Class this week is interesting. It's called "World Christianity" and is about, you guessed it, Christianity around the world.
The main thing we have been talking about this week is stuff I've thought of before, but not with the titles we've been using: Indigenizing and Pilgrim Principles. The first is about using the culture around you for religious purposes. The second is about moving forward into a new culture, coming our of your old one.
Let's talk about these for a few and see what we come up with.
A lot of Christian practices are made up of things taken out of other cultures and given a Christian purpose. Some examples would be holidays, half of our Bible, communion, our gatherings, and even a lot of our symbols such as the cross. (Disclaimer: For any scholars reading this, I know there's more to the story than that, but I'm just doing easy things that people associate with Christianity. So please forgive me.)
Nowadays we see things like this happening in the Church as well. I've been around for a few years, and haven't yet seen things come full circle yet, but I have seen things change in the Church as culture outside of it changes. For example, we are moving into of an era of worship marked by acoustic guitars, beat boxes (I don't know what they're actually called), and vocals. Sometimes a piano. Outside of Christianity we are seeing the rise of close knit friends, getting together for very acoustic based music. The Church has seen this, has picked up on it, and is using it. This also comes with the fact that those who do this outside of the Church are beginning to come into it, bring their culture with them.
There is nothing wrong with this.
But sometimes there is the problem of a Church adapting too much to the culture and it ceases to be what it is meant to be. Some people in class today gave a presentation about this and talked about how they know churches which are dropping true biblical teachings in favor of "God will give you everything you want" type teachings. I haven't actually seen this in a church yet, but I'm sure it's out there.
The other side of the coin is moving out of the culture we're in into the culture that is Christ centered. Instead of trying to transform the society that we're in completely, we move into a society of believers. In an article by Andrew Wells talking about these two things he says that no society has ever existed in which Christianity can painlessly incorporate itself into. This is true.
Think about if tomorrow the US became a fully Christian nation, pushing its beliefs on everyone and passing laws which are based on scripture. That'd be awesome right? Until those who refuse the message begin to riot and rebel against the government. Then the nation would tear in half, and the transition would not be painless. It couldn't happen.
We are called out of our culture and society to join a new one, a better one. One with Christ at the center. The idea of the "Pilgrim Principle" is to shift our focus from ourselves, our friends, our family, money, whatever it is, to Christ. It's a big transition, one where you have to turn around 180 degrees. It's not easy, but it's worth it.
All this to say, I want you to think about what around you can you use for Christ? What in your culture or society can you transform for Christ to use as common ground with unbelievers around you? And the other side of that is what do you need to let go of to move into this new type of life? A while ago I made a post about what you struggle with. What is it? Is it tying you back to your old life? What do you need to get away from to have your Christ centered life?
No comments:
Post a Comment