We Must Engage with the World!

Occasionally during my training as a Student Minister in the Methodist Church of Great Britain I have wondered if my lack of knowledge of what might be termed ‘the Christian scene’ is a bad thing or, potentially, a good thing.

My thinking on this came to a head a couple of weeks ago when a Christian I met was incredibly impressed because I attend the same college as, and live on the same floor at college as, Vicky Beeching.  I had never heard of Vicky Beeching before she arrived at college, but she is apparently a very well-known worship leader and song writer who has led worship at Spring Harvest in the past and is doing so again this year.  To me Vicky is just a nice Christian lady who I’ve shared one or two conversations with; to many out there she is a Christian celebrity.

That’s another thing; I have never been to Spring Harvest, or ECG or any of the other big Christian gatherings that take place around this country every year; partly because I can’t financially afford to.  I did go to Greenbelt once, which I enjoyed enormously, but that was twenty years ago.

So, is it a bad thing that when, in a few months’ time, I start work on Circuit I am in some ways ignorant of who the famous worship leaders are?  Is it a bad thing that I probably couldn’t name the latest Christian singers and bands?  Is it a bad thing that I have never experienced Spring Harvest?  Is it a bad thing that when I’m in the car I don’t usually listen to Christian music?  I’m not so sure that it is.

I am a Christian through and through, called by God to train for ordained ministry in the Methodist Church.  I pray and I read my Bible.  I try my best to live as Jesus lived and to love as Jesus loves.  I read Christian literature and theology…. but I also immerse myself in contemporary culture.

When I watch TV I almost never watch one of the many Christian channels: I watch Doctor Who and other science fiction and fantasy programmes and exciting American drams like NCIS.  I like science fiction films too, especially the Star Wars films and I like Clint Eastwood’s films and the James Bond films.  I will even confess to loving Hammer horror films, a slightly guilty pleasure I admit.  My reading covers a wide range of fiction and non-fiction.  Is it a bad thing that as a Christian I immerse myself in modern secular culture?  I don’t think it is.  Yes, as a Christian I have to be aware of what I’m reading and viewing; but as a preacher
I have to be aware of contemporary culture if I am to be at all relevant to the people I am trying to bring God’s word to.  To coin a well-used phrase, I have to be ‘in the world but not of the world.’

There is danger in becoming too immersed in the cultural output of contemporary society, of being spiritually corrupted and led astray and this is not a danger I or any other Christian should take lightly.  On the other hand I believe it in equally dangerous to completely isolate ourselves from contemporary society; listening only to Christian music, reading only Christian books and having only Christian friends.  How can we witness our faith to a world we do not understand or engage with?  If we are to be true to our calling to ‘make disciples of all nations’ we must engage with contemporary society.