Is Pentecostal Culture a Museum Culture?

Originally Posted by keith4him

Why is cultural relevance a big deal?
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(Consider the rest of your article as represented by the three dots).

There are parts of this article with which I strongly disagree. Well, actually one part in particular: "We who are Christians should look similar to, but not be identical to, our culture. If we don't, people will assume that being a Christian simply means being different—dressing differently, listening to different music styles, and voting the same way."

While we are "in the world," according to scripture, we are not (again, according to scripture) "of the world." We are citizens of the kingdom of Heaven. As the scripture tells us, "Here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come." We are "strangers and pilgrims" (or "aliens and exiles" depending on the translation) on the Earth. Our culture, ethnicity, citizenship, nationality, identity, etc. are that of the kingdom of Heaven and not in any earthly culture, nation, ethnic group, etc. We are to be as different from the world as light is from darkness!

Notice, though, that I said our culture, ethnicity, etc. are that of the kingdom of Heaven and not some old fashioned nostalgic/romantic idealization of days gone by. We should be singing "This world is not my home," not "Give me that old time religion." The world must see us as being as different from it as light is from darkness. We are ambassadors of the kingdom of Heaven. Just as an earthly ambassador doesn't give up the culture, ethnicity, nationality, etc. of the nation that sent him, so also we do not give up the culture, ethnicity, nationality, etc. of Heaven while we're here performing our ambassadorial duties. Just as an ambassador doesn't adopt the culture, ethnicity, nationality of the nation to which he is sent, so also we don't adopt the cultures, ethnicities, nationalities, etc. of this world while we're performing our ambassadorial duties.