Scott Hodge has been blogging about Keeping a Pulse on Culture (HT: Eric Bryant).
Scott was responding to a question that said, ‘Our church is in the beginnings of what is going to be a painful change in terms of trying to become more “relevant.” My question for you is how do I “catch up” culturally on a personal level?’
Scott’s answers included suggestions like…
- Read Blogs
- Subscribe to some magazines that are in touch with current culture
- Subscribe to some podcasts
- Get rid of the PC and buy a Mac
- Twitter and Facebook
- Read a lot of books
- Brows new and most popular music in iTunes
- Go to some conferences that will stretch and challenge you
- Visit some churches who are DOING IT!
- Listen to your son
- Be yourself
It’s a good list, and there are some added details on his post that are worth plugging into. I took the suggestion to subscribe to some podcasts – American Life has been interesting.
But what I find the most interesting is his last line,
‘But the church’s best days are when we are no longer chasing or imitating culture, but actually shaping it!’
My question: We are part of culture. Why do we need to catch up with culture?
I’d like to say to this guy that he is extremely relevant to his friends, the people he meets and interacts with. He doesn’t need to catch up!
But, unfortunately that probably isn’t the question he’s asking. What he wants to do is make his Sunday service more “cool” so people will come. This does seem to work to a limit extent. But in terms of creating an earthy, person to person church where we are all spuring each other on to love and good deeds.
And I think we could create culture by loving our neighbours, colleagues, family and friends to do the same. Unfortunately we never get round to figuring out how to do that together. we get sidetracked by discussing what type of songs to sing on a Sunday!