Ed Stetzer's Blog

Why is cultural relevance a big deal? Here is my take

Ed Stetzer — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 19:42:00 GMT

The scriptures are relevant to this and every culture. They do not need updating, correcting, or revisioning. On the contrary, what needs revisioning is our understanding and obedience to God's word as we live out His mission in context. When we live a humble orthodoxy and humble missiology, we will be salt and light in contemporary culture—a biblically-faithful, culturally-relevant, counter culture. Here is a brief article I wrote for our friends at Catalyst that might be an encouragement:

The fight goes on. Like a giant tug of war, each side is pulling hard. The battle lines: Cultural relevance versus biblical faithfulness—a classic tyranny of the "OR." Yes, cultural relevance can be confusing.

On the one hand, the church can be so focused on cultural relevance that it loses its distinctive message. Don't think it won't happen—it has happened to countless churches and denominations. On the other hand, it can decide that culture does not matter. That leads to a church whose message is indiscernible and obscure to those who are "outside." Let me propose an alternative: our churches need to be biblically faithful, culturally relevant, counter culture communities.

Not everyone buys into what I've just said. Whole ministries exist just to tell you not to pay attention to culture. To them, a virtuous church is one that is culturally irrelevant. In their view, a mark of holiness is not just being disconnected from sin but also being disconnected from sinners and the culture they share with us every day.

Preaching against culture is like preaching against someone's house—it is just where they live. The house has good in it and bad in it. Overall, culture can be a mess—but (to mix metaphors) it is the water in which we swim and the lens through which we see the world. And the gospel needs to come, inhabit, and change that and every culture (or house).

Preaching against culture is not the pattern of the New Testament church (see Dean Fleming's Contextualization in the New Testament), the historic church (see Ruth Tucker's From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya), or today's church (see Breaking the Missional Code).

Culture clearly does matter! For 2000 years, missionaries have courageously sought to take the message and make it understandable. Through these two millennia, changing cultures have impacted the church and its missional strategies. Conversely, in many cases, the church has also impacted culture. The reason ministry models have to change is because they have an unchanging message that must be conveyed in a changing world. That message is Christ, the gospel, and the Scriptures. Jude 3 says that we are to "contend for the faith once delivered for the saints." That's essential.

But, the Bible also clearly gives us a mandate to make the message understandable. We do more than just translate it into a language. We also have to translate it into a culture. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9:22-23, "I have become all things to all men." Why? Because the message needs to be contextualized. The "how" of ministry is, in many ways, determined by the "who, when, and where" of culture. That's also essential.

We have to both contend and contextualize. This brings a balanced focus in our proclamation and practice. When we contend for the gospel, we remain biblically faithful. When we contextualize, we communicate the message effectively. When we contend and contextualize, our churches are biblically faithful, culturally relevant, counter culture communities.

Those who preach against culture are often unaware that they live in one. But the dynamic culture around them is often not the culture of their church. What they yearn for is typically not a scriptural culture, but rather a nostalgic religious culture of days past. The irony of this is that every church is culturally relevant. It is simply a matter of whether the culture of the church is in any way similar to the culture of its community or only meaningful to itself.

Contextualizing does not mean that your church needs to look like Northpoint (Atlanta) or Mosaic (LA). It may mean something very different, and a culturally relevant church in your community may look very different from culturally relevant churches in other communities. Yet, many of us miss that. Why? Because too many leaders pastor their churches in their heads and not in their communities. But the truth is, if you can't pastor the people God has given you (not the ones He's given Andy Stanley or Erwin McManus), then you don't love them. John Knox said, "Give me Scotland or I die." He had a passion for the people of Scotland. We need to have the same passion for the people where we are, and to love them and their culture (though parts of every culture should make you uneasy and call for a biblical critique—see Acts 17 and my message from The Resurgence conference).

The alternative to this kind of passion is "community lust" and "demographic envy." Lots of pastors are lusting for someone else's community. They want a church that is culturally relevant to Los Angeles, Seattle, or New York even though they live in Des Moines, Iowa. But that's not the answer.

Biblically Faithful
Before anything else, the church and its ministry must be biblically faithful. A lot of great conferences on creativity and ministry are helpful. But, we need to remember that our purpose is to apply that creativity in biblically and culturally relevant ways. The reason we engage culture is not to be cool, trendy, contemporary, or cutting edge—words that have become idols to us—but so that those who live in culture can hear the message of Jesus. That message is more than just "come to Christ," it involves how we live and structure our lives, and it matters deeply. Our churches should share the gospel message wherever they are and whatever their cultural context. They should be known as people who love God's Word and seek to live differently because of it.

Culturally Relevant
Churches that are biblically faithful to God's mission will work to relate to people in culture. We who are Christians should look similar to, but not be identical to, our culture. If we don't, people will assume that being a Christian simply means being different—dressing differently, listening to different music styles, and voting the same way. They'll confuse Christianity with a change of clothes, music, and political party registration. That means that Christians should use language, dress, and live life in the "house" of culture, while living differently because they are in the family of God.

Counter Culture
Jesus said that we should be "in" the world but not "of" the world. Many churches today do just the opposite. They are "of" the world but not "in" it. We must teach people to look similar to the world, but live differently. Most churches in the U.S. today do just the opposite.

For example, born—again Christians divorce at a higher rate than the unchurched, while many of their church services feel like a trip to a museum. It's like going back to a time when culture was more "holy" and divorce was unheard of. Today, we've kept the museum culture but jettisoned the biblical morality—the wrong choice. Rather, Christians should be counter culture—in family life, values, finances, and every other aspect of their lives. They should reflect their culture while living in contrast to that culture.

Why, if we have the timeless truth of the gospel, do we need to concern ourselves with culturally relevant ministry? Because if we don't, the message of the gospel gets confused with the cultures of old. The unchurched think that Christianity is a retrograde culture rather than a living faith. Our job is to remove the "extra" stumbling blocks of culture without removing the essential stumbling block of the cross (1 Corinthians 1:23). Unfortunately, the stumbling block of the cross has too often been replaced by the stumbling block of the church. Most people aren't being recruited by other religions; they are being confused by the practice of ours.

The easy route is to go to a conference, read a book, and create a great church "in your head"—a cutting edge, cool, trendy, and contemporary church. But the biblical route is found in Paul's activities in Acts 17. Wander through your Athens. Look at the cultural idols. Let this break your heart and burden your mind. Let godly passion drive you to say "Give me Athens or I die." Then confidently take the gospel to those who'll see its uncluttered message, trust its validity, and receive its Savior—Jesus Christ.

Ed Stetzer serves as the Missiologist and Senior Director of the Center for Missional Research at the North American Mission Board in Alpharetta, GA and co-pastor of Lake Ridge Church in suburban Atlanta. His most recent books are Breaking the Missional Code (w/ David Putman, 2006) and Planting Missional Churches (2006).

Ed is one of the featured speakers at the National New Church Conference in Orlando, Florida on April 23-26th, 2007. Catalyst is excited to be a partner in the National New Church Conference. Checkout www.exponentialconference.com for more information.

Reprinted with permission of Catalyst- visit www.catalystspace.com for more information.

Ted Haggard: Terrible Sinner

Ed Stetzer — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 16:27:00 GMT

Sin in the body of Christ. Hypocrisy in leadership. Failure in the pastorate.

Yep, It’s out—Ted Haggard has a sin problem.

I know Ted. I have had some time to talk with him and hear his heart. And I knew it all along. My radar was going off…and it was right. He is exactly what I guessed—a sinner. And a really bad one—just like I am.

In the wake of the events, Ted and his church did the right thing. Let’s make sure that we do the same. It’s easy to look down on Ted’s sin while ignoring our own. Isn’t it funny that we are so quick to see the sin of others but so slow to recognize our own.

It’s not just individual sin, but each group seems to have their own acceptable sin—a sin of choice. It seems that it is so easy as a Southern Baptist to point out the sins of others. We see sexual sin and we shake our heads at the charismatics. We see theological compromise and we shake our heads at the Episcopalians. We see abuse involving Catholic clergy and we shake our heads.

But sin isn’t isolated to other religious groups. Yes, we have our own sins. Ours seem to focus on success. We will do anything to get it (and “it” usually involves a big church, positions of prominence, book sales, or where we are listed among speakers for a conference).

We will spread rumors about those with whom we disagree, ignoring the ninth commandment. We exaggerate the size of our churches to impress our friends. We fudge résumés to get a better job. And we can’t even pass a resolution in favor of integrity in reporting.

One thing I’ve noticed–those who go down because of greed, financial indiscretions, or power plays are often allowed wide latitude because their risk taking has paid off in the past as they’ve wonderfully impacted lives. They seem to have built up some brownie points. But when the risk goes awry… the line is pushed… the accountability is gone… those brownie points disappear like a marshmallow at a camp fire.

These are far more of a struggle for us than the temptation of a man kissing a man… but just as sinful. Homosexuality is certainly sin, but we manage to glance the other way at pride, covetousness, and other “inner” sins. And the outward sin seems to attract many more sermons at our meetings.

To balance the slate, here is a list of suggested topics for this year’s pastors’ conference:
• The House that Little White Lies Built
• God’s View of Fat Men
• “You like me, you really, really like me!” —Battling insecurity in ministry
• King of the Hill: Help and healing for those that didn’t make it all the way
• Playing Fast and Loose May Cut You Loose
• Whose Kingdom Are You Building?
• “He said, She said.” Are you the hero to your family that you are to everyone else?

Ed Stetzer, Ph.D., is Missiologist at NAMB, an overeater, occasionally loses his temper, is often unsure of who He is in Christ, and has a thought life that could use some work.

What Really Matters!

Admin — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 17:47:00 GMT

This week, I went canoeing down the Chattahoochee. I took two of my daughters and my BlackBerry -only the daughters made back to the shore.

I tend to dramatize things I see them as part of a bigger story or drama. I tend to look at what happens in life, however silly, as a lesson or part of something bigger.

Now the drama: My daughters almost sank when the boat tipped over. (Before you wonder what I was doing on a class 2 rapids, they didn't tell me what we were in for.)

When we went over the Class 2 rapids, our boat tipped over, Kristen (8 years old) hit the 50º water and yelled "I can't breath," and Jaclyn (4 years old) looked at her dad and started sinking---her eyes met mine and we both knew she was in trouble.

I don't know how particularly heroic I was, but it is remarkable how clear things become in moments like this. My only focus was my daughters-I grabbed Kristen and threw her onto the overturned boat. Jaclyn was in an undertow, so I pulled her out to the shore. The rented boat was swamped, paddles missing, and my pockets were empty.

My four year-old, Jaclyn, pointed at me and said, "This is why I don't like canoeing!" I agreed. After they were safe, we started to look for what was missing and found the oars, boat, and everything else, except my BlackBerry and two juice boxes.

Kristen was very concerned that I lost my BlackBerry after all, it cost $400 or as she pointed out, the value of four American Girl dolls. She asked if I was sad or if mom would be upset. I told her that mom and dad were glad that the most important things were safe my two daughters and that I never even thought about the BlackBerry.

I'd be lying if I didn't say that I was pensive all day. It is hard to see your kids in trouble. It forces hard choices. But, soon, my thoughts turned to priorities.

It was easy to choose in the moment of danger, but not so easy in the mundane of everyday. I, too often, scroll through my BlackBerry while my daughters are telling me about their conflicts with the neighbors, things they learned at school, or questions about God.

It's easy to choose when the panic is on; it's hard to choose with the pressure of life. God reminded me that day what was important. My girls are sleeping safely in their beds. I'm relieved. May my BlackBerry and my enslavement to it and work rest in peace at the bottom of the Chattahoochee River.

Why Have A Confession?

Admin — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 22:19:00 GMT

There is a little red copy of the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 on the corner of my desk. I have never used it for my daily quiet time. I have not opened it in a while. To be honest, I am not sure why I left it there. Maybe I was looking up a specific reference to something. The little red booklet is insignificant, but what it represents is essential. It is the Baptist Faith and Message; the confessional statement adopted by Southern Baptists. It is the key to weathering the challenges of change in denominational life—as we wrestle to become more ethnically diverse, partner together with contemporary and traditional churches, and work through questions of “younger leaders.”

A denominational confession is a statement of biblical truths around which we rally, young or old, traditional or contemporary. A confessional statement serves at least five purposes, and each is essential. These purposes help illustrate an important truth—no denomination or fellowship of churches can work together long term without a confessional statement. The confessional statement of the denomination enables us to embrace biblically faithfully but culturally diverse churches because we stand together around the biblical essentials.

A confession is:

A Statement for the Denomination
I cannot tell you what every Southern Baptist believes, but I can tell you what Southern Baptists believe. That is the value of a faith statement—it says, “This we believe!” Some Baptists may act in racist ways, but Southern Baptists know that racism is a sin. Some Baptists may believe traditional worship is a command, but our faith statement welcomes diverse types of worship expression. A statement of faith gives us enough in agreement to work together knowing that we share a common theology.

A Standard for Denominational Agencies
Confessional statements give direction about who can serve at a denominational agency. Churches do this every day—they make sure their staff believes what they believe. That might be the Baptist Faith and Message or something of its own design. But a denominational confessional statement gives denominational agencies the standard they need. That standard promotes trust—the churches are assured that their missionaries (whom they may never meet) and the churches they plant are adhering to the collaborative statement adopted by the churches.

A Source for Local Churches
There is no mandate that a local church adopt the SBC confessional statement. However, the SBC’s confessional statement can be a tool that aids local churches. First, it can help a local church that wants to affiliate. That church can see what Southern Baptists believe and decide if they agree with those beliefs. Also, as new churches are started, they may wish to look to the denominational confessional statement as a guide. In addition, established churches have a tool they can use to state their general doctrinal beliefs as well as a source for teaching theology.

A Sentry Against Moving Left
Our doctrinal statement says that Southern Baptists believe in certain things—the authority of scripture, the deity of Christ, the sanctity of life, the standard of marriage, and much more. These statements define what we are and shield us from moving to the “theological left” by defining outer boundaries of what it means to be Southern Baptist. Young or old leaders outside of those bounds may be believers, but we think they are outside of our best understanding of biblical truth.

A Shield Against Excessive Distinction
A faith statement also shields a denomination from overemphasis on certain rules or distinctions. It defines the “inner boundary.” Some will say that we must dress a certain way, have a certain name, or use certain programs—but these are not what define us. If the confession does not include it, it is not SBC doctrine. It may be a local church, an association, a state convention, or an unwritten distinctive, but it is not an SBC doctrine.

Conclusion
Confessional statements are always controversial. That is part of their nature—they draw boundaries on the left and the right. Because they serve such a great purpose there is great wisdom in updating a faith statement, but it is such a major task it should be done infrequently. The Baptist Faith and Message has had three major revisions (1925, 1963, and 2000), and these were about 40 years apart.

A confession does need updating because the world changes (though not the Word). For example, who would have known in 1963 that homosexuality would be an accepted lifestyle by the year 2000. Or, thank God that He has allowed us to see the sin of racism more clearly than we did in 1963. It is impossible to know what issues will need to be addressed in 2040, but by then there will be new issues to address and perhaps old ones to revisit.

I do not know what every Southern Baptist believes—Nobody can. Each of us has different ways of thinking. But I can tell you what we (as Southern Baptists) believe because we adopted a confession to inform the world, inform the churches, inform those on the left and right, and affirm to the Lord where we stand biblically and culturally. That faith statement can especially help us today as our churches become more diverse culturally and methodologically. We can measure innovations by the standard we said we agreed to—the statement that defines what Southern Baptists stand for. Doctrine matters-- and that makes the little red book on the corner of my desk very valuable.