The Gospel, The Church, The Culture

Fundamentalism and Liberalism are both wrong. One excludes the culture, the other excludes the gospel. I read a very insightful book recently called: The Radical Reformission by Mark Driscoll. In the book he talks about how today's church needs to be about reaching out, without selling out. In other words, he talks about being conservative theologically and liberal culturally. His driving question in the book is: how do you proclaim the hope of Jesus Christ, the gospel message, to an ever-changing and diverse culture, without selling out the core tenants of the faith in an effort to be relevant?

I have witnessed two growing trends that concern me deeply. First, old, stagnant, traditional churches that could care less if they reached anybody, they just don't want to change anything about the way they "do" church. Second, the new, cocky, looks like every other young pastor guy who wants to plant the next "GREAT" church who doesn't even really care about the people in his community, but instead idolizes a possible position of status and greatness in the church world. In addition to this, this pastor/church have such loose or non-existent theology that they are on a dangerous slippery slope.

When I read this book, it had a couple of equations that were brilliant and profound. Check them out and weigh in about what you think.

• Gospel + Culture - Church = Parachurch (Promise Keepers, Women of Faith, etc.)
  

• Culture + Church - Gospel = Liberalism
  

• Church + Gospel - Culture = Fundamentalism
  

• Gospel + Church + Culture = A Radical Reformission