Culture and the Gospel

In a fine post by Bill Walsh at the Desiring God blog, Mr. Walsh cites extensively from the Lausanne Willowbank Report on Gospel and Culture. That report speaks of the necessity of humility in sharing the gospel across cultural barriers. This is so for two reasons:

(These are quotes from the Lausanne Report, underlined are my emphases)
1) First, there is the humility to acknowledge the problem which culture
presents, and not to avoid or over-simplify it. As we have seen,
different cultures have strongly influenced the biblical revelation,
ourselves, and the people to whom we go. As a result, we have several
personal limitations in communicating the gospel. For we are prisoners
(consciously or unconsciously) of our own culture, and our grasp of the
cultures both of the Bible and of the country in which we serve is very
imperfect. It is the interaction between all these cultures which
constitutes the problem of communication; it humbles all who wrestle
with it.

2) Secondly, there is the humility to take the trouble to understand and
appreciate the culture of those to whom we go. It is this desire which
leads naturally into that true dialogue "whose purpose is to listen
sensitively in order to understand." We repent of the ignorance which
assumes that we have all the answers and that our only role is to
teach. We have very much to learn. We repent also of judgmental
attitudes. We know we should never condemn or despise another culture,
but rather respect it. We advocate neither the arrogance which imposes
our culture on others, nor the syncretism which mixes the gospel with
cultural elements incompatible with it, but rather a humble sharing of
the good news—made possible by the mutual respect of a genuine
friendship.

(End quote)

This problem is not isolated to our efforts to take the gospel to other cultures in other lands. I see the need for this within our own borders, in our own city, and in our own churches. There is a cultural pride that says that the way I like it is the best way, and so churches are thriving on the principle of homogeneity, to use McGavaran's term. I prefer to say "Monoculturalism." This cultural demarkation is not necessarily along ethnic lines, though it has some bearing on ethnicity. It is socioeconomic to some degree. But the greatest barrier I find is that of age. For many centuries, it has gone without saying that younger people are to respect their elders and learn from them. Today, churches seem to have a blatant disregard for their elder members, the faithfulness of whom keeps many of these churches operating.

I overheard a conversation between two semi-mega-church pastors in this city about music styles in worship. One asked the other, "How can I switch to all contemporary music without running off my older members?" I appreciate his question. On the one hand, he recognizes the need for change to satisfy the interests of a young community around him. On the other hand, he does not want to overlook the traditions and preferences of his older members. The question is a good one. The answer is what concerns me. This other pastor said to him, "Just switch it, and let them leave. You will gain more than you lose." What we see here is the kind of cultural arrogance that says "My way is best. Like it or leave it."

I believe that healthy churches are those whose members represent a cross-section of age, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, etc. As these members grow in Christian maturity, they learn to appreciate the cultural traditions of each other, and learn to surrender those traditions to the unifying call of the Gospel of Christ. However, this type of growth in cultural understanding cannot take place in monocultural churches. We need the voices of other generations, other ethnicities, etc. to sharpen each other toward Christlike maturity. My fear is that this cannot and will not happen in churches which cater to one specific group of people, programming the entire ministry of the church around that group's preferences and treasured traditions.

Immanuel Baptist Church has been in existence for over 60 years. For over two-thirds of its history, Immanuel has been committed to the vision of being a "Church for All People." Sadly, that vision which was seen as cutting-edge, noble, and daring forty years ago is decried by many experts today. They say that the church's key to vitality is singling out a target audience and catering every aspect of church life to them. I remain convinced that this may be "effective" in growing churches, but it is not faithful to the biblical picture of the Body of Christ, which consists of Jews and Gentiles, male and female, slave and free, all on equal footing before the cross. And so we remain committed to this vision of being "a church for all people." To our older members, we say that there will come necessary accommodations to some of the interests of younger people. And to those younger ones, we say that there is much to learn by accommodating some of the traditions of those who have faithfully walked with Christ longer than the younger ones have been alive.

If you live in Greensboro, and have sought in vain to find a church home where all people are welcome and appreciated equally, we invite you to join us for worship and be a part of a church who stood for cultural diversity when it wasn't popular forty years ago, and still does today, when it remains equally unpopular.

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