Cedar Park – Cathedral Church

Dr. Joseph Fuiten

Sunday, November 25, 2001

Cedar Park Assembly of God

 

In January 2002 we intend to launch a new church.  It will meet in the Chapel of the Resurrection on Sunday mornings.  The ideas are still being developed, but the key idea will be a liturgical format for the service.  The idea of multiple churches fits with out “Cathedral Church” concept.  This will be our 6th church that is part of Cedar Park.  We have the Fijian, Japanese, and Spanish Churches, plus Cedar Park Northshore and Bothell. For those that are new, or who are not part of our leadership, I have printed a copy of my notes from this fall’s “Leader’s Day” where we outline of concepts of the Cathedral Church.  You can get a copy of it at the information desk.

I have felt for a long time there was a need for this type of service on the Eastside.  Over the last three years I have interviewed a number of ministers without success.  I remember interviewing a couple of Episcopal priests.  When they start swearing in my office on the initial interview I’m thinking to myself, this really is not going to work. 

In the last 60 years there has been a dramatic shift in the spiritual culture of Puget Sound.  For the first forty years of the last century, Mark Matthews was the Pastor of First Presbyterian in Seattle.  He was dominant in the political life of the city and was probably as conservative or more conservative than I am.  His life and ministry is a good example of what things were like back then.  His 8,800 members were testimony to the strength of his approach.  He was definitely a cool guy and a good role model for any minister wanting to impact a culture for Christ.  Since he died just before WWII, the whole religious climate has changed.  We now have several churches in Seattle with homosexuals as Pastors.  Many of the churches have abandoned the ancient foundations of their denominations.  I graduated from a Methodist University, and I can tell you that what I experienced was spiritually tragic.  The professors and chaplain had left John Wesley and Methodism in the dust.

I believe that many people who have experienced the liturgical style growing up like that style and would still attend churches of that style if they could stand the new interpretations of the Bible.  I believe that a church that is evangelical in its doctrine, and liturgical in its style, would be attractive to many people who might otherwise not have a church home.

Such considerations cause me to ask two questions:

 

Should the preaching of the Gospel be adjusted to fit the audience?

If so, what are the dangers of that adjustment?

 

Scripture Reading:  1 Corinthians 9:16-23 Page 911

16 Yet when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, for I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! 17 If I preach voluntarily, I have a reward; if not voluntarily, I am simply discharging the trust committed to me. 18 What then is my reward? Just this: that in preaching the gospel I may offer it free of charge, and so not make use of my rights in preaching it. 19 Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. 20 To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. 21 To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law), so as to win those not having the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. 23 I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.

 

            In Chapter 9, Paul is defending his life and ministry against detractors.  He says that a minister should be supported from his or her ministry just as the Temple priests received a portion of the food and offerings given to the Temple.  Although he received such assistance elsewhere, he had not done it in Corinth.  As an Apostle to the Corinthian Church, which he was by virtue of founding the church, he was certainly entitled to such a benefit.  However, he gave up that right and acted as a slave to the people to whom he preached.

            In verses 20-23 he gives a most eloquent expression of his determination to win people to Jesus.  What it shows is Paul willingness to adjust his style and his message in order to speak to the culture of his day.  His preaching was not about him, it was about the people he hoped to reach.  By making the adjustment, he was serving the people.  It serves as a good model even to us today.

 

20 To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. 21 To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law), so as to win those not having the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. 23 I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.

 

            Just prior to preaching in Corinth, Paul had preached in Athens.  In Athens, on Mars Hill, he talked about the unknown God.[i]  He spoke to the issues of their religion, but, as Acts 17:18 shows, he came back to Jesus and the resurrection.  In Acts 17: 24-25 he attacks one of their central ideas, that their gods lived in the temple that they made on the Parthenon and around the city of Athens.  God should not be thought of as “an image made by man's design and skill,” as he says in verse 29.  He even goes so far as to call such ideas “ignorance.”  In doing this he is attacking the very core of Athens.  The Parthenon stands over the city like the Space Needle over Seattle, except bigger, better, more beautiful and much more dominant.  He is hitting their religion, their culture, and their politics right in the nose.  There was no compromise in the fundamental message.  All that changed was the approach.

            When we study the methods of Paul in Acts it is easy to see that he spoke to the people of his day in a language they understood.  How he presented the Gospel was based upon the particular group that he was addressing.  The same is true of the Apostle John in writing the Revelation.  In particular, his comments to the seven churches of Asia were filled with local references and angles.  It just seems natural and obvious to do this.

            In the same way, if there are tens of millions of Americans who were raised in a particular liturgical style of religious expression, why not continue to approach those of that group who appreciated the context?  Obviously, for those who found that approach dull and uninteresting, we would approach them in another way.

            Our point is that Gospel preaching requires accommodation to the experience of the people hearing the message.  If we must make adjustments, are there dangers associated with that?  Aren’t there plenty of examples of that going to far?  Tonight I want to use one such example in detail.  I will preach a message on “When cultural accommodation goes too far: How Mary became the Mother of God 400 years after she died.”  The short answer this morning is that there are many dangers and they must be constantly guarded against.  I have no interest in presiding over the watering down of the Gospel.

 

            Besides launching the new church, I want to encourage you to think about yourself as a preacher of the Gospel to your world.  After Easter of next year we are going to launch an effort related to the actual issues of this community.  Right now, we are gathering the information that will give us insights into this community.  After Easter, I want to preach a series of message addressing their chief concerns.  We will want to assess what our church does and how we present that to the community.  It may be that we will need to develop new programs and ministries that will speak to where the people of this community really are.  We may need to let people know what we already have.  I personally think we already have one of the strongest need-meeting ministry of any church.  We can do more.

            I don’t want you to rely upon the church for all this.  There is a part that you should play as well.  As an example, we are coming up on Christmas.  What are people thinking about Christmas?  There are the usual cast of concerns about money and presents.  Don’t people really just want to have a pleasant Christmas experience?  Why would a person want to go to the Nutcracker for the umpteenth time again this year?  It is not the plot or the music or the dance.  They go because it is Christmas and that is what you do at Christmas.  Well, you could invite someone to church with you any Sunday these next weeks.  One of our choirs will have beautiful music.  The place will be all decorated.  I will preach a Christmas related message.  Your invitation could be very simple.  You could just say, “if you want to reconnect with the spiritual part of Christmas, I’d love to have you visit our church.”  You could invite them to the drama or the special musical by the choir and orchestra.  Every Sunday night in December will be quite memorable.


[i] Acts 17:15-34

“15 The men who escorted Paul brought him to Athens and then left with instructions for Silas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible. 16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. 18 A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them asked, "What is this babbler trying to say?" Others remarked, "He seems to be advocating foreign gods." They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. 19 Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, "May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean." 21 (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.) 22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: "Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you. 24 "The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27 God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28 'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.' 29 "Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone-- an image made by man's design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead." 32 When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, "We want to hear you again on this subject." 33 At that, Paul left the Council. 34 A few men became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.”