On the gospel and cultural engagement

As many know, one of the “divides” within Reformed evangelicalism today is how to think about cultural engagement. By “divide” I don’t necessarily mean a split or a divisive spirit, but

rather a difference of perspective and focus. As we continue to discuss and debate these important matters, it’s important that our engagement be filled with love, honor, humility, and good

thinking. Advertise on TGC I thought Joe Thorn provided an excellent model for us with this brief post responding to Thabiti’s address: > We had 20 or so people from Redeemer [Fellowship 

Church in St. > Charles, IL] attend Together for the Gospel 2010 this week and had a > great time. We heard some great preaching, had great conversations, > and made some new 

friends. After Thabiti Anyabwile’s message a > number of people from, and outside of, our group were interested in > my take on what was said. I thought I’d share my thoughts here as

> well. >  > The entire conference, like Thabiti’s message, was very clear > about three things. 1) The gospel and our mission must be clear and > central, 2) as the church we

 must live counter-culturally, and 3) > cultural engagement is inherently risky/dangerous. I affirm all of > this, but would also want to say a little more. Read the whole thing. More

engagement in this vein would be a very good thing for the ongoing conversation. I also appreciated this comment from Joe in the comments section: > I went into conference wanting to 

receive everything I could, and > therefore found a lot. Had I gone in more defensive I believe I > would have benefited less. A lesson I’m still trying to learn.