Why the church must engage in Popular Culture

I read several books during my study break. One of them was called Pop Goes the Church: Should the Church Engage in Pop Culture? by Tim Stevens. It was a fantastic study in current trends among churches on the cutting edge. But it was incredibly well grounded in scripture, too. In fact, in addition to using Biblical references throughout, Stevens has an entire chapter dedicated to the Biblical examples of Jesus and other pivotal figures of faith engaging in popular culture so that the church would expand and so that people would come to know Jesus.

Here are a few highlights from the book:

• “The world of entertainment and mass communications – through television, radio, contemporary music, movies, magazines, art, video games and pop literature – is indisputably the most extensive and influential theological training system in the world.” -George Barna
  
  “…We cannot speak to a culture we do not know or one we despise…We have to learn its language and discover how Christ has already gone ahead of us, inculturated in some of media’s values, stories, and style.”
  -Richard Leonard
  
• Average American home has more TV’s than people – averaging 3 sets. Typical TV is on 8 hours and 14 minutes each day. Typical person watches 28 hours of TV a week. By the time he or she is 65, today’s American will have spent 9 years watching their favorite shows.
• Average person today spends 31 hours and 25 minutes each month surfing the net.
• In 2006, 1.5 billion songs were downloaded on the Internet.
• In 1006, Americans spent 9.4 billion on movie tickets to see 600 films.
• New York Times Magazine said in early 2007 that the avg. resident there is exposed to 5000 ads per day.
  

And much of the conversation is spiritual. Stevens concludes on p. 62 "People in our culture are searching for God, but the church has failed them in this search."

p. 67: "The question is not ‘Does pop culture have an influence?’ The question is, ‘What am I going to do with it? How will I respond? What choice will I make?’"

In Chapter 7, Stevens says “The reason people do not come to church is that they don’t think there is anything you are going to offer that will help them...So an effective church is busy identifying people’s needs and letting the community know you have some help they should consider. If you speak their language, there is a better chance they will come to a service. If they do that, the odds increase significantly that they will hear how much they matter to God, and they just might respond.”

He proposes that the 3 legs of the stool for planning effective services are Relevant Topic, Cultural Theme, and Biblical Truth.

Stevens finishes the book with cases studies of 20 different churches each engaging popular culture in different ways, all of them remaining true to their unique identity and to the message of the Gospel.

One of the most compelling quotes I found in the book was from one of these 20 churches:

“When being creative, do not react to churches around you that criticize you. When you pull back so that you don’t go too far for them (or for your most conservative members), you land in ‘no man’s land.’ This is where you are not relevant enough to impress the unchurched, yet you are too relevant to impress the ‘old guard.’ You have to decide your goal: Focus on reaching new people or focus on keeping disgruntled people. You can’t do both.”
-Bil Cornelius, Pastor
Bay Area Fellowship

I confess that there have been many times that I have succumbed to pressure, reverted to poor leadership, and led our church right into 'no man's land' as a result. I am committed - as committed as I have ever been - to leading PCC to be as effective as we possibly can at reaching people who are far from God and outside of other churches.

If you are reading this and you are a part of Powhatan Community Church or are considering becoming a part, I strongly encourage you to get this book and read it. (I am requiring most of our staff to read it.) It will help you to understand why we do what we do. Further, it will give you a context to some of the more risky and controversial things we do in the coming weeks and months.

Hang on to your hats...the next wave of growth is coming!