trapped in a culture?

Back in 1960s and the Vietnam Conflict Era of the USA, a university professor named Timothy Leary advised American youth to “Turn on, tune in, and drop out” from the status quo of American society. Leary was a controversial figure in the American consciousness, a pilgrim going the wrong direction and taking many along with him in the eyes of conservative and middle-class America.
The reason why I mention him here is not to eulogize him, his message, or his legacy – it’s simply that his seven-word quote above is as apropos as anything I can summon in terms of what I think Christians worldwide need to do with the cultural church in its present state.
Personally I was drawn to the church after first being drawn to the Son of God and his invitation for freedom from sin and condemnation. Pummeled by my own ways of dealing with the world, I found a refuge as well as a training center through which I could learn more about this marvelous author of a marvelous faith. I think this is a fairly common pattern among newcomers to the church.
I realize that I owe the church a great deal in regards to its support, discipleship, guidance, etc. The church has to a large degree made me the person I am today. However there are times when I wonder if the bride isn’t being confused with the bridegroom, and just what kind of bride truly exists.
There is no singular turning point from where I began to wonder at the relevance of the church. First I began to question the priorities of church governance, which so often regarded the trappings of the sanctuary above the flockless. Then I began to notice how in the house of the redeemed there seemed a coordination of faith with lifestyles; SUVs, home schooling, larger families, real estate purchases, or in other words, more pronounced consumerism. It certainly did appear that riches accompanied the glory of knowing Christ, and I wondered where I was lacking in my faith walk.
I pressed further into my discipleship as a result, only to find that Christ’s message was indeed that which had drawn me in the first place; seek first his kingdom, don’t worry about the rest; it shall be added on.
I worked for Christian businessmen in my church. I tried to be appreciative of having employment, but I was aggrieved that profit seemed to be more important than a pursuit of excellence in so many instances. It was as if money had become the only respectable vice left to these men and women; hence it could be pursued with a zealous, sometimes reckless abandon.
Somewhere within this time I had begun to wonder, “Is this what Jesus had in mind? Is this going out into the world and making disciples? Is this the celebration of his victory, alas, our victory over the world?”
My discipleship eventually led me to training in overseas missions. Certainly here would be a different spirit, so I thought.
Instead I found that what I thought was the esprit-de-corps of the faith are only an extension of the cultural church that I had fled from in the USA. The first topic of conversation after the usual formalities of how-do-you-do is what organization (church) are you with, and how is your support? Missionaries I have known and worked with are consistently, without exception, financially endowed far beyond the populations they work with and witness to. Their financial assets are flaunted before a public that is much more impressed with their affluence than with their faith. Do you remember Christ, his disciples, or God’s prophets doing things this way?
What is the effect upon the faithful of the lands where overseas missions reach? By now you know what I’m going to say: extremely negligible. The harsh reality is that if you are a minister of Christ in overseas missions, you’d better have something tangible to offer the ministries of the land, and I’m not talking about just bible tracts. If you do not have money and gifts you will be politely dismissed with the unspoken message, “Go back home and get some, or just stay home.”
A tie-up with an affluent, generous American is a real feather in your cap if you are in the God business. Despite Jesus’ teaching that the servant should gird himself and serve the master before helping himself, I have seen it the norm that a pastor will lavish his household with vehicles, appliances, furnishings and conveniences first before tending to his often impoverished flock; in fact, his talisman is his display of the wealth and easy manner he has with his foreign benefactors.
The most ironic aspect of all this is that these cultural Christians seem to believe that they have escaped the worlds’ ways and have followed Christ to this haven of rest and plenty. They seem to have fallen for the myth that it’s their “good, clean living” that has brought them to such a desirable place.
A friend of mine once made the statement as he held up a dollar bill: “We are sending our God off to poor countries.” That note proclaims, as we all know, “In God we Trust”. Should it be so hard to realize the cause of the confusion?