Thinking Clearly About Culture Part 3 of 3

MOST ESSENTIAL: I think I can say, as part of the 20-something generation, that the most essential virtue necessary to reach out is authenticity. I don't have to pretend to be a skater to befriend one, in fact, if there is one trait that all young Americans share, it's the ability to spot a fake. The gospel is about the most real need that any person has. It doesn't take packaging or fancy marketing to create it. It's the power of God, regardless of how I do my hair. When a skater has cancer, he doesn't care that his doctor looks like Mr. Rogers, as long as he has the cure. When we get serious about sin, we see our pastors and churches the same way.

HELLO DALAI: In my opinion, we are overcompensating in the spirit of 'cultural' accommodation. How many times has the Dalai Lama written a NY Times best-seller? Several. Take a look at his picture up there... not what you'd call the paragon of cultural adaptation. He sells-out speaking engagements around the world. Why? People yearn for the transcendent. They're tired of being 'pitched' and sold. They crave something deeper. This guy comes to them with all of his quirks, but no pretensions and they listen [unfortunately]. We should learn from this.

Also, when we decide to cater to one subculture, we do so to the exclusion of all others. Subcultures are by design exclusive. Because marketing drives them, a rapper 'needs' to wear the type of cologne suitable for a rapper, not a golfer. So he is bombarded with commercials to convince him to have nothing to do with the golfer's aftershave, but to buy the complete line of gangsta fragrances. He and every other subcultural lemming will likely have the same reaction to the church that is found with a skate park in their front lot - 'If Grace Lutheran is a skater church, obviously they're not my type'.

FINAL THOUGHT: Paul's example of being all things to all men involved his efforts to bring the gospel to the lost. The context was evangelism, not the church's worship. !!!