Christian Culture - 21st Century

I'd like to approach this in two different postings. The first will be, Christian Culture, which I will take a stab at today. Next will be a post on Positioning Ourselves to Accomplish Ministry.

As the Bible is relevant to any and all centuries, so is Christian behavior (individually) or in a Christian Culture (jointly). Just because it is the 21st century and we are"connected" or "wired" to all cultures, Christian behavior can't be dismissed, or degraded to the lowest common denominator to fit the times. Relevancy and self-awareness is one thing, fearfulness to do what is biblical right is another.

Christian Culture has certain important elements to it: Passion (obedience to the Word), transparency (open and honest), expectations ("whatever is possible is required"), and execution (getting thoughts and ideas into practice). All of these, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit will produce a pleasing Christian man or woman (I believe).

Yet the 21st century Church has obstacles that hinder its credibility as a living testament of Christ to the world. Like leading double lives, we don't like each other much , and we seem to relish in looking down on others while making ourselves look superior! We all struggle with these at times (or maybe its just me). Some members of the Body of Christ Don't like: Catholics, Pentecostals, Non-Pentecostals, Denominations, Non-Denominations, Apostolic Fixated, Apostolic Challenged, Contemporary, Traditional, well - you get the idea. While the most important issue is, what do they (or we) do with Jesus? If that is addressed properly there is grace for each other. I Corinthians 1:10.

Christian Culture in this century still needs to address personal issues (sins) like: lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride. While remembering that there is only one unpardonable sin - blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.

The Perfect Ending

It was Friday night in Indianapolis, George W. had been elected General Superintendent earlier that day, now, several Alaskan Ministers gathered in an Italian restaurant for some fun and food. Kent had made some calls and Paula had given directions. In addition, two new missionaries had joined us for the evening. The food was excellent and the camaraderie was outstanding.

Prior to this, it had been a busy few days with CEP, GP, and finally the 52 General Council. . Many meetings had occurred, issues had been debated, and resolutions had been presented - some passed and some failed.

But, the highlight came that night when the General Superintendent Elect was leaving the restaurant where we were gathered. There, he received a rousing round of applause from members of the Alaska delegation. He laughed, smiled, and responded with genuine pleasure. At that moment there was no agenda, no pretense, and no barriers to friendships. At that moment we were all friends, friends with a common calling.

Earlier I had written about the church preparing for the 21st century. A comment was attached to that posting asking what that would look like. I am planning to respond to that inquiry in next posting.

Others Under the Gun

According to Jeff Howe, (Contributing Editor of Wired Magazine) the nation's largest newspaper chain, Gannett, was in deep trouble. It would seem that the "ink-on-paper daily news business was is in the middle of a long, painful, and seemingly irreversible decline." Circulation had dropped 30% since 1985. Gannett, then hired Craig Dubow as their new CEO and his mandate was to "drag a 19th-century industry into the 21st century, and do it without busting the budget or alienating Wall Street."

The company used Michael Maness and Jennifer Carroll, two "media stars" of the company, and gave them free rein to question every assumption. The results were that the Web became the primary vehicle for news, photographers were trained to shoot video, and they used "crowd-sourced" investigations in addition to their own staff. (See August 2007, Wired Magazine.)

The process was met with skepticism, hostility, and some who were just baffled. Others expressed relief as they wanted to find a way to keep their jobs. If I may jump ahead - the results were excellent for Gannett.

Today, the Church finds itself in much the same situation. That would be, to keep our message and our values intact, while trying to re-invent how we do Kingdom business. I am happy to say that I believe that the opportunities are here to help us do what is needed. What is needed, is to bring the Church into the 21st century and do everything that we can to make is successful.