Out of Touch?

November 22nd, 2006 | Posted in » Baptist Issues, In the News...

Here’s an interesting study from Lifeway, showing that pastors are generally less informed about our culture than laypersons. I’m curious what this really means, and if indeed true, whether this is a large reason our culture as a whole has less and less use for the church.

Here’s the story.

I guess the study begs the question, “Is the church genuinely out of touch with culture, and thus ineffective at reaching it?” (This almost goes hand in hand with the last post on entertainment…)

Any thoughts?

9 Responses to “Out of Touch?”

  1. By micah on Nov 22, 2006

    Hmm, John, are you saying then that I should spend more of my time watching tv and hanging out in bars?

    Wow, a laymen from my church is encouraging his pastor to give in to a few vices…that would make for interesting dinner conversation wouldn’t it!

    :-) :-) :-) :-)

  2. By Bob Cleveland on Nov 22, 2006

    I’m not sure how “up” on culture we need to be. Our message doesn’t change, and we need to be using whatever means are most effective at communicating. But folks have always been concerned with things of the world, and have to change gears to think of eternal matters, and that really hasn’t changed.

  3. By John on Nov 22, 2006

    Micah…

    Um, yeah… That’s exactly what I’m saying. What do you say we ditch our Tuesday morning breakfast (it’s hard getting up that early anyway) and start a Friday night pub crawl? :)

    Okay, maybe not.

    Bob…

    I don’t know if we need to be “up” on culture, but I do wonder if we don’t often disengage from the prevalent culture to our own little Christian subculture, hence losing touch with the prevalent culture as a whole. I wonder if that contributes to our being “out of touch”, possibly resulting in a lack of ability to understand the people we want to reach.

    I guess what I’m saying really just amounts to the fact that we’ve got to be very careful not to erect additional barriers to the Gospel (either to those we reach or to ourselves in being able to share).

    Of course, as you’ve stated, the message doesn’t change, we’ve just got to be able to effectively share it.

  4. By micah on Nov 22, 2006

    John-

    Thanks for the encouragement. Cheers! (and bottoms up)

    Seriously, though, I agree with your thoughts 100%. I think our “Christian subculture” is safe because by and large we are not challenged within that culture. If we are to change culture, however, we’re going to have to get waist-deep in the current culture of the day, to a degree anyway, to do so. Good thoughts!

  5. By Kevin Stilley on Nov 23, 2006

    I think that the church is out of touch with the prevalent culture, but I think the reason the church is ineffective is because the church is even more out of touch with the gospel than it is with the culture.

  6. By Bob Cleveland on Nov 23, 2006

    John:

    When I read Acts, I get the impression that those folks were a lot less like their surrounding culture than the church is today. I can’t speculate whether they were more or less “out of touch” than we are, but I suspect they were about like we are in that respect.

    Maybe one of the problems of the church today is that we try too much to be like our surroundings. I’m certain we look a lot more like non-belevers and speak much more of their langauge, than they did 2,000 years ago.

  7. By Kevin Stilley on Nov 23, 2006

    Bob, your comment made me think of a book I read years ago — Quo Vadis by the Polish author Henryk Sienkiewicz. I think I may try to reread it sometime over the next couple of months.

    Best wishes to John and all for a most blessed day of thanksgiving.

  8. By Bryan Riley on Nov 27, 2006

    I like what Kevin said… We aren’t living like we really believe Jesus or walking by faith or in the Spirit.

  9. By Emily Payne on Dec 28, 2006

    I’ve noticed a few things that might be relevant to this. First is that obviously, ministers of all stripes are isolated from the world to some degree by the fact that they work in church institutions. By its very nature this means that they are in “Christian” spaces, doing “Christian” things and talking to Christians in Christian language (which, yes, often is very different to the way the world speaks. The first time I heard a sermon in a church, as an adult, I had no idea what the pastor was talking about – although the individual words made sense).
    In addition to this, churches implicitly, or even explicitly expect their ministers to abandon worldly pursuits; to be ordained in my church, one of the things you promise is not to make worldly study or endeavours a priority, but only God’s work.
    This means that often there is an unconscious barrier between the church and the world we are trying to reach. I don’t think that this is a call for ministers to hang out in strip clubs in order to reach that culture – but perhaps we would benefit from examining our use of space, buildings, and time. One pastor I know does all his counselling in the local coffee shop – it wouldn’t suit everybody, but at least he’s not locked away in an office or study.

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