Do Not Conform ... but Be Transformed
by Allie Martin and Jody Brown
January 5, 2004
(AgapePress) - An Illinois pastor says the Church in America needs to intentionally make itself relevant by showcasing differences between believers and the secular world.In his book Set Apart: Calling a Worldly Church to a Godly Life, R. Kent Hughes says attitudes, actions, and habits of many church members are no different from the outside world. Pastors, he says, need to encourage members of their congregations to allow God to be Lord over all areas of life -- and to impact society without becoming entrapped by it.
"People are appalled by what they see in the media, appalled by the materialism, [and] appalled by the sensuality," the pastor shares, "but their viewing habits are the same as everybody else [and] their marital ethics are the same."
The result, Hughes says, is confusion. "[W]e have people ... within our evangelical culture who are appalled by what's going on -- and hanging on for dear life at the same time," he says.
Hughes, senior pastor of College Church in Wheaton, Illinois, says many Christians in America are entrapped by materialism. "Just as in the 1900s [when] so much of our country was dulled to the evils of slavery while holding onto their Bibles, I think that our culture hangs onto its Bible today but doesn't hear what the Bible has to say about giving and generosity," he says.
Hughes believes that assessment offers "a very substantive gauge of where evangelicals are in relationship to materialism."
A Bleak Future?
The pastor's opinion aligns with recent findings published by Christian research George Barna, who reports that the "Baby Bust" generation -- those currently in their 20s and early 30s -- are the adult generation least likely to devote time to serving people and least likely to tithe to a church. He says that adult group generally describes themselves as "spiritual," but have less interest in church activity than do any other adults.
According to Barna, that does not bode well for the future of lifestyles that are faith-based. "As the current parents of most of the nation's under-13 population, the long-term implications of their departure from orthodox Christianity are significant," he says.
