At a Glance
In a day and age when our churches are undergoing increasing pressure from culture to sit down and be quiet, how do pastors balance clear biblical preaching while also connecting its principles to our current cultural climate? We have all seen pastors who lean too heavily on engaging in the culture at the expense of the Scripture, or those who purely preach the Word without ever connecting it to the congregation’s lives.
This week we had a great time with Pastor Blaine Braden from Eastmont Church in Oregon, discussing how to stay grounded and relevant as the church in a post-Christian culture.
What You'll Hear
- Pastor Blaine’s Story (0:00)
- How can a church find unity and fulfill its purposes with multiple generations? (8:00)
- Contemporary challenges facing churches, and a background on the cultural landscape in Oregon (22:00)
- Pressures from within the church and without in the broader culture (33:14)
- Lanes of authority God has granted to the church and state (48:32)
- The important difference between methodology and theology in our churches (56:33)
- How can we provide expository preaching and still speak biblically to cultural issues? (1:07:34)
Using the link above, you can read the transcript, listen along, and adjust the speed of the podcast while you listen.
“It is far greater to have pressure from the outside of the church and unity inside, than to have pressure and problems inside and unity to the outside.”
Pastor Blaine Braden (45:26)
Go Deeper
Root To Fruit
Root-to-Fruit’s mission is based on a conviction that God’s truth has the power to transform individuals, organizations, communities and even nations. Organizations are transformed when its leaders and staff confront cultural lies, and instead embody and proclaim God’s biblical truths. Helping organizations to do this is the beating heart of our mission. Understanding a biblical worldview creates space for people to assess their own worldview in contrast to God’s truth. A biblical worldview begins with two foundational assumptions:
- Jesus is King over all, and
- His Word is truth.
When an organization disciples a culture built on a foundation of these twin truths, its leaders and staff begin to work in harmony, with a common language to flourish.
A biblically empowered worldview reconciles broken relationships with God, self, others and the environment. Out of a renewed sense of identity in God’s image, the leaders and staff improve their spiritual and physical livelihoods through individual responsibility, trust, respect and hard work. Leaders and staff together begin to define the desired transformation, own it and are accountable for the outcome.
Discipling Nations: The Power of Truth to Transform Cultures
Have Christians underestimated the power of God’s truth to transform entire societies? In Discipling Nations, Darrow Miller builds a powerful and convincing thesis that God’s truth not only breaks the spiritual bonds of sin and death but can free whole societies from deception and poverty. Completely revised and updated for the third edition, Discipling Nations will challenge, reenergize, and equip Christians everywhere who labor to see His kingdom come, His will be done.The Kingdomizer Training Course
A Kingdomizer advances the truth, goodness, and beauty of God’s Kingdom in the world in which they live. The Kingdomizer Training Program is a series of online courses designed to equip you to live out Christ’s truth and redemptive love in transforming ways.
The Kingdomizer Training Program teaches you a true, Biblical Worldview and how to use that worldview to impact others.
Quotes
“And so I think there was a credibility crisis within the church based on where our convictions lay. I don’t think COVID created conviction, I think it exposed it. … And so if you had no convictions on the importance of the Sunday gathering, well, then you’re going to play semantic games for the next twelve months about why what you’re doing is actually more like the early church, right? If you didn’t have a deep rooted conviction in the authority of the Scriptures, well, then we’re going to have messages that are more watered down to kind of tailor to the culture that we think what they want to hear.” Pastor Blaine Braden (33:02)
“I think that there have been a lot of dividing lines drawn (during Covid). In some ways, it’s unfortunate because I think there’s less friendship among churches because of our different responses. But I also think it’s really important, because truth matters. And church matters, and clarity matters.” Pastor Blaine Braden (33:43)
“It is far greater to have pressure from the outside of the church and unity inside, than to have pressure and problems inside and unity to the outside.” Pastor Blaine Braden (45:26)
“We’re either going to try to appease the state to be in their good graces (during Covid). But in doing that, we’re actually going to have disunity inside our church, or we can choose to have unity inside our church through clarity and truth. And in doing so, we know we’re going to draw the attention of our city and of our state.” Pastor Blaine Braden (48:00)
“Because the cumulative effect of faithful expositional preaching over, you know, ten, twenty, thirty, forty years, that cannot be replaced. And that will give more spiritual depth to your people than doing the kind that’s coming at us right now. There should be a timelessness to preaching. I want my people to be able, in 20 years, to go to our website and go, ‘Man, they preach through Acts, what did they say about this, and it not be so tethered to the immediacy of our city, that you actually aren’t learning the Bible.’” Pastor Blaine Braden (1:17:14)
