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SBC Outpost » Marty Duren and Paige Patterson
This is a good read by Marty Duren over at SBC Outpost. I encourage you to take the time to read it. This is what I took out of it. Even well educated men who love God and have worked tirelessly for the kingdom for years cannot, often times, see past their own culture.
A young pastor is warned that by moving his church to contemporary worship he might end up in an affair. Honestly I consider this equal to saying “if you eat fruit loops you might become a crazed murderer.” In this example, it is possible for one to confuse his worship preferences with what is right and confuse his dislike for another worship style as sin.
The wrong reaction to hearing this is to get angry and bash that individual, but the problem is that we all have or all currently are doing the same thing with another matter in Christianity.
Basically this has inspired me to write a series of posts on Christianity and culture, because I believe it is becoming increasing important for us to understand the difference. So over the next however long I will be writing on the subject. If I can hold it together to actually do a series it will be proof that there is a God 
.
While I greatly admire much of the work he has done for Christ and was blessed by the one encounter I have had with him, I want to be just a little critical of Dr. Patterson’s line of thinking. My concerns are two fold. One, as a president of a seminary, I don’t want lessons like this taught to our next generation of pastors who in turn might not adapt to our ever changing culture. Secondly, as a person that is trying to set the agenda of the International Mission Board, it scares me that Dr. Patterson is unable to distinguish what is seemingly such a small cultural preference from what is “right and wrong”. Southern Baptist missionaries are having to deal with cultures so radically different from their own, the last thing they need is to worry about their agency and convention ostracizing them from the convention because they departed from western culture to bring people into the Kingdom of God.
Lord Jesus, help us all. May we not fight over foolish arguments and disputes. Reveal to us where we are erring and let us be a united body who displays your glory and love to this fallen world. Amen.
September 29th, 2006 at 10:53 am
Looking forward to what you’ve got to say. I like what I see so far. Keep it coming. I’m doing something similar over on my blog with relation to the ethics behind the current debate over culture and alcohol.
October 2nd, 2006 at 3:16 pm
Agreed.
September 4th, 2007 at 8:28 pm
Interesting site. I enjoyed your articles like the one above. I look forward to reading your thoughts on christianity and culture.