Part-3
This past week I stumbled upon some thoughts written by J.T. Pugh way back in 1998 from his book “The wisdom and the power of the cross.” This is a book that is one of those “deep calling to deep” pieces of literature. Something that is not an easy read per say, but has tremendous impact on the heart and soul, while challenging the mind.
I stumbled on a few paragraphs concerning the church being relevant with culture in a sub section entitled “self-sacrifice in non-Christian organizations.” What I read floored me for a few reasons. First of all it summed up my second core belief even better than I could explain it. It also floored me that a man of God late into his earthly years would hold such an ideology concerning the church and change. However, before we discuss this idea any deeper, I want to quote the late Rev J.T. Pugh.
“I have seen congregations shrink to a few old people. I know that when these old people die, that particular local church will come to an end. The key to their survival, or course, is evangelism. New and younger people must be added to the membership. If this is done, it will be by a visionary pastor who remains long in his pastorate and presents the never changing gospel in the context of this present generation. One of the secrets of David’s greatness was that he “served his generation.” How sad and futile it is when a preacher persists in presenting the gospel in a format peculiar to another day. How useless it is to answer questions that a present, living generation is not asking. The key to deathly stagnation in any local assembly is fervent Spirit-filled, God–called pastors, alert to the needs and hurts of this present age to, without compromise, present the healing word in communication that modern pagans can relate to.” (The Wisdom and the Power of the Cross by J.T. Pugh pg. 55)
I have read those statements countless times in the past week, in parts and also it its entirety. This sums up my second core belief to a T!
2: The Church structure must have room to morph into what it needs to become to minister the doctrines and truth of God to the culture it finds itself in.
This is a key to successfully reaching a culture or failing miserably. Every culture is shaped by their national or global experiences. Individuals that were born and lived through the Great Depression still to this day struggle to throw things away. Many times they hoard items that have no value or purpose to them, but yet they are unable to get rid of them. Their experience of not having and of being in need shaped their perspective on the need of items. Compare that to those raised in the 90’s with their embrace of environmental issues and entrepreneurial spirit, being raised in what most sociologists believe to be the start of the post-modern era. A time of excess, where the world watched young people become billionaires through the dot com bubble. When comparing these two times in our history we can see how these two events shaped the thinking and way of life of people that lived in that time of history. One had nothing, the other had excess.
Now let’s bring that into the church. One generation doesn’t believe in debt, that if you hold debt you are setting yourself up to fail. The other believes that debt is just part of life and the way you get ahead is to leverage your debt. Those values and beliefs come from their cultural experiences and they play strongly into how the business of the church should run. The older generation is in a race to pay off debt, sacrifice to get the debt paid off. The younger generation is saying leverage debt, make the payment and we can have our cake and eat it too. So the building of a new church becomes seniors sacrificing to pay off the debt and young couples making minimum payments while wanting to spend more money.
This is one area of difference in thinking, but the train follows the tracks all the way down the line. Music becomes a sore spot, to slow vs. to rocky, to wordy vs. not enough words, deep meaning vs. light and fluffy. Church attire becomes discussed. Wearing your Sunday best or coming casual. To an older generation it is disrespectful not to come in your best outfit, to a younger generation it looks standoffish and unapproachable to be wearing dress clothes to a place where the focus is on community and connectivity.
This list just goes on and on. It literally reaches every level. Is one right and one wrong? I don’t believe so; I believe it becomes wrong if you try to reach a culture through the vehicle of another. The core values of an organization must remain strong and locked away deep in a safe, which cannot be opened and examined. But how those core values are shared and brought forth has got to be constantly examined and tweaked to keep up with the shifting of culture.
I sat with my friend Dr. Crownover a few years back and we were discussing this very thing. He made a statement that has lodged in my mind that strengthened my second core belief. He said that the bible never tells us how to have church; it tells us what the core doctrines of the church should be. In other words Paul never wrote how to do church but rather how be the church. Why is that? Because Paul himself understood that to reach the Jew you had to use the vehicle of the temple and speak the language of the Torah. Yet to reach the Greek, you had to speak the language of reason and philosophy. You met them not in the temple but in the market place and other areas of scholarly thought. Did his message change? No his message remained the same “You were born a sinner and Christ died for your sin”. That message remained, along with how to receive Christ’s act of salvation into your life. But what did change was how he brought that message.
You and I as leaders must constantly be examining our approach of the language we are using. How we are reaching people with our core doctrines. The leader of the seniors is not going to reach the seniors the same way as the children’s team reaches the children. The youth team is not going to reach the youth with the same vehicle that reaches the parents. I love how Paul says it.
(1Co 9:20) And I became as a Jew to the Jews, that I might gain Jews; to those under Law as under Law, that I might gain those under Law;
(1Co 9:21) to those without Law as without Law (not being without Law of God, but under the law of Christ), that I might gain those without Law.
(1Co 9:22) I became to the weak as weak, that I might gain the weak. To all I have become all things, that in any and every way I might save some.
(1Co 9:23) And I do this for the gospel, that I might become a fellow partaker of it.
“To all men I have become all things, that I might save some. And I do this for the gospel.” Leaders challenge your vehicle, do not settle. Watch and study the culture you are living in. Bring Godly answers to the questions your people are asking. When organizing an event look at what age demographic you will be targeting and make your event become an experience that reaches them. It would be sad that somebody would not hear about God simply because we were speaking the wrong language of their culture.
Let’s grow this Kingdom of God for His glory and see if like Paul we “might save some” for His name.
Love yeah
Pastor J
