Since so many people are unchurched in your state, it makes sense that sound doctrine is in short supply. However, you and I both know that sound doctrine is not guarenteed in highly churched areas either (i.e. Bible Belt). The Bible Belt is great at programs. We have it nailed. But you’re right, we are terrible with community. What is the church? It’s a living, breathing body…not a building. People in the south need to hear that message over and over. While you may battle unbelief, biblical illiteracy, and secularism, we battle complacency and pragmatism. What’s the solution to both? The Gospel. Preach it, teach it, proclaim it, live it. The gospel will change things. It will change people.

As a side note, I love the fact that you use words like “bombin’” to describe a sermon you heard recently. You are so ghetto fabulous L-Dub.

Analogy: You can serve prime rib any number of ways – on a fine silver plate, on a plastic plate, chopped into small pieces and dumped in a Styrofoam cup. You can serve it rare, you can serve it well done. You can serve it at a restaurant, at home, at a nursing home. It doesn’t matter how you serve it, it’s still prime rib.

But the moment you take ground beef, roll it into a patty, grill it and serve it to a friend calling it “prime rib”… well, that’s no longer prime rib. You have compromised prime rib.

You can “serve” the gospel any number of ways and it remains the gospel – some of these ways may be more effective or less effective, but it’s still the gospel. But at the moment the gospel becomes compromised, it’s no longer the gospel that you’re teaching.

Seriously…I ask myself your question and several other questions as it relates to connecting with the surrounding community. The difficulty is found in drawing boundaries. Some might say that boundaries are unnecessary. Some would say that we need more boundaries. What’s the answer? I think the proper response is to remind people that thoughtful discernment is necessary in most situations. Black and white is easy. It is the gray areas that require more work. Unfortunately, many people are not willing to take the extra steps to be thoughtfully discerning. We want a quick, easy answer and we want it now. (I think that was a bit of a tangent…possibly)

I think Mark Driscoll has a great way of explaining this dilemma. You have two hands: one closed and one open. The closed hand holds the message. The message of Christ, the Gospel, is closed to outside influence. It is closed to change. It is never changing. The open hand holds the methods…how we communicate and live out the message. It is open to influence and change. As long as the message remains the same, the methods can change and should change as the culture changes. When we start “rethinking” some of the core doctrines of Christian faith, then I believe we have crossed the line from contextualization to compromise. I know that is surface level explanation and we can dive into some of these things further.

What do you think? What have you noticed up in Washington that has been different from back home in Tennessee? Observations? Bueller…Bueller?