A Diverging Church and Culture

Increasingly, ministry in North America is an exercise in crossing cultures. As the culture moves its own way with everyone “doing right in his own eyes,” the church and the culture look increasingly divergent. Thus, Christians are left with a challenging task: how do we faithfully proclaim a clear biblical gospel in the shifting sands of culture?

It would be arrogant to think our culture different from all the others where the gospel is preached. For two millennia, Christians have addressed cultural questions.  Honestly, it has not always gone well. In every cultural encounter, some go too far and many don’t go far enough.

Joining Jesus In His Mission

Thus, in the Re:Train course "Missional Missiology," we will be asking missiological questions from a missional framework. The title of the class gets at the issues. First, we will look at things from a “missional” perspective. In other words, we will seek to join Jesus in his mission. That will require us to understand things like the mission of God, the Kingdom of Christ, the work of the church, and the cultural context.

The last point, the cultural context, gets at the missiological question. Missiology asks, “How can we most effectively be engaged in mission here, now, in this place and culture?”

We stand at a crucial time in the North American church, but the answers are always the same— a biblically faithful culture engaging and transforming its culture for the glory of God, the redemption of men and women, and the advance of his Kingdom. Dr. Ed Stetzer teaches a course on Missional Missiology at the Resurgence Training Center. For more info, go to ReTrain.org.

Books By Ed Stetzer:

• Compelled by Love: The Most Excellent Way to Missional Living
• Comeback Churches: How 300 Churches Turned Around and Yours Can, Too
• Breaking the Missional Code: Your Church Can Become a Missionary in Your Community
• Planting Missional Churches
• 11 Innovations in the Local Church: How Today's Leaders Can Learn, Discern and Move Into the Future
• Lost and Found: The Younger Unchurched and the Churches that Reach Them
• Perimeters of Light