Reclaiming Distinctiveness: The Church's Call Amid Cultural Shifts
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The church for a long time has leaned too heavily on the overlap between the state and the church for the strength of our conviction concerning what is right and wrong. In other words, if the state has regarded something as wrong or illegal, then the church hasn't had to work very hard to teach any deep roots for the conviction or any thorough biblical argumentation. [00:02:02]
The point is that because they were illegal, the church didn't have to think very hard or work very hard or teach very deeply or inspire very effectively to inculcate convictions and attitudes and behaviors in our young people or in new converts. We simply could assume that our people wouldn't do these things because they were taboo and illegal in the culture. [00:03:31]
Little effort went into helping Christians sink their moral roots deep into Christ and the gospel and his word and his way, such that we would be able to take a stand for some truth or some attitude or some behavior when no one else is standing with us. That's a biblical spiritual parental church responsibility that has been significantly neglected. [00:05:55]
The focus and the moral energy of the church, the great majority of our effort, should not be on pursuing political and legal and cultural support for behaviors and attitudes we want to see in our children and in our churches. That is a misplaced focus. I'm not saying there's no role for Christians in politics or legislatures. [00:08:10]
The primary focus should be to do what only the Bible and only the gospel and only the Holy Spirit and the truth and Jesus can do in transforming human beings into the kind of Christ-exalting, Spirit-dependent, God-glorifying people who freely choose not to use drugs to escape into a world where Christ is less clearly perceived. [00:09:02]
To be a Christian, a true Christian, is a very radical thing. It's a miraculous thing. It's a supernatural thing. It requires not a little bit of effort while we try to get the world on our side, which by definition is never going to happen. It requires the whole focus of the pastoral ministry evangelizing and preaching and worshiping and counseling. [00:10:05]
It requires focused, Spirit-dependent, Bible-saturated efforts of parents to call down the miracle through their parenting and through the church of the creation of young people who are joyfully willing to be out of step with the world. So that's the message I think God is sending us in the destigmatization and normalization and legalization of behaviors. [00:10:31]
The destigmatization and legalization of attitudes and behaviors which are out of step with Christ can be, I think, a roundabout way of something good for the church. We should not have been leaning so heavily on the culture for support of what we held to be right and wrong. [00:06:49]
For most of American history, there has been so much overlap between cultural mores and outward Christian behaviors that this text in First Peter 4 seemed designed for another world. Like what does that text have to do with anything in America? For centuries, many Americans would go to church not in spite of being maligned but because not to go would be maligned. [00:04:58]
The church assumed so much overlap between culture convictions and Christian convictions that you didn't often hear teaching or preaching that taught the church how to be alien or strange or weird or maligned. And I use the word malign because that's the word Peter uses in First Peter 4 verse 3. [00:04:21]
The current cultural shifts serve as a divine call for the church to return to its foundational mission. This involves being a distinct community that reflects the transformative power of the gospel, relying on God's power to resist the world's influence. [00:11:01]
The legalization of pot draws attention to something that we need to be aware of, and we need to adjust our thinking about, namely, that the church for a long time has leaned too heavily on the overlap between the state and the church for the strength of our conviction concerning what is right and wrong. [00:02:02]
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The point is that because they were illegal, the church didn't have to think very hard or work very hard or teach very deeply or inspire very effectively to inculcate convictions and attitudes and behaviors in our young people or in new converts. We simply could assume that our people wouldn't do these things because they were taboo and illegal in the culture. [00:03:31]
Little effort went into helping Christians sink their moral roots deep into Christ and the gospel and his word and his way, such that we would be able to take a stand for some truth or some attitude or some behavior when no one else is standing with us. That's a biblical spiritual parental church responsibility that has been significantly neglected. [00:05:55]
The focus and the moral energy of the church, the great majority of our effort, should not be on pursuing political and legal and cultural support for behaviors and attitudes we want to see in our children and in our churches. That is a misplaced focus. I'm not saying there's no role for Christians in politics or legislatures. [00:08:10]
The primary focus should be to do what only the Bible and only the gospel and only the Holy Spirit and the truth and Jesus can do in transforming human beings into the kind of Christ-exalting, Spirit-dependent, God-glorifying people who freely choose not to use drugs to escape into a world where Christ is less clearly perceived. [00:09:02]
To be a Christian, a true Christian, is a very radical thing. It's a miraculous thing. It's a supernatural thing. It requires not a little bit of effort while we try to get the world on our side, which by definition is never going to happen. It requires the whole focus of the pastoral ministry evangelizing and preaching and worshiping and counseling. [00:10:05]
It requires focused, Spirit-dependent, Bible-saturated efforts of parents to call down the miracle through their parenting and through the church of the creation of young people who are joyfully willing to be out of step with the world. So that's the message I think God is sending us in the destigmatization and normalization and legalization of behaviors. [00:10:31]
The destigmatization and legalization of attitudes and behaviors which are out of step with Christ can be, I think, a roundabout way of something good for the church. We should not have been leaning so heavily on the culture for support of what we held to be right and wrong. [00:06:49]
For most of American history, there has been so much overlap between cultural mores and outward Christian behaviors that this text in First Peter 4 seemed designed for another world. Like what does that text have to do with anything in America? For centuries, many Americans would go to church not in spite of being maligned but because not to go would be maligned. [00:04:58]
The church assumed so much overlap between culture convictions and Christian convictions that you didn't often hear teaching or preaching that taught the church how to be alien or strange or weird or maligned. And I use the word malign because that's the word Peter uses in First Peter 4 verse 3. [00:04:21]
The current cultural shifts serve as a divine call for the church to return to its foundational mission. This involves being a distinct community that reflects the transformative power of the gospel, relying on God's power to resist the world's influence. [00:11:01]
The legalization of pot draws attention to something that we need to be aware of, and we need to adjust our thinking about, namely, that the church for a long time has leaned too heavily on the overlap between the state and the church for the strength of our conviction concerning what is right and wrong. [00:02:02]
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