Stained glass & Starbucks

For years evangelicals started churches on overseas mission fields by shaping the Gospel to fit the culture. The message was never compromised but was presented in a variety of ways in an attempt to strip it from its Western context.

The message remained the same but the delivery was modified - in much the same manner that the early Jewish Christians first communicated the Good News to the Gentile world. Today that approach is gathering steam as evangelicals seek ways to share Christ at home in a culture that increasingly has only a rudimentary grasp of Christianity.

We have become our own mission field, and evangelical leaders see the need for both traditional and contemporary methods of reaching American society. The clarion call is for there to be new approaches to discipleship, evangelism, worship and missions.

Bible studies are occurring in an increasing number of coffee houses. Pastors are becoming more relaxed as they deliver sermons in open collar shirts in churches that meet in high school gyms, storefronts, and former bars.

Needed: A both/and approach

It's not an either/or approach but a both/and approach that will reach Georgia for Christ. And it's not just Georgia's younger leaders who are in the vanguard - many older pastors also see the need for a variety of approaches in evangelism.

When English missionary William Carey set out to evangelize the nation of India in the late 1700s he had no idea his approach would send shockwaves through Georgia two hundred years later. But his radical vision has direct implication on just how successful Georgia Baptists will be in reaching their communities today.

One of Carey's 11 principles, part of a covenant called the "Form of Agreement," dealt with cultural sensitivity. He fought for the concept that ministry with those of another nation must be based on a standard of equality between the proclaimer and the hearer of the Gospel. Such an idea destroyed the concept of the 'civilized' taking the Gospel to the 'heathen.'

While Carey insisted on the need to understand Indian culture so he could do a better job of sharing the Gospel, Georgia Baptists today are having to learn cultural sensitivity of a different kind. For decades the current generation of believers - those in their 50s to 70s - strongly reflected the values of society at large. That is no longer the case.

While today's Anglo church retains much of the culture and tradition of the past 50 years, society has moved far away as it has become increasingly unchurched. Not only do a growing number of Americans not attend church on a regular basis, but a generation has come on the scene that has no remembrance of what church is about. The struggle that is dividing many congregations is how to reach that generation of the unchurched.

Some believers insist on holding to tradition at all costs and expect the lost to change their values if they are to worship alongside them. Such a hesitance to change has produced heated debate in churches that see declining membership as the fault of the lost (for not attending) rather than the church's ability to adapt the Gospel presentation.

"Adapt or remain lost"

That was the approach of missionaries prior to Carey's day as they insisted on unbelievers of foreign nations adapting Western attire and values as part of their conversion. Entire cultures were destroyed as missionaries forced their culture and values on those whom they were trying to reach. "Adapt or remain lost" was the tone of the day.

In Baptist congregations nationwide the battle is once again over the word "adapt." But this time it's not about forcing the proverbial native in a grass hut to adjust to American values but insisting that the twenty-something in the high-rise embrace the style of a generation that is about to pass off the scene.

The issue many Georgia Baptists struggle over is whether their traditions in worship, discipleship, and evangelism should be passed along with the Gospel, or if the presentation of that Gospel can take on new forms without compromising the message.

And therein lies the battleground.