H.B.log

Should Christians be Culture Warriors?

The gospel in a pluralist city
As I prepare this week for a sermon on Titus 3:1-7, I am compelled to ask: Is "culture war" the best metaphor for how Christians relate to the rest of the world?  At the 1992 Republican convention, Pat Buchanan announced, "There is a religious war going on in our country for the soul of America.  It is a culture war, as critical to the kind of nation we will one day be as the Cold War itself." Since then, the smell of gunsmoke has rallied many Christians to the cause of reclaiming America, but was it a distinctly Christian smell they were following?

Consider these words from the Apostle Paul: "Remind them...to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people" (Titus 3:2).  And consider this from John Piper's excellent article "Taking the Swagger out of Christian Cultural Influence"

"Being Christian exiles in American culture does not end our influence; it takes the swagger out of it. We don’t get cranky that our country has been taken away. We don’t whine about the triumphs of evil. We are not hardened with anger. We understand. This is not new. This was the way it was in the beginning –- Antioch, Corinth, Athens, Rome. The Empire was not just degenerate, it was deadly. For three explosive centuries Christians paid for their Christ-exalting joy with blood. Many still do. More will.

"It never occurred to those early exiles that they should rant about the ubiquity of secular humanism. The Imperial words were still ringing in their ears: “You will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved” (Mark 13:13). This was a time for indomitable joy and unwavering ministries of mercy.

"Yes, it was a time for influence –- as it is now. But not with huffing and puffing as if to reclaim our lost laws. Rather with tears and persuasion and perseverance, knowing that the folly of racism, and the exploitation of the poor, and the de-Godding of education, and the horror of abortion, and the collapse of heterosexual marriage, are the tragic death-tremors of joy, not the victory of the left or the right.

"The greatness of Christian exiles is not success but service. Whether we win or lose, we witness to the way of truth and beauty and joy. We don’t own culture, and we don’t rule it. We serve it with brokenhearted joy and longsuffering mercy, for the good of man and the glory of Jesus Christ."

The Gospel among gospels

The gospel in a pluralist city

Pluralism is the existence of many gospels in one place.  "Gospel" literally means "good news," and everybody has some version of a gospel because everyone answers three kinds of questions: (1) Why are we here?  How did we get here?  What is our purpose?  (2) What is wrong with the world?  Why evil, suffering, chaos, war, and death?  Some introspective folks even ask, what's wrong with me?  (3) What is the solution?  How you answer that last question is your gospel; it's what you put your hope in as "good news." Some people answer these questions after careful thought and philosophizing.  Others unconsciously drink the majority gospel from the waters of culture. Regardless, everyone answers these questions; Christianity does as well. 

The Christian gospel is described in several ways in the New Testament: The gospel of the kingdom(Matt. 4:23, 9:35, 24:14; Mark 1:15), the gospel of salvation (Eph. 1:13; Rom. 1:16; 1 Cor. 15:1), the gospel of grace (Acts 20:24), and the gospel of Jesus Christ(Mark 1:1; cf. 1 Cor. 15).  Put all of these together, and you've got this message: through Jesus Christ, God is restoring the world (kingdom) and reconciling people to himself (salvation) as a gift of grace.  Or to answer the three questions: Why are we here? Because God made us for his kingdom.  What's wrong with the world?  The world is relational and the most fundamental relationship is broken, so the whole creation groans under a curse.  What's the solution? God enters history in the person of Jesus and restores it himself.

So how does this gospel relate to all other would be gospels?  There are actually two answers. First, this gospel is the gospel, claiming to trump all other gospels.  It says all other gospels may discover some truth but not total truth.  They might run fine for a little while but will ultimately break down like like a cheap car and leave you in the ditch.  But the gospel of Jesus won't.  And so, God is not restoring the world in some general, heavenly hocus-pocus way, but in a specific way, not through many "good people" but through one perfect man, not through many diverse roads cutting across the map of spirituality but through one way, truth, and life - Jesus Christ.  This gospel is "the word of truth, the gospel" (Eph. 1:13, Col. 1:5). 

And yet, there is a second truth: the kingdom comes not all-at-once, but in stages.  And in the present age, the kingdom of our Lord and the kingdom of this world overlap, a mustard seed sprouting in the midst of the garden.  Which means: God allows all other gospels to go about gospelizing while his gospel competes with them for hearts and minds. Because he is patient and long-suffering and desires for many to come to a knowledge of the truth, he allows the gospel to go out amongst the many gospels - the gospel in a pluralist city.

The gospel in a pluralist city

Last Sunday at Fellowship Denver, we began a new worship series called The gospel in a pluralist city.  These three themes - the gospel, pluralism, and the city - collide to create a bubbling whirlpool of questions for the urban church as we try to pass on the faith that was once and for all delivered to the saints.  So, for the next few months, we're asking some serious questions: What is the unique Christian gospel?  How does it relate to other would-be "gospels?"  How does it go into a world that is increasingly urban and increasingly diverse?  How does the gospel teach its followers to live and act in pluralist cities like, say, Denver?  Each week, I'll make a series of posts for those who want to follow along with us.  Today, I'll introduce pluralist cities and why they are important.

City is defined by Websters as "a population larger and more important than a town."  The last part of the definition says a lot: - Cities are disproportionately influential to the rest of the country and the region they inhabit.  So, there is a reason why we are planting a church in Denver instead of, say, Fort Collins, Pueblo, Gunnison, Cheyenne, or even (blasphemy alert!) Colorado Springs.  Denver is our region's most influential place.  Even though it is a small fraction of the landmass and a fraction of the population, it is a majority of the cultural influence.  And within Denver, the city center is the most influential area.  It's where governments work, athletes play, businesses do business, artists create, doctors diagnose, students study, and professors profess.  It's also the place where people from all corners of the city meet and gather.  So there's also a reason we chose to plant the church in central Denver.  It's disproportionately influential to the city that is disproportionately influential to the region.

Pluralism is the mixing and mingling of many worldviews, philosophies, religions, and spiritualities in one place, often competing for public affection.  This culture defines most cities, especially city-centers. 

Pluralist cities create problems for Christians - not a problem for Christianity itself, but problems for Christians: (a) Though cities exert a disproportionate amount of influence on American culture, Christians in America are disproportionately found in the small towns, small-cities, and suburbs. (b) Christians don't know how to handle pluralism and interact with other beliefs.  They tend toward one of two ditches: syncretism (the blending of Christianity with other worldviews) or sectarianism (preservation by isolation). 

In this series, we'll argue that Jesus intends for us to be distinctively Christian while living in and among the city's diversity.  But how do we do that?  The Christian gospel itself contains all the answers we need.

Further resources:
"A New Kind of Urban Christian" by Tim Keller in Christianity Today
"Where the Brains Are" by Richard Florida in The Atlantic Monthly, October 2006