-----

Recently, I have been reading True Spirituality by Francis Schaeffer. This book has been challenging me to think through the reality of my Christian witness while engaging culture. We would all agree that there are numerous challenges to living for the glory of God in our modern day. Every where we turn, we find ourselves thrust into a new arena which requires us to discern how to think "Christianly." Albert Mohler said it well when he told my Systematic Theology class at Southern Seminary that the greatest charge for Christian ministers in our day is to help our congregations think theologically. At first glance, this may sound high and lofty. The word "theology" alone sounds stuffy and out of touch with the daily lives of Christians, but Mohler is absolutely right in his assessment. Sadly, we have more a than few ministers who lead local congregations who are more than willing to marginalize the necessity of helping their people think theologically. The result is that we have a generation of so called Christians who are merely living out a caricature of the Christian life and who know little of true spirituality.

Sadly, the caricatures are too numerous to list, but lets look at one. You have those who live out what I call the "picture perfect" caricature. This type of Christianity exists with in a vacuum. It seperates itself from the world and begins to create a "Christian" version of the culture which is "safer" for themselves and their families. I wonder if you can follow my train of thought here. In their minds, God exists to make our lives better so long as we live seperated from the world. So we create "Christian" music, shirts, trips, movies, politics and the like all for the sake of trying keep people in the church as if we have created an alternative to the world or mainstream culture. Don't misunderstand me here, there is nothing wrong with any of these things, but the danger is that we lose sight of what it means to be Christian. We have equated obedience to God with our ability to create an "acceptable" Christian world. Instead, we need discerning Christians engaging a broken culture setting a new paradigm for life that can be found in Christ. See the difference?

If we are not careful, all we do once becoming a Christian is trade one list for another. Prior to coming to Christ, we live out a list which we believe ultimately give us the life we want. Sadly, we do the same thing after accepting Christ hoping for the same results. So we go to all the church events and push for more. Depending on what denomination you find yourself in, you will adapt not only the convictions to led to the distinction between them and other Christian denomination, but their cultural trappings as well. This ulimately blurs the lines between what is biblical and what is simply cultural.

Francis Schaeffer found himself struggling with this phenomenon in 40's, 50's and 60's. Disturbed with the effects of theological liberalism on his beloved denomination, he found himself in a fight to preserve it. Sadly, he found himself discontent with some his conservative colleages as he sensed a lack of true spirituality grounded in the Gospel. He was fearful that too many Christians moved beyond the Gospel to some caricature of Christian living. Seeing the power plays of some Christian leaders with in culture and politics discouraged him so much that he founded the L'Abri Fellowship in Switzerland. Through L'Abri, Schaeffer remained faithful to the Gospel witness by helping people, believer or unbeliever, think biblically (theologically) about the world we live in.

Certainly, Schaeffer continued to fight the cultural battles that affected the Christian witness with in mainstream culture, but he was also concerned with the lack of love and mercy that was being demonstrated in the process. We must remember that all of culture is corrupted by the effects of sin and that no portion of it remains unaffected including media, education, and politics. We must shed the "easy believism" of our day and begin to think critically about the mission God has for the church in culture. We are to be vessels of redemption and grace redeeming culture not merely creating our own "Christian" culture. This is the essence of battle between true Christian spirituality and and legalism.