Rick Warren On Engaging Culture Relevantly and Biblically

At Q, Rick Warren of Saddleback Church (Lake Forest, CA) discussed what is needed for a church to successfully engage culture.

First we must understand…

The church is the hope of the world, the only thing that matters, and the only thing that lasts. Cultures come and go.

How do you be in the world but not of the world?

It is easy to be relevant if you are not biblical. It is easy to be biblical if you are not relevant. You need to be both relevant and biblical. It is a not a strategy. It is a lifestyle.

John 3:16 tells us that God so loved the world. Therefore, we must love people just as God does.

At the same time, 1 John 2:15 tells us to love not the world, meaning that we should not love the world’s value system. There are three parts to the world’s value system that we must avoid:

1. Lusts of the Flesh
   - temptation to feel
   - heathenism
   - sex
2. Lusts of the Eyes
   - temptation to have
   - materialism
   - salary
3. Pride of Life
   - temptation to be
   - secularism (saying I don’t need God)
   - status

5 Keys to Engaging Culture

There is no such thing as culture - but cultures. Geography is far more important than age to determine culture. It takes different types of churches to reach different types of people.

The purposes of God never change, but the way we fulfill those purposes change over time with cultural change.

Five keys to engaging culture are:

1. Humility
2. Integrity
3. Generosity
4. Civility
5. Clarity (simplicity)

Humility is being honest about weaknesses. Arrogance will keep you from engaging culture. Humility requires teachability.

If you can’t learn from other people, you have an ego problem.

If you want God’s power in your life, God’s blessing in your life, you must build your life around humility, integrity, and generosity because they are the antidotes to the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eyes, and pride of life.

Becoming Biblical and Relevant

The answer to becoming biblical and relevant simultaneously is not isolation like the Amish or imitation, but incarnation (insulation and infiltration).

We need to be like a salt water fish that lives in the water (infiltrates) all of its life but whose flesh is unseasoned (insulated) from the salty brine. Be in the world ministering without being affected by the world’s value system.

The problem with a lot of churches today is they would rather be creative than effective.

The biggest problem that I see among pastors is a limited perspective.

You cannot predict the future. All I know is it will change at a more rapid pace.

You can, however, focus on what will not change. There will always be people who need to be loved or who feel guilty, resentful, or lonely. People will always need purpose, meaning, and a cause to live for.

If you can take your message and make it simple, God will bless it.