Tim Keller on Church & Culture (Contextualization)

The students I'm subbing for in my History classroom are completely in-hand, which makes this a good morning for internet reading. I just scanned some Alvin Plantinga. Next up is Tim Keller. On the subjects of church planting, "missional" (gospel-incarnational) living and the relation of church and culture, Keller is unsurpassed. He's lucid, brings the Bible directly to bear on his topics, and is a master at accurately assessing society. I highly recommend Tim Keller's article on "Advancing the Gospel in the 21st Century." He deals with the question of how church should relate to surrounding culture, and I think he nails it. I especially like this paragraph.

There is no 'non-contextualized' Christianity. Jesus didn't come to earth as a generalized being--by becoming human he had to become a particular human. He was male, Jewish, working-class. If he was to be human he had to become a socially and culturally-situated person. So the minute we begin to minister we must 'incarnate', even as Jesus did. Actual Christian practices must have both a Biblical form or shape as well as a cultural form or shape. For example, the Bible clearly directs us to use music to praise God--but as soon as we choose a music to use, we enter a culture. As soon as we choose a language, as soon as we choose a vocabulary, as soon as we choose a particular level of emotional expressiveness and intensity, as soon as we choose even an illustration as an example for a sermon--we are moving toward the social context of some people and away from the social context of others.

That a church will reflect culture is inevitable. The question is, Which one? Keller goes on to talk about how to engage and serve our communities in meangingful ways. This article is worth printing out and reading slowly if you're one to think about these issues.