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Cultural Christianity

[Insert Acts Pun Here] Posts: 13654 **3/27/19 4:24 am**

I just bought a book called "The Unsaved Christian: Reaching Cultural Christianity with the Gospel". I was reading the extensive excerpts available on Amazon and found it to be really thought provoking.

The book defines a cultural Christian as someone who unknowingly professes faith on the basis of something other than the saving work of Jesus Christ -- someone who is religious, but not saved. The book gives several example categories such as Country Club Christians, Christmas and Easter Christians, God & Country Christians, Social Justice Christians, etc. and discusses how these groups mistake the true gospel and ways that evangelistic Christians can reach them. Check it out if you have a second.

Being in or near the Bible belt as so many of you are, do you find you deal more with atheists, or this sort of person who thinks they are a Christian based on things other than Christ, but lack the fruit of salvation in their lives? Have you thought about the challenge of reaching this group with the gospel? I don't know that I had ever really thought about it deeply prior to seeing this book.

Even where I live in northeastern Maryland, which feels generally like a very secular place, I'd say it's probably 70/30 or more in favor of the latter category. Moralistic deism and "good person" Christianity are much more common here than God & Country Christianity, but it feels like *most* people here profess faith.

Curious about your thoughts.

Re: Cultural Christianity

01000001 01100011 01110100 01110011 Posts: 24285 **3/27/19 8:27 pm**

Haven't read the book, but

Acts Enthusiast Posts: 1771 **3/31/19 7:27 am**

I will state this:

When the world looks at the church and sees itself the church is a cultural church.

When the church's budget spends more on maintenance and making people comfortable than on outreach and missions, it is a cultural church.

When preaching and teaching is more about self-helps than equipping for community service, it is a cultural church.

When the church's programs are designed for self-preservation, it is not only a cultural church, it is an institutionalized church.

When the church is neo-pentecostal, which it has been for over a decade now, a places personal charisma rather than the charismata of the Holy Spirit, it is a cultural church.
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The Hammer
Mi kamocah ba'elim Adonai
"Who is like you, Adonai, among the mighty?" (Exodus 15:11, CJB)

I work in a building where many would identify as christian...

Acts-perienced Poster Posts: 11798 **3/31/19 10:13 am**

and many embrace the following...

gay marriage because love it love and God is love....
abortion is human right
use their christianity to support illegals saying it's the christian thing to do but do nothing personally like support outreaches
favor gov't helping the poor but they don't do it themselves

is this what you are referring to?

And I might add...

Acts Enthusiast Posts: 1771 **3/31/19 10:19 am**

when the chief motivational forces of church efforts include humanism, accommodation, and consumerism, you might be a church driven by cultural values.
_________________
The Hammer
Mi kamocah ba'elim Adonai
"Who is like you, Adonai, among the mighty?" (Exodus 15:11, CJB)

Acts-perienced Poster Posts: 11849 **3/31/19 8:13 pm**

Maybe there should be a category for people who go to evangelical churches but the preaching is so light and shallow that they are led through the ritual of sinner's prayers without learning about the atonement on the cross or the resurrection of Christ, and where people think that 'God is good' means that sin is okay, and they have no knowledge of the wrath of God.
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[Insert Acts Pun Here] Posts: 13654 **3/31/19 8:18 pm**