will be played out regardless of what we do or do not do. His timing is perfect and he already know the outcome. And we are called to be a part of it, we can't deny that.
That being said, looking at this from outside of that perspective, I think that what I take from this is not so much that we are actually slowing down the Gospel (as I've said, that can't happen) but more of a question of how much more could we be doing, and how many more could we genuinely reach if we weren't getting in our own way?
I too believe that we must remain culturally relevant to a point. But I think too many churches today focus more on the relevance part than they do the Gospel part. The Gospel is timeless. As I said in a previous post, it does not need changed or re-translated.
I like the passage in Acts and I agree with you to a point. We do have a charge to bring God's word to the people and we do need to make sure they clearly understand it. But we need to be careful how far we go in making it understandable. God's word trancends all time, culture, and language. That's what is so amazing about it. Too many today forget that and think they need to "spice things up" a little in order to get the point across. We just have to be caeful how far we go with that.
Anyway, I feel like I'm just rambling now. I believe we are both on the same page but I love the discussion. I thank you for reading and I look forward to reading more of your posts as well.
All the best to you and God bless.
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