THE GOSPEL AND CULTURE PROJECT
James E. Brown Jr.
RLGN 210: Introduction to Cultural Engagement
January 19, 2025
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Contents
Introduction..............................................................................................................................
......1
The Gospel and Culture Project: Part 1: Church Assignment.................................................1
The Gospel and Culture Project: Part 2: Gospel Implications.................................................2
The Gospel and Culture Project: Part 3: The Personal and Communal Gospel.....................2
The Gospel and Culture Project: Part 4: Contextualization.....................................................2
The Gospel and Culture Project: Part 5: Engagement Motivation..........................................3
The Gospel and Culture Project: Part 6: Model Critique.........................................................3
The Gospel and Culture Project: Part 7: Model Selection........................................................3
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................
..... 4
Bibliography..............................................................................................................................
.....5
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Church Assignment
At my home church, Christian Life, we carry and create the culture. A church’s culture is
the atmosphere in which it functions. We believe the culture in a church shouldn’t just happen
on its own; instead, we create and model the culture we want to see. As part of our
methodology, we made a list of cultural statements that drive our culture. Ownership,
Excellence, Sacrifice, Hospitality, Honor, Joy, and Service are just a few of the types of cultures
we want to see. We love people, celebrate diversity, and believe every person has value and
purpose.
When we talk about engaging culture, not only do we think about our church family, but
we recognize the importance of engaging culture outside our walls. Over the years, Christian
Life has engaged the culture by volunteering in our community. We have taken Sunday
mornings, and instead of our regular service, we send teams of volunteers out into our
community to do odd jobs free of charge. We also budget for outreach to host community
events on our campus, no strings attached. It allows us to engage community members who
have not attended one of our services. We get to pray with people and have the opportunity to
share the gospel. When people hear that “the gospel is not about something we do but about
what has been done for us,” 1 lives change, and ultimately the culture can change. Our church
leaders are optimistic that the church can change the culture. There is also a sense of urgency
based on events we see in the news daily.
The church should not live in the dark or ignore the course of cultural progression. The
church should not “assume that if we understand the gospel accurately and preach it faithfully,
our ministry will necessarily be shaped by it --- but this is not true.”2 God’s people must be
willing to engage culture to influence culture. The Bible says in, “Then saith he unto his
1 Timothy Keller, Center Church: Doing Balanced, Gospel-Centered Ministry in Your City (Grand Rapids,
MI: Zondervan, 2012), 30.
2 Ibid., 28.
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disciples, the harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few; Pray ye, therefore, the Lord of
the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest (Matthew 9:37, 38 King James
Version).
We want to engage with the culture in our community, city, and state. Our heart for
local, national, and foreign missions gives us great opportunities to experience and engage
different cultures. In his article, Witness, The Church, and Faithful Cultural Engagement, Eric
Robinson says, “As the church exists in the world, it must continue to discern what faithful
participation within culture looks like. It also must consider the question of identity—that is, in
what ways cultural engagement is core to who the church is called to be? 3 The tension is that
the church’s calling is to exist in the world. We should not allow the culture of the world to
influence the wonderful truth of the gospel.
Bibliography
Keller, Timothy. Center Church: Doing Balanced, Gospel-Centered Ministry in Your City (Grand
Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2012).
3 Robinson, Eric. “Witness, the Church, and Faithful Cultural Engagement.” Missiology. 47, no. 2 (2019):
140–52.
Ibid.
Robinson, Eric. “Witness, the Church, and Faithful Cultural Engagement.” Missiology. 47, no. 2
(2019): 140-52
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