Cultural relevance is a red herring

Does culture change the church or does church change the culture?

Or should we be adapting to culture and working out the best ways to be affective christians within the culture?

I am not always convinced it is the churches job to change the culture, we need to adapt, change and modify to really have an impact on it but do we need to change it. But then again "kingdom come" is a form of imperialism, maybe we do? What we definitley mustn't do is withdraw from the culture around us and create our own little culture.

I once heard Pete Greig say this of the church "We are not called to be culturally relevant but we are called to be culturally present"

Cultural relevance is a red herring. We do however need to be present in culture, light in darkness, salt in a saltless world!

Thats why the Christian worship band culture really gets under my skin, because it further highlights how far removed the church can be from the culture that surrounds us! Instead of being present in culture we absent ourselves from it and create our own one. I think part of this happens because it is easier. For a new artist the path of least resistance is to work in a ready made market who are crying out for the next song to give them goosebumps and make them feel good about their lifestyle choices. It's lazy, not very biblical and breeds a reclusive church culture.

A real artist would break into the culture not remove himself from it.

Light in light, salt in an already salty environment, it doesn't work for me.