The Edge of Culture

I saw this on theooze.com and sent it to Lee, our pastor guy, and told him that it reminded me of our church. He wrote back and said, "Wow...that is all I can say. WOW. It was humbling to read. That is so where we need to be." Lee is always humble, that is probably one reason why so many of us feel so devoted to him. We have several hundred people in our church now, but when Lee started Threads, it was with a dozen people, all since gone, meeting in his living room. He gave up a secure paid ministry job and worked construction, delivered pizza, and supported his family at near poverty level in order to answer God's call to bring a church to people who never thought of walking into a church. And right when everything seemed to be coming together and getting easier, he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, and after two years in remission is still on maintenance chemo. Bless the ones who heed God's call even when they know the road will be hard, bless those who love so large and are so humble that you cannot help but encounter Christ. Bless us all as we try to live on the edge - sometimes a dangerous place, but oh, what a view...
The Edge of Culture

Christ, his followers, and how we perceive ourselves relating to culture has been a topic of heated debate for the last 2000 years. H. Richard Niehbuhr's book, Christ and Culture, suggests that all our varied perspectives are actually creating the tensions that will lead us in the right direction.

"...Christ as Lord is answering the question in the totality of history and life in a fashion which transcends the wisdom of all his interpreters yet employs their partial insights and their necessary conflicts."

In my estimation, the Church is born and bred and culture, and finds its home within it; yet we are also a transcendent community, a little bit of earth's green and heaven's blue in our eyes, and we live both within and hopefully beyond culture.

A personal story that may generate some fresh discussion. A few years ago, I had a unique experience at the edge of a cliff in New Zealand. Our guide had taken us to see one of the highest sea cliffs in the country, on a blustery day. Seeing the possible view that awaited me, I desperately wanted to snap a picture looking straight down over the precipice. Mingled with my sense of adventure was a clear call for wisdom - windy days and sharp overhangs do not a safe combination make!

Sensing my lack of confidence, a wise friend suggested, "Why don't you crawl to the edge?" With this advice, I could see the vista I so wanted to capture, yet do so in a way that protected me from potential harm. It was humbling, but I went to the edge tethered to my friends and grounded on the soil beneath me. I captured the view, but in the humblest of postures.

In many ways, we as the Church variously respond to "the edge" as well. Some of us have heard there is a beautiful view to be seen where Christ and culture work meet head on - and redemption wins the day. Others of us choose the safety of community, tradition and familiarity, over the temptation to see a fresh view. Still others of us attempt the edge with boldness and even arrogance, and have found the edge to be a precarious place of death and destruction. The challenge for the contemporary Church is to see the revelatory vista waiting for us, and yet to do so in humility, tethered to the historic Church community and the theological anchor of the scriptures.

The edge is a tenuous and unforgiving place, but it seems to be the place where Jesus and His disciples lived. This edge of engagement with culture requires discernment, and is a necessary part of impacting the world with the good news of the Kingdom of God. Contemporary worship expression has chosen to live on that edge, and is galvanizing the Church increasingly as it reforms itself.