There has been quite a bit of talk in the blogosphere of late about culture and how Christians ought to relate to it. This is not a new topic by any means. Many books have been written and lectures spoken on this topic. What’s interesting is that, for the most part, Christians are still unsure about how they are to interact with the surrounding culture in which they find themselves.

The first thing that needs to be said is that we Christians are prone to extremes. Pendulums rarely correct themselves in small increments. Instead, as it swings from one extreme, it rarely stops right in the center, no, it swings to the other end (maybe not as far as it had going the other way). For Christians, this often means complete immersion in the surrounding culture so that there is little difference in the lives of those professing Christ and those not. LIBERTY! is the battle-cry of the day for these people. For others, however, it is not immersion but exclusion. Many Christians withdraw as much as possible from the surrounding culture. The extreme form of this, is of course, monasticism. Both are errors of the extreme.

Recognizing our tendency towards error, many Christians call for “engaging” the culture. But the more I read various ideas of what this actually means, the more I have come to think that most people who use the term don’t really know what they’re striving for. What’s more, it strikes me as a very artificial means of dealing with people. After all, culture is made up of people and when we speak of “engaging” people in this context, it’s almost as if we’re keeping them at arm’s length, trying our secret code at the lock of relationships, hoping that if we come up with the right code, we’ll gain credibility. The result is often various “steps” to engaging culture; steps with varying degrees of authenticity. As I’ve thought about these things recently, several things come to mind. Justin Taylor recently featured an excerpt from Peggy Noonan in which she noted:

I’ll jump here, or lurch I suppose, to something I am concerned about that I think I am observing accurately. It has to do with what sometimes seems to me to be the limited lives that have been or are being lived by the rising generation of American professionals in the arts, journalism, academia and business. They have had good lives, happy lives, but there is a sense with some of them that they didn’t so much live it as view it. That they learned too much from media and not enough from life’s difficulties. That they saw much of what they know in a film or play and picked up all the memes and themes.

Though Noonan is not speaking of a Christian context, I think that her concerns apply nonetheless. Very many Christians who seem to be concerned with “engaging the culture” don’t actually seem to participate in culture. Rather, they study it from afar trying to learn the secret handshakes without ever actually shaking hands with anyone. We see this of course with Christianity’s now troubled relationships with the arts. Many Christians can point out what is wrong with Hollywood or music or the visual arts but very few Christians are actually doing anything meaningful about it. Instead, we throw stones from inside our fortress and call it engagement. We live sterile lives, afraid of getting dirty in culture, the very thing we ought to be shaping. In order to sculpt, you have to get your hands in the clay! Those gorillas know that there’s something just not quite right about that hairless thing over in the corner with the binoculars and note pad and culture knows when we’re just studying that we don’t quite fit in.

But not only do we observe culture more than we actually shape it, the truth is that, most Christians who try to be accepted by the surrounding culture end up doing so by trying to be people they are not. It’s as if they put on the costume of “cool” but it doesn’t quite fit right and they can’t believe why people can tell it’s just a costume. Walter Kirn iterary Editor for GQ wrote in a piece (which I have been unable to relocate online) entitled What Would Jesus Do: But More Importantly, What Were Jesus� Fitness Secrets, of many Christians attempts at “cool” music. He says of many “Christian” bands:

They’re not bad at all. And yet, in the same way one sensed that groups like ABBA were singing in a language they didn’t speak, one detects a certain falseness in these bands’ sound. They’re trying too hard, somehow. They sound a bit like foreigners: highly trained Asian prodigies whose governments have equipped them with guitars and trained them in some elite punk rock academy. These new Christian bands rock like Americans play soccer; skillfully but somehow not convincingly.

Mike McKinley, lead writer on church membership for 9 Marks Ministries recently wrote about many of these issues in a piece called “Contemplating Cool.” One of his points was that: “With a few exceptions, Christians who try to be cool are terrible at it.” The truth is that people know when we’re wearing a costume to try and get in the door and when we’re being genuine. Let’s be honest, people can tell when you’re comfortable in your clothes and when you’re wearing something that doesn’t quite fit. Most Christian attempts at “engaging” the culture just don’t ever fit quite right. The result is that those we were trying to reach simply have more ammunition in their “Christians are all fakes” armory!

Much of this thinking has actually been sparked by some of the interviews that I’ve recently done. When asked how they go about communicating their Christian faith without falling into cliché language and empty sentiments, I was interested to hear several of the artists say that it’s not even something they really think about. Instead, they just write naturally, and Scriptural truth comes out in their natural language. Instead of trying to calculate, these artists naturally create without an agenda. If you’re filled with Scripture, Scriptural truths will naturally emerge in a natural, unforced manner. In other words, when we’re ourselves, when our “clothes fit,” people are much more likely to listen.

We must realize that our message is offensive enough. As Paul says: “For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life” (2 Corinthians 2:15-16). We must understand and accept that much of Christianity is profoundly “uncool” to the rest of the world. We must live transformed lives in a fallen world. Any attempt to cover our new lives in the the grave-clothes of sin so that we are accepted benefits no one. This is why Joe Thorn’s “Six Rules of Cultural Engagement” will be so helpful for many. Though they are listed as separate steps, they are centered around the concept of being a real, genuinely real person:

1. Be Present
2. Practice Discernment
3. Develop Your Theology
4. Find Courage
5. Speak Clearly
6. Love

Far from the costume of cool, or a rigid system, these are things every believer ought to be doing naturally. I think most Christians would be truly shocked at the doors of conversation that open when you show that you’re genuinely interested in other people and in Truth. People respond to conviction much more than gimmicks. People want sincerity more than they do costumes and we’d better believe that they know the difference.

• Read Peggy Noonan’s piece at Justin Taylor’s blog
• Read the “Contemplating Cool” article by Mike McKinley
• Read Joe Thorn’s “Six Rules of Cultural Engagement”
• Read Hip: The History by John Leland