Today's Context

Every church has a context.   This simply means that we have a current situation where we live and do gospel ministry.  That context is different for every church.  Oh, there are many similarities, but every church has its own context.

When I began to serve the local church 37 years ago, I paid particular attention to my ministry context.   Back then, the buzz word was that we were to be culturally relevant as a church.  We were serious about reaching the lost for Christ.  We threw slogans around such as being "seeker sensitive" or "seeker targeted".  We wanted to shape our church and its ministry in a way that the unchurched and the secular people around us would feel at home.  We took cues from the people in our surrounds to influence what we did and how we did the ministry of our local congregation.

Today I really don't care if the church is culturally relevant.  This does not mean that the church has to be locked into a way of doing ministry that is set in the middle ages, the time of the Reformation, and/or the way we have always done church.  To be relevant as churches is better than being ineffective and uninspiring.   But being relevant is not enough.  As churches we need to do better than simply be relevant.

In a Christianity Today article some years ago Karl Vaters wrote:   "Trying to be culturally relevant is turning the church into followers instead of leaders. A relevant church may be following slightly ahead of others, but we’re still following. And it often makes our churches look too much the same in ways we ought to be different – from each other and the culture."  (CT: 30 March 2016)  He goes on in this same article to suggest that rather than worrying about being culturally relevant, as churches we should strive to be contextually real. 

Ministry is not about relevance but reality.   It is not about the culture; it is about your context.   Too many churches, in their effort to be culturally relevant, change what they do and how they do it to 'fit in' with the society around them.   Some even change their core beliefs about what is right and true.  And many have done what the apostle Peter warned about.  They have secretly introduced destructive heresies and brought truth into disrepute. (see 2 Peter 2)  As Christians we are to be true to our core reality as we do ministry in the context of the reality around us.

Jesus did not care about being culturally relevant as he went about preaching the good news of the kingdom.   Not to the Jewish culture in which he lived.   Not to the Roman culture that ruled society.   Not to the Greek culture that shaped the thinking of the day.  Jesus did not allow the culture of his day to dictate what he did or now he did ministry.  Not once did he betray what was right and true.  He simply adapted himself to whatever context he found himself in, even if it meant facing opposition from Jewish leaders, the crowds, Roman authorities, and even his own followers.

Likewise the apostle Paul.   He stated this most emphatically when he wrote to the church in Corinth: 

Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings. (1 Corinthians 9:19-23) 

The apostle Paul's gospel ministry did not take its cue from the Jewish, Roman, or Greek cultures around him.   In fact, what he did and what he taught was quite counter-cultural!   So much so, that some said to him:  "You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean." (Acts 17:20)   But yet Paul remained contextually real; he adapted himself to whatever context he found himself in.

Today's context requires that we as churches learn to adapt to the situation we find ourselves in during this global COVID19 pandemic and hereafter.  Our ministry context has dramatically changed since pre-COVID19.  Churches were forced to learn to adapt to the current ministry context.  Online worship services.  Increased communication.  Intentional follow-up with church members.  Heightened engagement with the unchurched.  And more.  May the lessons we have learned about adaptation put us in good stead as we move forward post-COVID19.   May we never stop asking of the people around us:  “What reality are you living in?”  As we ask this question, opportunities will open up for us to be more effective in ministry and reach more people with the gospel.   And as we listen to what people tell us, may we point them to the deeper and better reality that can only be found in Jesus.

As CRCA churches we are well positioned to be contextually real in today's context and into the future.  The CRCA is committed to reform continually the life of the denomination to reach the lost for Christ.  May this not just a statement we agree to but a reality we live.   In today's context!