More on Being in the World but Not of It

As a follow up to my last post, I found these words today on Walt Mueller's blog.  In this, he is quoting Charles Ringma, author of Resist the Powers with Jacques Ellul.

"There is no virtue in isolating ourselves from the world. This will not safeguard our spirituality. But it will certainly condemn us to irrelevance. There is also no virtue in being culturally ‘trendy' and accepting blindly the latest offering in the round of personal and social ‘cures.' At the same time, there is not merit in being out of touch with the critical issues of our time. Ellul laments that Christians are usually ‘several steps behind.' Consequently, they seek to provide answers to questions that people are no longer asking. Instead, the Christian is called to be both relevant and different. If we fail to be relevant, we cannot be heard. If we fail to be different, we have nothing to say. This calls us to both a critical immersion in the issues of the world of our day and in a withdrawal for the purposes of reflection, prayer and discernment."

I still think there comes a time when you have to withdraw from Sodom, but these are some good thoughts for living in towns that haven't yet become Sodom. 

Comments

[DLE]

"Relevance" is what you have to rely on when there's no power of the Spirit in your meetings or your ministry. Rather than repenting of our dalliances with the world and seeking God alone for all we do, we instead rely in relevance in order to merket ourselves properly.

But as British revivalist Leonard Ravenhill once said, "You never gave to advertise a fire."

[DLE]

Sorry, that should be, "You never HAVE to advertise a fire."

Oops.

[William Meisheid]

Wouldn't agree that withdrawing from Sodom and withdrawing from the world are two different things? One is a specific problem, much how Jesus withdrew from the mob that tried to throw him off the cliff, but the other is more general, such as when pulling back from the mob he didn't withdraw from Israel itself.

Just a thought from the rim...