Ideas have consequences - I don't think we realize this fully. What we sometimes miss are the ideas expressed through our popular culture - ideas that are normally expressed indirectly through story, visual presentation or song. They become, as C.S. Lewis said, not an argument, but an assumption that influences us to have this viewpoint or that on this controversy or that, sometimes without realizing that there is even a controversy present.
Whether it is breaking free from the control, manipulation and artificiality of an absolute God like figure as the road to true authenticity (as portrayed in The Truman Show), or the idea that the only reality we have is the reality we create as we write our own story (as in Stranger than Fiction), or in a thousand different other ways - we too often ingest ideas without contemplation - without thinking. And that is bound to have consequences for our hearts.
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To understand culture, especially within today’s rapidly changing global influence, is critical to the message we give about the gospel. Failure to wrestling with the ideas emerging from our cultural context leads to the gospel becoming irrelevant to the people around us. Germany is a case in point, where the church stayed within the institutional walls, not adapting the gospel to an emerging secular Europe, and today society views the church as irrelevant.
Yet, as we ingest new ideas, we as Christ's ambassadors must be diligent to remain self-aware about how these ideas affect our beliefs. While it is vital to “adapt” our message of the gospel to the culture, the danger always looms that we might be “adopting” the culture’s dangerous ideas to our lives. Paul’s being “all things to all men” (1. Cor. 9:19-22) was not done blindly. When he encountered false ideas, he admonished, “We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.” (2 Cor. 10:5)
Be shrewd to use the ideas emerging in the culture to present the relevance of the message of the gospel. The world seeks this kind of truth. Yet, be just as aware that cultural ideas can weaken your faith. The key is a self-awareness that all thoughts must be taken captive to an unwavering quest of obedience to Christ.
(Mike Edwards is an EFCA ReachGlobal missionary working with our church partners in Leipzig, Germany.)
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