We face the standard issues that have held for centuries: Who? What? When? Where? How? For How, the ancients posited: By what means? The Who never changes with the personnel of God and mankind. What never changes with the communication and the living out of the gospel of Christ as defined in Scripture. When means from the moment we understand – we are never released from the ongoing sacred duty of communicating life in Christ as Savior and Lord. This is accomplished through witness of language and righteousness. The Where is everywhere – into all the World. The How is from current wisdom. How may be embellished in various ways. This touches on style, architecture, media, and many factors that carry cultural and historical identity. Christian culture is an important concern for the Church in the world. It is faith application to function within a culture, and influence it – always for righteousness within cultural changes.
We need to sense this massive truth – the constant changing of how we do things to accomplish what we feel ought to be accomplished in our generation. During late August, 2003, when NASA was found derelict in the tragedy of the death of the astronauts on reentry of the space ship, Columbia, the NASA chief acknowledged that the event: covers human failure and how our culture needs change . By culture here, he meant the ways of the people of NASA. They had so focused on who, what, when and where, unchanging factors, that they passed over the need for change in the How of their objectives. They will continue to use people, seek out space, hold to experiments, but they will radically change the means. They will build new approaches with new technologies, even substitutes for man in machinery; find better ways to counter space mystery; and the like. If they do not, the vital matters that will not change won’t matter.
What does this analogy mean for the Christian way of doing things? How can we carry out our unchanging mission? We will not do it in our era by building cathedrals, which served congregations for centuries. For many situations the new buildings may not be church-like in contrast. The purpose will be to attract a population less in awe or sophistication in the arts, even less refined in expressing themselves. They want daily use of the facilities arguing for the currency of all things. The building ought to be conducive to worship, and in some ways they should look like churches, perhaps in some new way. New approaches will be made in raising funds, as well as cultivating ministries for both lay and clergy persons. There will have to be factored in fresh expectations of society and congregations for practical amenities and personal interests. The problem will be found in protecting the unchanging message and mission. At this writing it remains to be seen if this relates to other issues necessary to the Church. Various Christian groups have decided that they will hold the How to unchanging patterns. They will stay with horse and buggy, with fasteners for buttons, with illumination by oil lamps, their lives anchored in another generational culture than their own. This quaintness, tells the world something of what they stand for, but that will not win many. The presence of a by-gone culture may be useful in some minor ways. The admired old ways may not appeal beyond indoctrinated families. What is the ultimate effectiveness any culture has in communicating the unchanging gospel of Jesus Christ? The mainstream is the field and avenue for appeal and that is difficult to work through. The experiences of the Apostles remind us that world cultures are sensitive to the changes required in living out faith putting more authority and loyalty in that which is not seen than to that which is. That gives us pause to find the effective witness. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020