catholicsphere

Embracing the Secular Culture

Look into some churches today and you’ll be pressed to find where the world stops and Christianity starts. That is also true when it comes to Christians in the world. And, the Lord knows that I’ve been guilty of that as well.

There are churches today that try to attract people with popular music, light shows, skits or vignettes, and flashy power-point presentations. The question is: What is distinguishing these churches from the secular world?

Despite even the fact that they may be preaching the message of the Gospel, I believe it can become confusing to embrace secular culture in an attempt to make the Good News accessible. I don’t believe it to be true that people will be more open to hearing and learning the truth if we package it in this fancy wrapper that makes it seem like they aren’t really learning about God, the Gospel, salvation and their need of it.

When many of those walk out of the church, back into society and their daily lives, they are subjected to similar packaging, but a different message — a message that they are alright as they are and really have no need for God, the Gospel or salvation.

On-Demand or On the Cross?
Yes, we are in an on-demand age. Cell phones keep us in touch with everyone, no matter whether in the boardroom or the bathroom. Television and internet media give us up-to-the-second reports of the latest goings-on in the world. Films and documentaries on DVD and video cater to whatever we feel like viewing at any given time, and provide it in realistic detail.

Yet, what we need goes back to basics. It is not found on the TV screens, in the video games or on the internet. It is found in the Cross! It is Him Who died upon that Cross which we really need to plug into.

In getting this message across we may need to make it accessible, but we should make an effort to distinguish our ways and means from that of the secular world. We are different, and we desire that others be different from the world as well. We need to be able to distinguish between the Cross and the Crowd.

Our lives are different; transformed. The way we act and speak, what we react to and how we react, and what and who we surround ourselves with should reflect that.

[Tomorrow: Conclusion]

[tags]church, culture, secular, faith, world[/tags]