H. Richard Niebuhr wrote about several viewpoints one could take with regard to Christ and culture in his aptly named book . . . Christ and Culture. He said people usually have one of several views: Christ against culture, Christ of culture, Christ above culture, Christ and culture in paradox, and Christ the transformer of culture. I won’t take the time to explain all those, but it seems that Niebuhr liked the transformation view best.

I think that for much of the culture, that’s right. Christians ought to be working for the transformation of God’s creation, which has been marred by sin. But I also think there are times when Christianity must be wholly opposed to certain things the culture embraces and represents. For example, I agree with Keith that postmodern notions of truth are completely at odds with a Christian worldview. So I think that when the emergent folks try to appropriate the postmodern world’s notions of truth, they are in serious error. You have to make a choice between Christ and postmodern notions of truth. In that case, and in several others that come to mind, it’s Christ against culture for sure.

So . . . When it comes to being “missional,” I think 3ABC will do all it can to communicate and interact with the culture of Old Louisville—right up to the point where the culture of Old Louisville demands that we deny something crucial to the Gospel. Coffee houses, park clean-ups, B&Bs, community groups, college life? Yea, we can do all that, and I have no doubt that we will. Agreeing with the majority of people who live here that all truth is nothing but a social construct and that our faith in Christ is merely an individual expression of our own hopes and desires with no universal significance? No way.

Missional? Perhaps, but only to a point. Indigenous? Sure, but only so far.

Posted in Church Life, Culture, Evangelism & Missions, Theology & Doctrine |