Then I had this radical thought: We should just walk across the street and talk to them. It's simple. Anyone can do it. It takes no planning, no property, no rent, no decorating, no keys, no insurance, no staff. They are right there in front of us. It just takes someone who loves Jesus and loves their neighbor and a little time.
As I write this five youth resembling the above description stomped into Starbucks, didn't buy anything (probably no cash), sat in the soft chairs intended to make paying customers comfortable and goofed around loud enough to get shooed away by a barista. But we shouldn't see them as a nuisance to our clean, comfortable lives. We should see them as some of the only people in suburbia who wear their problems on their sleeve. They have issues, often easy to see ones, and we have answers and help. We have the gospel. They are a mission field, and they are right across the street. Let's stop planning grand schemes and just go talk to them.Amdist all the talk of "reaching culture" I think we lose the forest from the trees. Instead of all these complex strategies and programs for reaching certain groups of people, how about we just go and talk to some people and seek to be intentional with them? If we all spent more time seeking to be intentional with our neighbors and co-workers, listening to them, eating with them, relaxing with them, and relating to them I think all the chatter about "engaging culture" wouldn't be such a big deal.
I know that the historical background of the church in the last century has brought us to need this emphasis on reaching culture and studying culture. I get it. I am just growing weary of it. I know it's not an either/or but I would love to see us emphasize a more simple strategy like Steve talks about above.
Here is why: I can't share Jesus with "culture". I can't minister to "demographics". I can't serve the trends of generic homogenious people groups and I can't love all the stats about my city.
But I can walk across the street and listen to my neighbors as they talk about the things they hold dear. I can invite my neighbors into my home and share a meal with them. I can invite my neighbor over to watch the game and have a few brews. I can play in the front yard with my kids and invite the other neighborhood kids over.
You can know all these facts about your culture like the back of your hand but you still have to go and actually talk to some people. And those people you talk to may or may not fall into the cultural categories that you have learned about. Just don't assume anything. Assuming gets in the way of love. Go and love some people. Maybe all your knowledge about "culture" will help. Maybe it won't. Either way, you won't know jack until you go and talk to some people. Make that your aim and then in the process you'll learn a ton about "culture".
Or maybe you won't. Maybe your neighbors are the freaks that don't fit in anywhere within the cultural studies. But those people need Jesus too. This is where all your knowledge and study of "culture" doesn't really help you. The people in your sphere of influence might not fit in and you won't know unless you quit assuming you know based on your understanding of general culture trends and walk across the street and actually shake a hand and strike up a conversation. Make the latter your emphasis.
Books about "culture" are important but how about we put down our books about "culture" and just go and be with some people in our culture. My hunch is that if we go and simply live with them we'll learn way more in about five minutes than what we would get in five hours from our books about changing the world.
3 comments:
The simplicity and boldness is good and commendable. Being with people is irreplaceable and its something we emphasize a lot, that our church does a lot. However, I think there is a naive view of culture here that is common with a lot of popular evangelical talk. There is no thing called "the culture" but there are many cultures in a given city, much more in the world!
People are fundamentally dense cultural souls. We can't separate people from their culturally conditioned view of the world, truth, afterlife, God and so on. The point isn't to "reach the culture" or to "rescue them from the culture" but to love people well in their particular cultural worlds, and loving people well requires time with them, understanding who they are, what shapes their beliefs and values, and communicating the gospel in a way that makes sense.
The saying "Context is king" has some merit here. People in more Christianized places in the States can digest normal gospel talk with more understanding than they can in place like Seattle, Austin, Boston, New York and so on. They have presuppositions, defeater beliefs about Christ, God, truth, virtue, the afterlife, creation and so on that are directly opposed to Xty or to distorted forms of Xty that Xns have cranked out. Therefore, there is a lot of theological confusion and noise in their culturally shaped views that prevent them from hearing what we mean when we talk about sin, Christ, God, salvation.
Paul put it well: "Walk WISELY towards outsiders, redeeming the time, let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person." He spent time with people, spoke boldy, but also spoke with wisdom that came from reflecting on their culture-shaped beliefs and values.
"but to love people well in their particular cultural worlds, and loving people well requires time with them, understanding who they are, what shapes their beliefs and values, and communicating the gospel in a way that makes sense."
Right, can I am advocating for an approach that emphasizes this more and less of all the theories "learning your city", or "learning your culture", etc. Start with the person to learn your culture instead of starting with the culture to seek to learn the person.
Just go easy on the brews with the neighbor.
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