The Gospel and Culture

Whilst Studying Paul's missionary journey's in Acts this evening I was asked a very interesting question ... It is a question which I know various colleagues have asked in the past however it is a very pertinent question at this time.

It arose as we looked at what mission is and how we can talk effectively into the culture of our day. Let me unpack this a bit more.

Paul in Acts used the language of the day, Jesus used the pictorial language of the rural farmers when he was teaching. Time and again culture impacts on the presentation of the gospel.

Our culture ... how can we speak into it?

What is our culture today ?

It is many things ... it is how we spend our time, our money, what we think about and what the world is like around about us.

In our study tonight I used the fact that many people go to movies, watch TV, listen to music, spend their time online.

There is much that could be said about the latest films which we could analyse, discuss and debate about. Perhaps that is indeed something which we should be doing.

As we watch TV do we know what that is doing to our beliefs, our understanding of the world?

As we listen to music ... what is the messages we are listening to ... are they healthy? are they counter gospel values?

As we spend time online ... what are we viewing? why do we spend so much time online now?, with Facebook is it authentic community?

Loads of questions have arisen from this study this evening ... I do think a bit more thinking has to be done in the Curatage about these issues as they are completely relevant to what it means to be a Christian today.

Newspaper and Bible in the pulpit comes to mind.

This certainly is an interesting road to go down and something which the Blog can certainly help with... Let's go on the adventure!