The Church and the Cultural Challenge

The Gospel Coalition is doing a series on the current challenges facing the church. They have invited a number of theologians to proffer their thoughts on the subject and it is worth looking at. I will post each addition as it comes:

The first post is by Fred Sanders, a theologian whom I am increasingly coming to benefit from greatly. Here he writes that our danger is Biblical Illiteracy. But more than that he argues we are “running a spiritual deficit.” Check out the article here.

The second post is by Alissa Wilkinson. In this piece she describes the abandonment of the testimony by much of Evangelicalism. She states that if we are going to connect with our culture we need to learn how to tell stories well. Check it out here.

This third post by John Dickson points to two common cultural myths that Christians must expose in order to gain a hearing for the gospel. First, the myth of progress (that everything is getting better) must be addressed; and second, the myth of relevance (that Christianity must confirm contemporary perspectives). It’s a good read and you can find it here.

In this fourth post in the series Stephen Nichols discusses the importance of using narratives to communicate and teach theology. He argues that mere encyclopedic education doesn’t resonate as well with people because narrative is the pattern of life. Read it here.

In the fifth post Colin Hansen addresses the church’s assimilation to cultural power and political support. He warns that devoting ourselves to the gospel may require the abandonment of our rights as citizens, and that fight back may not always be the most advantageous to the gospel of the Kingdom of God. It’s a great piece, in my opinion the best one in this series. Check it out here.