WHAT IS A CROSS-CULTURAL CHURCH? |
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Written by Calvin Fox | |||||
Thursday, 08 May 2014 13:40 | |||||
"Just because your church looks diverse doesn't mean it is diverse." Observations and lessons shared by Ed Stetzer in CT http://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2013/december/thinking-through-multicultural-church.html
What is Culture? Popular Culture has to do with preferences and tastes in manners, food, clothing, music, decorative arts, customs and traditions such as Rites of Passage (coming of age rituals, weddings, anniversaries, birthdays). There is, and should be, a lot of diversity in all of these matters. Although they can be very important to people, all such matters are peripheral to what is the core of culture.
Essential cultural consists of those core beliefs, morals and values that are shared by any group of people and bind them together as an identifiable body. These are not peripheral matters. Christians as individuals may enjoy and value and accommodate a diversity of peripheral cultural matters, but we are joined together as a recognizable social group by core beliefs, morals and values which are Biblical.
7 Basics of Biblical Culture
Individual Responsibility- individual persons are accountable and responsible to God, themselves, their family and community for their decisions and actions
Work- everyone who is able works throughout life for the welfare of the family and community. Social, Economic and Political Freedom to work is highly valued.
The above seven distinctives are the essential or core marks of Christian Culture. In practice, American Christians often disagree about the peripherals, as well as mix them in with the essentials. It is important that the peripherals do not overcome or undermine the essentials. In practice that often happens. An important task for the Church is to help Christians understand the difference between the two and how they relate.
In this time when Multiculturalism is so highly valued by many, it is very important that Christians understand what a Biblical Core Culture is and unashamedly commit to develop and maintain all its essentials as outlined above.
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Last Updated on Thursday, 08 May 2014 13:45 |