The Trifecta

I've been reading one of Mark Driscoll's books (The Radical Reformission), and I've been considering something from it.

The Church.

The Gospel.

Culture.


How do these relate to each other? DO they relate to each other? Obviously, the Gospel is related to the Church, but what about Culture? Even talking about culture and the Gospel together brings up thoughts of one of the biggest buzzwords in the western church world these days: Relevance. I've heard of certain preachers "He really made the Bible relevant to me". The job of preachers is not to make the Word of God relevant - it's already relevant. The job of preachers is to help us understand what the Word says, and how to apply it to our lives. Maybe that's semantics. I just see a distinction. Obviously the Gospel is lived out in the context of our culture. It can't be ignored.

The Gospel + the Church without the Culture = Fundamentalism

The Gospel + the Culture without the Church = Parachurch

The Church + the Culture without the Gospel = Liberalism

For effective reformission, Driscoll says, all three need to be considered, even though not all three have equal weight.

My point? I'm not sure I have one. It's just something I've been thinking about.