Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents
Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 3 – Dancing in the Kingdom– Chapter 17 – Finding our place
Listening to our culture
[Bible references: Proverbs 12:15; Isaiah 5:20; Luke 10:25-37; Acts 17:16-34; Galatians 5:16-23; James 1:29; 1 John 4:1]
Outside of providing a healthy, flourishing place within the church community, how can we be more deliberate in engaging with those outside the church. Like the Apostle Paul engaging with the citizens of Athens, we must know what it is we believe then take the time to understand what the others believe and what their needs are so that we can begin the conversation. We can speak better after we have listened.
Listening to voices from outside the church can be challenging because their value systems and world views are so different. We saw in Chapter 13 how different experiences and viewpoints within the church have affected how they answer the various questions asked by the church. We do need to be aware of the different values and world views because, on the one hand, they may add useful understanding to our faith, then on the other hand, they can also distort the values and world views we have within the church.
“A newly released survey reveals that the ideologies of postmodernism and secular humanism have a noticeable influence on how Americans make decisions. The Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University released the eighth report of its 2021 American Worldview Inventory Tuesday. The report was based on responses collected from 2,000 American adults in February as part of a more extensive survey with a margin of error of +/- 2 percentage points. The survey found that although 2% of Americans have adopted secular humanism as their dominant worldview, a significantly higher share of the population (16%) actively embrace principles associated with the worldview. Similarly, while just 1% of Americans have adopted postmodernism as their dominant worldview, 16% frequently make decisions indicating that the philosophy plays an important role in shaping their day-to-day actions.” [1]
What is apparent from the study done by the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University, is that there is a small percentage of Americans who are aligned with one particular ideology, but many of us, including many within the church, have adapted only various pieces of various ideologies. Before we figure on how to bring the gospel to or culture, we may first need to understand how our culture has affects our understanding of the gospel[2] so we can communicate clearly about what the gospel is.
According to Timothy Sheriden and Michael Goheen, there are four theological considerations:
“The first is an understanding of the gospel as the good news of the kingdom …God is restoring his gracious and loving rule over the whole of creation and every aspect of human life. … The second is an understanding of the comprehensive and restorative nature of salvation … the whole of human life … the restoration of this creation … The third is the lordship of Jesus Christ … He is more than a personal savior; he is Lord of all. Fourth, the church is the new humanity that shares in the future life of the kingdom now, as sign, foretaste, and instrument.” [3]
Once we are clear on what the gospel message is, then we are prepared to first express love by listening to our “neighbor,”[4] so that we then address our neighbor’s needs as we share the gospel. The very short following list highlights just a very few of the predominant cultural ideologies that have influenced our neighbors.
- The church should not influence the government.
- Religious ideas are to be kept as private ideas not to be discussed in public
- Rejection of any knowledge other than what is available by science.
- Humanity is always getting better.
- All knowledge, hence, all truth, is relative.
When we talk with fellow image-bearers of God, we need to remember our common humanity,[5] that despite our differences there are many things that we share together. We were all intended to create good, and we are all broken in our attempts to do that good. Our society tends to put labels on ideas, such as those listed above, but those labels tend to be unhelpful because we then create divisiveness by using them to label people.
Whatever ideologies we may encounter in our conversations, we should remember that people are usually not as responsive to attacks on their ideas when they feel they are being listened to. When we are listened to, we may find each other more receptive as we each express our convictions sincerely in context of a polite conversation.
One way of loving our neighbor is suggested by Richard Mouw. Convicted Civility,[6] is a civility that begins with kindness, grace, patience, generosity, and caring for the other paired with a conviction that is not being relativistic, but truthful about what you don’t approve. Jesus showed most of his criticism to people within the religious establishment but was gracious to the “sinners.”
[1] Foley, Ryan. “Postmodernism, secularism have increasing influence over Americans’ decision-making: report” Christian Post, 10/22/2021 www.christianpost.com/news/peoples-choices-influenced-by-postmodernism-secularism-report.html
[2] Mattera, Joseph. “Why Your Faith is More Influenced by Culture than the Bible” JosephMattera.org 31 Aug 2017 josephmattera.org/faith-influenced-culture-bible
[3] Finn, Nathan A, Whitfield, Keith S. “Chapter 5 Missional Spirituality and Cultural Engagement” IVP Academic 2017IVP Academic 2017
[4] This parable helps us to understand that our “neighbor” includes anyone we encounter.
[5] Warren, Tish Harrison. “We Need to Talk How Americans Can Learn to Live Together Again” New York Times, 10/24/2021
[6] Mouw, Richard J. Uncommon Decency: Christian Civility in an Uncivil World. IVP Books 2010
Observe
Read Luke 10:25-37. Jesus told the story with characters his audience could identify with. What characters would you choose to tell the same kind of story today?
Dancing In The Kingdom 