I think a lot, probably way too much, about cultural or nominal Christianity. One of my questions is, “how do I define it or describe it to others in a way that makes it visible?” I know it when I see it. I have seen it throughout fifty plus years of ministry in the church. It is the most popular, powerful, and prevalent form of “Christianity” in American culture. It is not biblically sound. It is far from theologically justifiable. It brings ruin to a church even while it often grows a church into large or mega status. It supports and sustains a form of pseudo Christianity that produces people who are confident that they are on their way to heaven while little or nothing has changed about life for them here on the earth. They are as much “American” as the are “Christian,” and frankly do not see the problem with that status. They love Jesus and the most popular American success story equally; they wave the flag with one hand and the cross with the other seeing as the only distinction that one saves the soul for heaven while the other shapes a meaningful life here on the earth. But how do we see this cultural Christianity in a way that is really visible? How can I know how much it affects me, and believe me, it does? It has an impact on all of us.
I was driving Sunday morning through the rain and cold to the church where I serve as interim pastor. We were having an early morning men’s breakfast and deacons meeting. I was not unaware that it was super bowl Sunday and that we were staring down one of the most religious holidays of cultural Christianity: Valentine’s Day. And then it hit me: I could offer real-life testimony of cultural Christianity seen over and over again in experiences that I had as a pastor over the years. So, let me give you five. Think here about Jeff Foxworthy and his “you might be a redneck if . . . . presentations. You might be a cultural Christian or heavily influenced by cultural Christianity if . . . .
You see super bowl Sunday as a day that the church ought to observe in some way. I decided a few years ago that we were giving far too much attention to the super bowl on super bowl Sunday. We had developed a “tradition” of having a super bowl party for our students on the Sunday night of Super Bowl. The super bowl is held on Sunday but has nothing to do with what Sunday as day of worship is all about. In fact, it is antithetical to the purpose of the Lord’s Day for the people of God. I decided that we would do a normal Sunday night with Bible Study and Worship leaving the super bowl to parents and students to do whatever they chose to do. And you would have thought that I had chosen to do something that was bordering on the demonic. The response was the response of cultural christianity. Or . . .
You see Valentine’s Day as a way of “showing the love of Jesus to those you love.” Here is a particular fleshly form of what love is that in our culture has turned into a day for us to show how much we love our spouses, our parents, our children, our grandchildren, our friends etc. in the name of Jesus. It may not be far from blaspheming the name of Jesus to package the love of Jesus in the form of sending flowers or giving boxes of candy or whatever to show real love. Churches that are conditioned by cultural Christianity may even have sweetheart banquets during this time of year where they pray the blessing before the meal in the name of Jesus, but that is about it, or . ..
You see fourth of July as a religious holiday. And heaven help you brother pastor if it comes on Sunday and you do not get out the flags and fireworks along with singing lots of patriotic music. Now lest my computer blow up at this point, let me be quick to say that I love the Fourth of July with all that it represents, but what it represents has little to do with genuine, biblical Christianity. It is a uniquely American holiday that we should celebrate with proper patriotic pride. I love the song “I am proud to be an American,” and I love to hear Lee Greenway sing it. But not in church on Sunday but in the park or some other place where we gather as citizens to celebrate what we share as citizens. Or . . .
You see any holiday related to the service of our men and women in the armed services as a religious holiday. One of my pet peeves is that we have lost the distinction between what the various days tha honor and men and women who serve or have served in the military represent. Veterans Day and Memorial Day are great days to honor our men and women in uniform, but they do not represent the same thing. And neither is a religious holiday and should not have any place among the people of God when we gather for the worship of God. But tell that to a cultural christian. They will see you as Benedict Arnold at best; some will see you as Saddam Hussein come back to life. Or . . .
You see the church as a place to worship God and study His Word but at the same time you see the business of the church being done by secular means, particularly by the politicizing of the process of finding men to serve as elders and deacons or finding it appropriate to manipulate processes for the expending of funds etc. I have faced this all fifty plus years of ministry in the church. I have seen it with men and women where the sanctuary was seen as the place ot worship of God but the church as an institution was run by men and women in back halls and private conversations constructing means to get done what they wanted done. Cultural christians see nothing at all wrong with this very duplicitous way of doing church, but these are the people who also see nothing wrong with a church gathering on super bowl Sunday to enjoy a Valentines Banquet complete with secular patriotic songs and the pledge of allegiance to the flag, all of which would be fine in a community center where we would gather with other citizens; none of which is appropriate for those who have been called out of this world to live our lives in obedience to Jesus who alone is Lord.
We are called to live as the church as followers of Jesus who love Him and seek to live in loyalty to Him. We are called to live in a culture that by God’s grace has some things in it and about it that we should celebrate as citizens. But we must never mix the two as if one can blend with the other or, for heaven’s sake, as if one is the other.