Often the church is reactionary. We get caught up with how we are different than the culture, and the emphasis of church can become expounding the difference.
It is important of course for the church to remind itself how it is different than the world, but often the concern with the difference drowns out the proclamation of the gospel. Often many of the differences the church has with the culture are a very small percent of the message of the bible.
Yet often the differences between the church and culture in many churches take up a massive amount of the time in the pulpit. We need in the church to insist that what scripture finds as most important we find as most important.
The differences between the church and the world are so over rehashed that we almost don't need to hear them again in many churches. And yet often the gospel and many other parts of Christian ethics go critically under covered.
The church in the current day is often reactionary. It plays its message in opposition to the world. The church would be better served to play to its strength.
The gospel is the power by which the world is overcome. If you want to make cultures more Christian all that matters is a success of the gospel. All Christian ethic and Christian living flow from the gospel.
We can argue the philosophical debates and oppose culture all we wish, but the gospel is where success or failure is found for the church on these issues.
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