Lausanne World Pulse – What Does It Mean to Be the Church in Specific Cultures?
By Michael Cassidy
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The Church of Jesus Christ is that body of people in any given socio-cultural context who have committed their lives to Christ and who worship and follow him in obedient discipleship, faithfully receiving both word and sacrament, and witnessing of him not only by godly character and example but by practical and compassionate action. Where truest to itself, the Church is both salt and light in any given society—as salt arresting decay and as light dispelling darkness.
As such, the Church lives according to certain biblical universals which are worked out and applied within a diverse set of cultural particulars and variables according to any given context. The Church is thus in the world but not of it (John 17:14-18).
This also means that all Christians have a dual nationality and a double address. They are on the one hand in Christ and on the other hand in a specific locale. The apostle can thus write to the saints and faithful brethren “in Christ at Colosse” (Colossians 1:2). Their spiritual identity and locale was in Christ, while their physical locale and identity was derived from being contextually located at Colosse.
It is the interplay, interface and interaction between these two identities, the one spiritual and the other geographical, which creates the challenges relating to what it means to be the Church in specific cultures.
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Michael Cassidy is the founder of African Enterprise. Author of a number of books, he has also played a key role as a Christian leader involved in reconciliation in South Africa. |