While walking around at a festival downtown with my kids, we stopped by a church’s booth that was handing out free lollipops. One lady handed out lollipops while another engaged me with an invitation to her church. I was honored she would invite us! I thanked her, but let her know that we already worship with the Trinity Grace family. She was glad to hear this news, but then her face shifted. With an anguished look, she shared how her church longed to have more young people come. Then, she admitted this was why they decided to go with lollipops for their booth. My heart ached for this sister. I have deep respect for anyone who wants to love and protect the church and see it flourish. They felt that there was a problem and they were eagerly seeking a solution. I think this impulse is right.
What Is The Church Up Against?
As Christians, we all want to know - “What is the church up against?” There may be no more urgent question. And there are innumerable ideas about what those issues could be. The issues we identify shape our response. This is true in all of life. For instance, if a person’s stomach is growling, he’s hungry and we give him food. If he’s holding his head, he’s got a headache and we give him Tylenol. We are always looking to see what the pressures are and how we should respond. The same is true with the church. Understanding the pressures the church is facing helps us know how to appropriately respond.
Christ's Church and Cultural Pressures
To help us, we would like to commend an excellent resource from the 2021 Sovereign Grace Pastors Conference. Our friend, Josh Blount, a pastor in West Virginia, gave a helpful talk to the pastors of Sovereign Grace in order to identify 3 cultural pressures the church is experiencing. To whet your appetite, here are the big 3 with brief definitions:
Critical Theories: critical theories interpret society in categories of power and oppression (or exclusion and inclusion), and seek to dismantle structural imbalances.
Political Idolatries: the moral condition in which our society translates ultimate hopes and fears to the political realm.
Expressive Individualism: the view that the self is a project, and a solo project. The purpose of life is authentic self-expression. Or, to put it in a slogan, the “you do you” world.
These 3 cultural pressures represent our current moment. If you listen to this talk, you will recognize that these are not abstractions, but issues each of us will run into on a daily basis at some level. So, we want to be eager to learn. We are not to be fearful, but we do want to be faithful. We want to live for Jesus Christ as a church in McMinn County. We invite you to lean in and be encouraged by this helpful talk.
Resource Links
The outline and the audio for “Our Citizenship is In Heaven: Christ's Church and Cultural Pressures” can be found by clicking below.