cultural relevancy

I previously posted a quote from Bob Kauflin’s book, “Worship Matters”, that talked about the relevancy of Scripture, alluding to the fact that many pastors/speakers will quote movie lines, celebrities, or use jokes to fill their message and hardly any Scripture.

I was talking with my bro-in-law about it and he pointed me to this podcast … that I have no clue how to link to on here :)  it’s called the “Elephant Room” and it’s like a discussion between pastors.  I think if you pull up iTunes and search for Mark Driscoll + Elephant Room maybe it’ll come up.  it’s called Culture in the Church vs Church in the Culture.  one pastor’s worship team had played “Highway to Hell” to start off a service and the pastors were discussing with him his motives and idea behind using that song.

the podcast was really good, I’m processing thru what all was said.  one pastor brought up the interesting point that we send missionaries overseas to different areas where they are to learn the culture and how to share the Gospel with that culture and we call it “godly”; yet in the States, when we bring culture into the church, we call it “compromising”. 

all throughout Scripture, people (including Jesus Himself) referenced cultural things so that people could relate and understand.

yet at the same time, if we’re using something blatantly ungodly to reach culture, is that right?

the dude who used “Highway to Hell” in the service said that 1 guy told him later that God really got a hold of his heart through that song.  praise God for that!  however, one of the other pastors mentioned that a guy in his church came to know the Lord thru the death of his mom in a car accident – and said he wasn’t planning on getting into that business anytime soon…

this podcast made me laugh many times – only because the pastors are brutally honest and they’re not afraid to mix seriousness with humor.  but it’s also left me questioning where to draw the line.  I remember being in a service once of one of those “uber trendy” churches and they did a song by Kelly Clarkson right after beginning the service with worship.  and I was so distracted by the fact that they did a Kelly Clarkson song and I was focused so much on trying to figure out what in the world this song had to do with the message that I kinda feel like it caused more distraction than really driving home the message.  I have no idea what the message was about.

so…I have no conclusion as to what I think right now.  it’s not something Scripture seems to say “this is right – this is wrong” on.

hey – go listen to the podcast.  let me know your thoughts.

keep it real.