I am one that believes strongly that the Word of God is the standard that God has given to us to flesh out real life in relationship to Him and to others. We are FLESH and that written Word needs to be fleshed out, so the world can be exposed to the Light of His Word “living” through me. As we do the work of ‘rightly dividing the Word of Truth,” I would highly suggest that we have an equally strong responsibility to exegete the culture in which we live. Relevance is not the sole issue, but is one part of the equation giving us the right to speak intelligently into our culture. Relevance is not about being “cool” it is one of ‘connections’ that put us in touch with ‘real’ people. In the context of those real relationships, we now have greater opportunities to win our world for Jesus. When I exegete the Word and the Culture, I am both ready to give an answer and I have actually built relationships with people whereby I can give the answers THEY are searching for. I wonder if we are too busy answering all the questions that no one is asking…at least not people who are far from Jesus. More on Exegeting the Bible and Culture.[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKbSfxEdwW4]
Exegeting the Culture and the Bible
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About the Author: Dan O'Deens
So, Dan …
What questions did you end up answering from your cultural exegesis of coolness/relevance? Tell us more!
And, what are some examples of what you think “we” (whoever that is) are answering that no one is asking?
By the way, I thought you looked pretty cool already before you bought the new threads!
It’s coming….hold on. This will take me a few cracks…and then I am confident I will not have said it all, but will at least have made an attempt to make a point, and will not hit the point or points everyone else can and should be making on their blogs….
Hmmmnnnn! Maybe this is all pointless!
At any rate….More coming…I promise. As I finished the video I walked into the door of the auditorium and went to the stage where I taught the “give us more.”
Dan,
Good post. I hope the answer we are all giving to the questions being asked by those far from God = Jesus Christ. If that is NOT the answer, then we are NOT answering their questions truthfully.
The answer is always the same. The context and delivery of the answer I think is where “relevance” fits in. Paul was very relevant when he spoke the language of the culture in Athens and quoted Epimenides & Aratus. He studied the culture…He immersed himself in the culture to learn all that he could. He certainly earned the ears of those he was speaking to. He only did it to “connect” with those far from God. I don’t think the problem is so much that we’re answering questions that the world isn’t asking…I think the problem is that we answering the questions when the world is not listening! How do we get those far from God to listen is a better question…
Great thoughts Mike. The centrality of Jesus IS the issue! By the way….your blog comments today are right on point. Thanks for writing.
We need to PRAY more, that ears would be open to this incredible life changing Truth.
We can work hard in the flesh….but in the end, the Spirit of God brings life! Ezekiel was a great example…to that…He spoke the word of the Lord to the flesh and it looked like a body…but there was no life in it. Then he prophesied to the Spirit and it was full of life!