Quote: Evangelicalism and Cultural Relevance

by Geoff Cook on 22nd December 2011
Quotes

Dr. Timothy Tennent, President of  Asbury Theological Seminary and Professor of World Christianity in an address at the Seminary’s  September Convocation:

“We are quite adept at measuring where people are culturally, but we are at best careless in any sustained theological reflection about where they should be culturally. So, for example, if the wider culture has become apathetic about ritual, tradition, symbolism, poetic expressions, the value of history, or the necessity of intergenerational relationships, then, no problem, we say, it is the evangelical version of the prime directive to always adapt to culture. But what if these very prejudices are actually part of the cultural malaise to which the church has been called to provide a stunning alternative? How easily we seem to forget that the gospel doesn’t need our help in being made relevant. The gospel is always relevant, and it is we who need to be made relevant to the gospel.”

via The Clarion Call to Watered Down Evangelicalism « The Bible and Culture.

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  • Kate

    Ritual, tradition, symbolism, poetry, history, relationships are all elements that my non church-going friends would expect to see in a church. They might not ‘do’ these things themselves, but they like to know they are being kept alive somewhere! But that doesn’t mean we should drop all our rituals and symbolism and traditions in the seach for cultural relevance, or the chance to surprise people outside the church with how ‘with it’ the church can be. We should regularly examine what we do and why we do it, but being ‘culturally relevant’ is not, on its own, a good reason to be doing something. But then I did always rather enjoy being counter-cultural!  

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