1
CORE VALUES, Part 2: Culturally Relevant
August 22, 2010
When Joyce and I arrived in Tajikistan back in 1994, there was so much we didn’t know about this country that would become our home for five years.
-At that time, there were no “how to learn the Tajik language” books & no manuals about the culture and its people.
-In fact, there were only a handful of foreigners in the country prior to our arrival whom we could learn from.
-And so, with minimal language skills, we set out each day as learners… doing our best to connect, in a relevant way, to those around us, many of whom had never met an American.
-But no matter how much we tried, we’d always make some cultural snafu!
I remember being invited to a new friend’s house for dinner early on where, after the meal, using my newly acquired phrases…
-I enthusiastically shared with the host what a horrible meal she had prepared! Of course, they just laughed it off.
-I soon began inviting people over our home made of thick mud walls.
-Being a “tea culture,” I was excited to offer my guests a customary cup of tea.
-But, what I didn’t know was that there were a full set of cultural rules about serving tea.
So, thinking I was being a gracious host, I filled my friend’s tea-cup to the brim… wondering why he was suddenly giving me a strange look.
-Turns out, that pouring a cup of tea more than 2/3 full, in that culture, communicates that you’d like your guest to leave!
-You see, Tajiks drink their tea slowly… and, by pouring a full cup of tea, you’re ensuring that their tea will be cold before they have a chance of finishing it,
-Whereas refilling a cup only two-thirds of the way ensures that they’re always drinking a hot cup of tea.
It was becoming really clear that this kind of thing would be a daily occurrence! When Joyce and I arrived in Tajikistan, we didn’t have any kids.
-And yet, even though we knew how much they valued larger families there, we were still caught off guard by some of their actions.
-For example, the first time our neighbors invited us over for tea, the man told me, in front of Joyce, that I should consider a second wife.
-Barely understanding the language, I smiled at first, still trying to figure out what he had just said. But… then it hit me! What??
Not long after that, Joyce and I were in the local food bazaar, when a woman came up to me asking me if I’d like to take her daughter as a second wife, who was, by that time, standing right next to me.
-You see, the fact that we had been married two years already and yet had no kids… well… that was pretty foreign to them!
-The obvious solution was for me to “get me another wife!” Needless to say, for Joyce, this was pretty annoying.
-For me… well, let’s just say it brings a sense of calm and order to a man’s marriage when a wife knows that there people knocking on my door to marry them!
All this is to say that our desire to be relevant to those we came to serve and love wasn’t always easy.
-We had to remain learners long after we learned the language… so that we could effectively relate the message of Jesus in a way that would not onlyremain faithful to Jesus and His Word,
-But that would make sense and be relevant to these people whom we loved so much.
-Well, the truth is, that’s part of our mission as a church as well. In fact, for us, it’s a core value that we engage the world around us in culturally relevant ways.
The problem is that, unlike Joyce and I in foreign, Muslim country like Tajikistan, we just assume here in the US that we already know our culture…
-And because we assume to understand our culture, we also assume that our message, which makes sense to us, will make sense to our neighbors…
-That our message, which is relevant to us, is automatically relevant to those around us. But it’s not. Let me give you an example.
A few years ago, a Gallup survey revealed that a whopping 84% of Americans who don’t go to church believe that Jesus rose from the dead.
-That means that while an overwhelming majority of unchurched people believe in the resurrection…
-they still struggle to see how Jesus… how having personal relationship with Him… is at all relevant to their day to day lives.
-Over the past ten years, there’s been a lot of discussion within the church in the US about this.
In fact, the idea of being culturally relevant has become somewhat of a buzzword in the church.
-But while, to some, it simply refers to the means by which the church can express the message of Jesus in a culturally appropriate way…
-To othersit carries a strong negative vibe... representing the church’s willingness to “water down the Gospel.” For them, the idea of relevance equals compromise.
And so, for some, there’s a tension here between our calling to holiness and our calling to culturally relevant mission.
-The value of holiness simply means that God has called us to live lives set apart for Him.
-In John 15, for example, we’re told to be “in the world… but not of the world.”
-And yet, on the other end of the scale, we have Paul telling us in 1 Corinthians 9:22, that he would become all things to all men so that by all possible means, some might be saved.
Truth is, its natural to hold values like these in creative tension. You might value both honesty kindness, for example.
-But, when a friend asks you how you like their new Donald Trump-like comb-over hair-cut, you suddenly find these values in tension…
-Should you be honest… or should you be kind? Some people might pride themselves on being brutally honest… while others might pride themselves on always being kind.
But are we really forced to take an either-or position like this? Can’t we be both honest AND kind? Can’t we be Both-And instead of Either-or??
-Like the tension between holiness and being relevant, the Church has too often taken an either-or position.
-If you’ve been around our church for any time, than you’ve heard us talk about social justice.
-By Justice, we’re ultimately speaking about improving the condition of people in the world around us.
And yet, you’ve also heard us talk about our desire for revival… where, through a supernatural work of God, great numbers of people would come into a personal relationship with Jesus.
-And yet, for so long, these two issues have been seen as “either-or” when, in reality, they’re mean to be “both-and.”
-In other words, when it comes to righting wrongs in our society and seeing people come into personal relationship with Jesus, we are a both-and church!
-The tension between evangelismsocial action is another area where the church has really struggled.
You see, some conservative churches say that the church has one job… saving souls… that’s it!
-For them, getting involved in trying to improve the world by helping single moms living below the poverty line, for example,
-Is like rearranging the furniture on the Titanic while it’s beginning to sink. The ship is going down… so stop wasting your time trying to make the world a better place.
-Instead, we should focus all of efforts and resources preaching the Gospel with the hopes that many would turn to Jesus.
Some liberal churches, on the other hand, say, “What’s the point of preaching a salvation message when 30,000 children around the globe die every day from hunger and preventable disease?
-Let’s just roll up our sleeves and make this world a better place.”
-You see… for some, it’s either “get people ready for what they’re going to face when they die, ORtake care of people while they’re still alive.”
-And yet, nowhere in Scripture are we asked to take sides between these two things.
-How about loving people enough to not only care about their eternal lives but their lives here on earth as well?
Although he was one of the great preachers and evangelists of the 18th century revival, called the Great Awakening…
-John Wesleynot only saw thousands come to Christ while preaching in the open air to coal miners before they went down into the mines…
-But he also gave his life fighting against child labor, hunger, and slavery.
Another leader of the Great Awakening was George Whitefield, considered by some to be one of the greatest preachers in church history.
-Tens of thousands of people in England and the US came to Christ through his preaching.
-But in-between sermons, Whitefield never tired of working with orphans…
-Giving away a substantial amount of his income while constantly raising money… in order to start as many orphanages as he could.
Both these men gave their lives as Both-And people… committed to bear Jesus message and continue Jesus’ ministry, in culturally relevant ways, to the world around them.
-For them, it was Jesus Himself who was the driving force behind their value to be culturally relevant.
-A Jewish baby born in a feeding trough on the wrong side of the tracks was a pretty radical act of relevance… that God, in order to rescue us, became one of us.
-The Apostle Paul put it like this in 1 Corinthians 9:20-23…
“WhenI was with the Jews, I lived like a Jew to bring the Jews to Christ. When I was with those who follow the Jewish law, I too lived under that law. Even though I am not subject to the law, I did this so I could bring to Christ those who are under the law. When I am with the Gentiles who do not follow the Jewish law, I too live apart from that law so I can bring them to Christ. But I do not ignore the law of God; I obey the law of Christ.
When I am with those who are weak, I share their weakness, for I want to bring the weak to Christ. Yes, I try to find common ground with everyone, doing everything I can to save some.”
Driven to see people experience Jesus’ love in their lives, Paul gave everything he could find common ground with the world around him.
-For Paul, relevance meant anything but compromise. Instead, it became his mission to relate the Gospel message to the diverse world he was living in.
-Truth is, the world around us today is no less diverse. And so, like Paul, we’re meant to communicate the reality of Jesus in culturally relevant ways.
So, how will we reach the young people around us? How will we reach the immigrant community?
-How will we reach the secularists working 80-hour work weeks?
-What common ground will we find between ourselves and the poor around us?
-What bridges will we build between ourselves and the Muslim and Jewish, as well as the secularist communities around us?
-How will we make the church relevant to all those people out there who believe that Jesus rose from the dead…
-And yet have no idea how Jesus or the church can relate to their everyday lives?
You see, through our lives as individuals and as a church, we’re meant to be, as Jesus spoke about in Matthew 5, a light to the world… a city on a hill.
-But to be that… to be a people and a church that is relevant and makes a difference to the world around us…
-If we’re going to that unique Kingdom Community of Hope in this hurting world, then we need to first recognize that that the Church has been…
- Uniquely Created for the Sake of the World
- Uniquely Placed in the World
- Uniquely Different from the World
1. Uniquely Created for the Sake of the World
If you’ve read our CORE VALUES statement, what it says under “Culturally Relevant Mission” is that
-“the church exists for the sake of those who are exiled from God. We are called to bring the Gospel of the Kingdom to every nook and cranny of creation, faithfully translating the message of Jesus into language and forms that are relevant to diverse peoples and cultures.”
-And yet, as I think about how the Church is uniquely given for the sake of the world…
-The picture that comes to my mind isn’t of people holding out colds cups of water on hot day.
Instead… the image that comes to mind reflects Custer’s famous “last stand”… where we’ve put all our wagons in a circle in order to protect ourselves from the world… ready to shoot anyone who comes near.
-You see, the church once again finds itself facing anold tension.
-Will we be a fortress from the world… or a powerful force in the world?
-If you’ve been a part of this church for any amount of time, than you already know that where we stand…
-That, God hasn’t created us, as a church,to be some Christian refuge to keep the world out.
Instead, we’re meant to be a place the world can freely enter… to know and be known by a God who has loved them,
-as Jeremiah 31:1 says, with an “everlasting love.” In other words, as a church, we’re called to be a refuge FOR the world, not FROM the world…
-Uniquely given to the world to bear Jesus’ Message and continue Jesus’ ministry.
-And yet, when the world looks at us, what do they see?
Rather than being known for our love, the church at large is often definedby itsmoral/ethical stands…
-We’re known for our holier-than-thou attitudes, our “fishies” and “Jesus Saves” bumper stickers. And, most of all, for our politics.
-It’s frustrating, though, isn’t it… to be defined like this when, in our hearts, we feel so different. And yet…
-If you ask a dozen people to share what comes to mind when they think of the church, what do you think they’d say?
-They’d say that we’re intolerant, anti-gay, ultra-conservative, pro-war, money-hungry hypocrites.
But as much as this characterization may frustrate you, are Christians any better in terms of stereotyping and labeling the unchurched around us?
-Isn’t there an endless whine regardingmedia bias, liberalism, against Hollywood “elites,” and other “socialists”.
-Listen… we know there are lots of problems out there… we know we live in a world riddled with “issues” led by people with “issues”…
-And yet, knowing that, why do we cower behind our circle of wagons, complaining about the very people Jesus called us to love?
If we are going to make a difference in this region as His church, than we need to stop complaining about our culture…
-and begin to influence it through our love and compassion.
-Honestly… how much would you say you have in common with Paul’s words we read earlier…
-When I am with those who are weak, I share their weakness, for I want to bring the weak to Christ. Yes, I try to find common ground with everyone, doing everything I can to save some.”
Guys, as a Kingdom Community, we can’t ever forget that our calling is not to be a monastery, created for our benefit to insulate and protect ourselves.
-Remember… “The church exists for the sake of those who are exiled from God.”
-This is one of those areas where you can’t be Both-And.
-As we purpose to love those who Jesus loves… as we purpose to connect with the world around us in culturally relevant ways…
-We have to ask ourselves; can we really love those whom we’re casting insults at?Can we really lovethose we make fun of?
-Can we really lovethose we make no effort to understand?
Instead of “becoming all things to all men that some might be saved,” as Paul wrote, more often than not, the church really does circle its wagons…
-Consciously or unconsciously embracing a refuge mentality rather than the mandate we’ve been given to culturally relevant mission.
-We know the refuge mentality is all about protecting ourselves from the world.
-But even if, in our church, that Refugee Mentality is only a little true… then who are the few that we are going to keep out?
I’ve asked this before… if a young man came to church with so many piercings that his body looked like an ad for fishing tackle…
-Would we love and connect with him… or would we automatically hide our children from him?
-Honestly, knowing you guys… no kidding… you would probably make a special effort to meet him.
-The sad thing is, though… a kid like that will probably never walk through those doors... because of the shame he imagines will be thrown at him.
-That’s why we need to go out there to meet and love people like this.
What if, for example, one of you would help run a local Battle of the Bands here… bringing in kids from all over the place?
-Since music is so important to young people, it certainly sounds relevant to me.
-But some of you might be feeling that tension between holiness and culturally relevant mission.