[Couldn't resist sharing a photo from Wendell, ID I took tonight. Idaho is just a beautiful place!]
I enjoyed chatting with some new friends last week at one of the Fortnightly Emerging Church Chats. I was able to meet and share some dialogue with Phil, Mike, Luke, Leighton, Eddie, Darren and Andrew. We talked about a lot of stuff, including .bE and alternative worship.
We also had a chance to talk a bit about a sermon I’m preparing for this upcoming Sunday (Oct 19th). I want to talk about Christians’ relation to the world, and trying to share some concerns and fears re: the Christian subculture/”ghetto.” As of right now, I’m just throwing some ideas around in my head. Some random piecings of a thought lie below. I’d appreciate any thoughts/comments on the issue.
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A Christian View of the World
What should the proper view of the world be, for a Christian? It seems the prevailing view of evangelicals is that the world is a broken and sinful place, and as Christians, we are called to separate ourselves from sin. Therefore, exclusion from the world. But is this an accurate view of the world we live in? Is this the way Christ would call us to live?
What happens when we take the traditional evangelical view and follow it out a bit? People become suspicious of, and closed off to, anything that might be considered ’secular’ [should we even use the word secular anymore]. In Jesus’ prayer in John 17, he says, ‘My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.’ Jesus does not desire us to be taken out of the world; for there is much work to be done here.
Is there another view of relating to the world that Christians can take? Is there another, perhaps more biblical, approach? Dick Staub writes in his new book, Too Christian Too Pagan, that the biblical approach is that, as followers of Christ, we need to appear ‘too Christian’ to our pagan friends and ‘too Pagan’ for our Christian friends.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
“One of the greatest hindrances to internal peace which the Christian encounters is the common habit of dividing our lives into two areas, the sacred and the secular. As these areas are conceived to exist apart from each other and to be morally and spiritually incompatible, and as we are compelled by the necessities of living to be always crossing back and forth from the one to the other, our inner lives tend to break up so that we live a divided instead of a unified life. Our trouble springs from the fact that we who follow Christ inhabit at once two worlds, the spiritual and the natural…This is the old sacred-secular antithesis. Most Christians are caught in its trap. They cannot get a satisfactory ajustment between the claims of the two worlds. They try to walk the tight rope between two kingdoms and they find no peace in either. Their strength is reduced, their outlook confused and their joy taken from them…The sacred-secular antithesis has no foundation in the New Testament. Without doubt a more perfect understanding of Christian truth will deliver us from it.” A.W. Tozer “The Pursuit of God” 1948 chapter X excerpt from pages 117-119.
this is a book that radically changed the way that i looked at God…it is the kind of writing that all at once is a bur in your side, but the fuel to spur one on. i recommend it to all readers and sojourner. tozer doesn’t speak in terms of earthly perfection but he does challenge quite a bit our laziness, somewhat reminisant of bonhoffer’s “the cost of discipleship” just an easier read.
i have been thoroughly convinced that there is less of a dualness to our world in the sense of secular-sacred, as there is a oneness…a connectedness…i can’t really explain it, i just feel it.
later adam…hope this helps…most good bookstores will have this book…it should help a great deal.
Good questions, Adam.
I’ll add my “hear,hear” to Greggory’s recommendation of Tozer’s “The Pursuit of God”.
When it comes to how the church should relate to culture — there have always been several approaches. Sectarian denominations (i.e. those who can be defined according to literal definition of a “sect”) are by nature separatists. Hey, have you ever read “Christ and Culture” by H. Richard Neibuhr? It’s a classic, dude! –Especially in the way he explains the various “positions” to culture the church has taken over the years:
-Christ Against Culture
-The Christ OF Culture
-Christ Above Culture
-Christ and Culture in Paradox
-Christ the Transformer of Culture
But apart from all that, Adam, I think that part of the answer to the questions in this post have to do with our eschatology. Post millennialism (the historically prevalent view, but certainly not in recent decades!) is MUCH more geared to reaching out into our culture. Have you ever considered looking at this issue from that perspective?
Btw, your blog continues to rock! Great job!
Stumbling followers of Christ … i love that image, man. You raise some excellent points … and I wish I could be there to hear your sermon on Sunday. I agree with you about appearing “too pagan” to Christians … I once heard a quote that said, “Live your life in such a way that all of the upright Christians around you question your salvation.” Something to think about anyway. All the best with your message, bro.
I like the concept of being ‘in the world’ rather than separate from. Certainly Jesus mixed it up with pagans and I think he intended for us to do the same. Setting up our own sub-cultures and Christian replicas of secular programs just seems all a bit un-real!
Wow good stuff bro. I would also third the Tozer book..although some of his thoughts can be a bit constraining. You can listen to some of his sermons on line at: http://devotions.cmalliance.org/tozer/today.aspAs for the thoughts on the secular/sacred..I think every thing in this world is or can be seculer and if you look hard deep enough most of it is also or can also be sacred.
“as long as I am seeking to follow Christ, to love God and love others ‚Äì I think I‚Äôm being faithful to my calling.” That I think is the key. Simple..Basic..it says it all. Oh..we didn’t make it to church on Sunday. It was their first Sunday in their new building and they were having a dedication service. I was a little nervous about going with all that going on. This Sunday though.
Peace,
James