« Audacious Question of the Week | Home | Videos that Make us Laugh and Think- 3 »
Pop Goes the Church 3
By John | May 20, 2008
**Here we go with Chapters 4-7 of Pop Goes the Church by Tim Stevens. Tim’s a part of Granger Community Church’s executive leadership team and focuses on blending innovative outreach and discipleship. In Pop Goes the Church, Stevens wants his reader to be able to leverage our culture’s media saturation into opportunities to share the good news of Jesus.
Church & Culture intersect. Period. Each group of people (church, family, etc.) will choose for themselves how they deal with that intersection. Tim says there are 5 basic ways to do this:
Condemn. Separate. Embrace. Ignore. Leverage.
Only 1 of these realistically understands Biblical mission:
Leverage - Intentionally using the language of the existing culture to teach about Jesus & the good news he has for everyone!
Part of the resistance to doing this leveraging comes from out distinction between ’secular’ and ’sacred’. Christian bookstores are nice, but what’s the deal with Testa-mints? In trying to maintain a hard distinction between the two, haven’t we fallen into the ‘Separation’ trap? Have we isolated Christianity?
Beyond the surface provocations, pop culture reflects a longing for authentic truth, beauty, freedom, and love (96). Tim then says there are 7 basic topics that reflect that longing:
- Fascination with eternity & the supernatural
- A longing for relationships
- Love & sex
- Honesty & authenticity
- A desire for purpose
- Bitterness & revenge
- Justice & redemption
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see the connections between this type of culture and Biblical Christianity!
So what? Well, here’s the truth for us here in the church:
The people in your community who don’t know Christ have a handful of problems right in front of their eyes (mostly from the list above!), and for them, those problems seem as huge, overwhelming, and serious as if they were living in the Republic of Congo. If we want to help them meet Christ, we first have to figure out what the problems are in front of them. Then we can use the people of God and the Word of God to help meet those needs. (116-17)
Which of these 7 topics do you think people in your community are struggling with? How are you or your church prepared to help them out?
Topics: Books |
May 21st, 2008 at 8:24 am
I’m in a pretty ‘comfortable’ environment. The cost of living is low, but the quality of life is high. Most people have extended family close by and the unemployment figures are below the national average. What more could people ask for?
I think that’s just the question they’re wondering? What’s more than this? What purpose do I have beyond the family get-togethers and daily grind of work?
Within the busy busy busy context of life, I want the church - at least the little corner of ‘church’ God has called me to - to keep calling people back to the basics:
Worship the God who has saved you in Jesus Christ & share that good news in what you say & do as you go about the daily life God has given you!
May 21st, 2008 at 11:52 am
I guess I’d probably say our context reflects some similar yearnings. The thing I notice so often is that people always talk about being so busy- and they are. People are really busy with work (including lots of business trips), running kids around, taking trips, sports, the list goes on. So much of life seems to be going at such a hectic pace that the question I hear all the time is: how do I balance it all?
How does pop culture reflect deal with this question? In some ways, it ignores it, it encourages the hectic pace as it shows families or produces people who try to do it all. At the same time, I think that number 5, the question of purpose, is what’s lying underneath it all.
We’re so busy that we wonder if we’re truly accomplishing that which God desires. Sometimes being busy is exactly what God wants- you’re busy doing his stuff, but the times when he calls you to slow down, but the media and the world say keep going, well that’s when it seems harder for people to listen and evaluate.