Salting the City

Mal Fletcher Added 07 April 2011

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Overcoming Secularism, Consumerism & Atheism

I live in a part of the world which considers itself to be post-Christian, but is in reality, I think, pre-Christian again. It thinks it knows the gospel – and has rejected what it thinks it knows.

To reach that kind of world, the church must find out what the culture is discussing, come alongside, and engage the conversation with something positive to say.

For many leaders of Christian churches and ministries, the most urgent strategic question seems to be: ‘How many people can I preach to in a week?’

But just as urgent is the question, ‘What kind of people do I want to speak to? What kind of values would I like people to hold? What values would make it easier to win them for Christ – and keep them?’

Whether we like it or not, people’s decisions are largely shaped by cultural influences. People make choices based in large part on the culture of the city around them.

People in the Western world today hold to values that are shaped much more by liberal media, secular reductionism and consumerist marketing than by anything the church says.

This is a major theme of the SLC2011: ZEITGEIST summit, May 5-7 in Spain. We will be looking very closely at the impact that secularism, pluralism and the so-called ‘new’ atheism are having on the mindset of Europe. And what the church can do now to reverse the trend!

You see, the issue of whether or not we have influence comes down to how willing we are to answer this simple but profound question: ‘What kind of city do I want people to live in ten years from now - and what will I do now to set that in motion?’

The former head of the British Army, General Sir Richard Dannett reminded us a while back ago that whenever a spiritual vacuum exists in a nation, something will move in to fill it.

In some places, that something is radical Islamist fundamentalism; in others it is rampant materialism and the increasingly hyped ‘new’ atheism.

(Our keynote contributor at SLC2011 is the world-renowned author and theologian Professor Alister McGrath, one of the church’s most skilled debaters with atheists such as Richard Dawkins – and a former atheist himself.)

Culture is not just a product of political, economic or social factors. The very word ‘culture’ suggests that there is a spiritual component in the identity of the people.

A region's culture is at least in part based upon its underlying cult; its religious practices and worldview.

In Europe's case, that worldview has always been a mainly Judeo-Christian one. For almost 1500 years, Europe was the global centre for Christianity and more or less synonymous with Christendom.

A prominent Dutch sociologist recently claimed that post-modern Europe is ‘the least religious region on earth’. Yet despite efforts to paint Europe as purely secular, this part of the world is probably as religious as it ever was.

I was told recently, on very good authority, that one of the requested elective subjects among Britain’s independent secondary school students is Religious Studies. People are as hungry as ever to find answers to the deep questions of the human psyche: ‘Who am I? Why am I here? Where am I going? DOES ANYONE OUT THERE LIKE ME?’

So, this is not the time for us to retreat into bunkers of Christian cliche. Nor is it time for us to become God’s moral police. Salt, after all, doesn’t criticise what is lacking in the food it flavours and preserves.

Like salt, we are called to preserve righteousness in the city and to flavour it in a way that is pleasing to God. We can only do that by having close contact with the city, by being proactively engaged in its concerns and its debates.

Central to winning influence and re-shaping culture is the issue of trust.

Faced with the constant clamour and onrush of data of this digital age, many Christian leaders – even in larger churches – struggle to have their churches recognized as serious players in the mainstream marketplace.

Far fewer leaders, however, stop to ask a fundamental question: ‘Even if our community knew we existed, would they trust us? Would they allow us to serve them and influence them?’

Trust provides us with the primary platform for influence.

Everything we do should be a reflection of the nature and character of God and there are many attributes of God that make him trustworthy.

For one, we find God trustworthy because he his holy.

In the 1980s and early 90s I was the pioneer national director of a Christian outreach movement known as Youth Alive Australia. At the time, my homeland had one of the highest teen suicide rates in the world. Within a decade, by God’s grace, we saw thousands of young people coming to Christ regularly in large outreach events in every major city. The crowds were way too big for church buildings, or even city halls, so we used major sporting and concert auditoria across the nation.

After one of these events, a union-employed stage security guard asked for prayer so that he could accept Christ. Our team asked why he had made this decision. He said: ‘I’ve worked with all the big name bands; but I’ve never seen young people drawn to anything like that!’

His response underlines the impact of an encounter with a holy God. God’s holiness may leave us feeling morally challenged, but it also draws us to him. His holiness neither bores us, not drives us away.

Like the angels described in Revelation 4:8, when we’re in his presence we can’t take our eyes off him and we find ourselves reduced to one word: ‘Holy!’

In our culture, holiness means boring, bland and colourless. But when you apply the word to God, it means that he’s so much more than you were expecting that his presence knocks the wind out of your sails – and the words out of your mouth!

In scripture, God’s holiness refers to his moral transcendence and his awesome attractiveness. God is the ultimate example and of all goodness; our measure of all that is wholesome, authentic and attractive.

Holiness speaks of a higher and more attractive standard for life. By representing a holy God, we Christian leaders can set a higher standard for our mainstream peers. We can raise the bar as to what is considered good, wholesome, authentic and attractive.

For us, holiness means that the ends can never justify the means, in any area of our work.

Whether we admit it or not, the techniques we use in everything from raising funds to marketing our ministries, reflect something about the God we serve to those who do not know him.

Marshall McCluhan was right: ‘The medium is the message.’

If we as church, ministry and organisation leaders can stand for biblical holiness (as opposed to legalism), we can enter the cultural conversation at a point where it is desperately seeking a new standard and start to engage as the ‘city on a hill’.