Is 'the Culture' Really the Problem?

Author Ken Myers doesn't believe "the culture" is the biggest challenge facing the Church today. Rather, it's the culture in the church that's the problem as many believers live not fully transformed by the Gospel.

Myers is the founder and host of Mars Hill Audio journal, a bimonthly audio magazine featuring interviews with some of today's foremost Christian thought leaders in academics, politics, and the arts. The mission: "To assist Christians who desire to move from thoughtless consumption of contemporary culture to a vantage point of thoughtful engagement."

Myers, a former NPR reporter, is himself a thoughtful social critic who thinks deeply about the interplay between the church and the larger world. In this exclusive interview, The Christian Post asks Myers to share his views on the church today – its biggest challenges and its greatest opportunities.

CP: What is the biggest challenge facing the church today?

Myers: It's not "the culture," as we often hear, that poses the most significant challenge for the church today. It's the culture of the church.

Continue reading at www.christianpost.com

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1 John 2:15
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

A sister at church once noted that we really don't bother to discuss what these things of the world are. We suffer and may perish from a lack of knowledge and vision.
- http://rationalresponses.blogspot.com/ Jeff Dixon
  
  If one does not love what is in the world, then one does not love anything. It is simplistic to state that one should love something unknown and unknowable. We all love things in this world. Why pretend you do not?
http://www.missiontoisrael.org Ted R. Weiland

As goes the Church so goes society. The culture in society is reflective of the culture in most of today's churches and the culture (that is, their lack of Biblical mores) in most churches today is reflective of their antinomianism – that is, their rejection of Yahweh's morality as found in commandments, statutes, and judgments.

For more regarding Yahweh's laws as they pertain today, see "Law and Kingdom: Their Relevance Under the New Covenant" at http://www.missiontoisrael.org/law-kingdom.php.
msjallen

Most churches today don’t even want to know Jesus Christ. The RCC church became secular with power politics and with anything but the Word of God. This is why we had the Dark Ages; no Bible Doctrine.
Denominations do the same; they focus on self. Churches are taught to “meet the needs of the congregation”; they mean anything but Bible Doctrine. Our needs are learning about Jesus Christ and all else will fall in place.
Heb 4:12 -For the word of God is alive and powerful sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
2 Peter 1:20-21 But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation, for no prophecy (Biblical knowledge) was ever made by an act of human will (design, purpose), but men were carried along by the Holy Spirit who spoke from God.
Roman 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world (human viewpoint), but be transformed by the renewing (renovation) of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
Winston

In a sense, Ken Myers is right in his answer "It’s not “the culture,” as we often hear, that poses the most significant challenge for the church today. It’s the culture of the church." Too many church pastors create man-made programs to bring the unsaved into the church which is counter to the teachings and example of Jesus to his disciples/Apostles. Jesus directed his apostles to "go" into the world to preach the gospel and offer salvation to the unsaved. "And Jesus came up and spoke to them saying, 'All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.' And He said to them, 'Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. …and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you: He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved
Wordman

Meyers is essentially correct. If the church builds her culture on the Rock which is Christ and His Word, then the popular culture of the world will not create problems for the purity of the church. On the other hand, we are commanded to be salt and light to the world. This partially restates the dominion mandate that we, the church, are supposed to be changing the world. If we will embrace the point that Meyers is making and purify the church by making God's word our first and last answer to all things, then the church will be in a position to provide God's alternative to the mess that is popular culture.

We should expect the culture of unbelievers to be messed up. That presents a challenge for the church, but is not a fault
aceituna

Brings to mind the old saw Which came first, the chicken or the egg (I believe chicken). When sin entered the world, people fo God banded together to teach how to live a godly life, but ungodly people joined them and led them astray. Result today we have people within the church leading others astray and people outside the church beckoning to believers to join them. These bad forces feed upon each other. They follow the devil's bidding to lead christians astray and institute an ungodly culture within the church. Which cane first can't really tell, but many can be deceived. Pray for discernment that we can lead towards a culture within the church that is truly godly.
- http://rationalresponses.blogspot.com/ Jeff Dixon
  
  The chicken you believe came first came from an egg.
onlygrace

I am kind of amazed that anyone would expect any church to be filled with spiritual giants who had been, like Paul, instantly transformed with few issues other han the occasional thorn-in-the-side.The statement: "many believers live not fully transformed by the Gospel".seems like a no-brainer. Perhaps I am being judgemental, but it seems to me that anyone who really feels he is already fully transformed may just be in denial.
onlygrace

Scripturally, all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of the Lord. Ken Kesey, in the Electric Acid Kool Aid Test, was more succinct. He may have not known the Lord, but he described the human condition well when he said," We're all Bozos on this bus".(which is why we NEED saving) To own this is humility. To feel above it is, IMHO, tragic self-deception. Sure, there are churches full of folks who don't feel a need to be further transformed, but that is where the most dangerous culture lies. Give me a room full of recently sober or clean Alcoholics and drug addicts anyday. The KNOW they need the Lord because they already tried changing themselves, by themselves, and they know they need changing. To be unaware of one's own Bozo-iscity is to be a true and tragic clown. All we have is a gift, including our current stage of growth. The point is to continue growing, not to congratulate ourselves on being "fully transformed". But then, what do I really know about anyone else's journey? It's all I can do to remember what I Bozo I am myself!