Winning the Culture Wars
A few years ago, I heard a story of a young woman who attended church with her boyfriend. She was wearing a very short dress. When the pastor rose to preach that day, his sermon focused on the sin of provocatively dressed women. The woman was never seen in the church again. It’s highly possible she has never attended another church service.
In contrast to the approach of this pastor, who felt compelled to point out what most Christians would agree was biblical truth, I heard about a different approach in another church. Located in a large city and seeking to reach young people with the gospel, the leaders of this church encountered a problem. Not one, but several young ladies were attending the church scantily dressed. Not wanting to lose the opportunity to see these precious souls come to Jesus, the church leaders committed to pray and seek God's leadership concerning what to do. It wasn’t long before they noticed several of the more mature Christian women in the church befriending these younger women. In time, the clothing of the younger ladies changed. They no longer dressed in ways designed to entice and attract. Many trusted Jesus as their Savior.
The religious leaders in Jesus’ day were quick to point out the faults of sinners. For this, Jesus accused them of shutting the doors of God’s kingdom in the faces of those seeking to enter. Even in their zeal to win converts, traveling over land and sea in the words of Jesus, they turned those converts into twice the children of hell they were. Jesus’ words.
It’s easy to do battle with a culture that knows little or nothing of our Lord and his ways. Easy to criticize, condemn, even demonize those whose ways and lifestyles contradict so much of what we believe and who we are as followers of Christ. The problem with our harsh attitudes and words is that they only serve to show how hard our hearts are. Scripture describes those who have not experienced God’s grace in Christ as blind and lost. Jesus stated that he was not sent into the world to condemn these people but to save them from what Peter describes in the book of Acts as “this corrupt generation.” Sadly, the self-righteous in Jesus’ day and ours seem to be incapable of anything other than finger-pointing and tongue clucking.
And I must tell you that this is a source of great grief for me. I love Dick Staub’s book, The Culturally Savvy Christian. In it, he describes the attitude of many Christians today when it comes to a Christ-less culture and the lost souls languishing in it - “Today Jesus’ politicized followers often come across as nostril-flaring, ‘mad as hell and we’re not going to take it anymore’ people who detest unbelievers while glibly stating that they hate the sin but love the sinner.”1
I’ve wondered in recent years if the best thing that could happen to Christians in the United States is for everything we fear happening to actually happen; if everything we are afraid of losing might actually be lost. This could be the very thing God uses to unleash the power found in the cross as we lay down our worldly weapons and learn the way of love found in Jesus.
Does that sound foolish and weak? Then, consider these words - “For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.” These are the words of the apostle Paul as he describes the life-changing, world-changing power found in the cross.
It’s time we lay down our worldly weapons and pick up our crosses. Only then will we experience the power we need to change our corrupt culture and lost world.
In Christ,
Dan
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Dick Staub, The Culturally Savvy Christian, p.33-34.