Does the Church have a culture?




Culture, we’ve been told is a people’s way of life. Also, that without culture, a people is bound to go into extinction.
Growing up, it was easy to tell a born-again Christian from an unbeliever. Christians dressed and talked in a certain way.

However, today with the advent of knowledge and illumination so falsely called, none of those can be seen amongst Christians anymore.  What really happened? Did we find out that it was wrong to choose to be identified by our appearance while making sure that our inner life reflected the nature of Christ? Is it still in a bid to let them ‘come as they are’? How did the Church become such a place where there are no standards anymore? Jennifer Hudson and five other superstars performed at the Shell energy innovation day – Best Day of my life Best day of my life. They were all dressed decently at their level. Our own Yemi Alade didn’t wear bum shorts. Jennifer’s outfit looked like something for a Church outing. The reason was because they know the culture around a corporate place like Shell.

It’s good that we found the ‘truth’ about wearing certain clothes or jewelleries but can’t we at least wear them as men and women professing godliness? 1 Timothy 2:10. How is it that Christians are the most careless of all the religious worshippers?

The culture of a people is the most potent tool of colonisation. Anytime you see a country that has been colonised by another, you would notice that they talk and dress like their colonial masters. That’s the reason I am writing this in English and not Igbo. Culture is important and from every indication, the world has colonised the Church.

In the movie industries around the world, in order to depict a certain character, costumes will be changed. That goes to affirm that the way we dress or look can be read as who we are.
It's really sad to see Pastors today wearing claws in the name of nail extensions, earrings that run all the way down to the collar bones, not to mention the display of cleavages. Men sag their pants in the Church! Yes, nothing wrong with all of those because it’s not written in the Bible but how would you interpret- Phil. 4:5: Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Moderation and modesty is our simple rule. I think that's the culture of the Church.
 
A lot of my friends fuss about islamization of Nigeria and other nations of the world and I always tell them this – “the situation that offers the platform for the islamization of any people has the same potential to bring about the Christianization. The difference is how much we are ready to stand for, or sell our identity. 

What we preach is not half as effective as how we live; our culture.

Please let's bring back the culture of the Church... our identity; who we are!

2 comments:

  1. Thank my wonderful sister. I bless god for His grace on your life. Sequel to this heart piercing message, the issue is that the culture of our faith is being misunderstood because of the work of Grace. Grace has been highly misunderstood. Jesus, while He was delivering one of His most important Sermon on the Mount in the Lake of Gennesaret at Galilee, He said (in Matt. 5:17-18)- “Do not think that I came to do away with or undo the Law (of Moses) or the (writings of the) Prophets; I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For I assure you and most solemnly say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke (of the pen) will pass from the Law until all things (which it foreshadows) are accomplished”.
    Salvational Grace is only a platform to come in our unqualified and unjustifiable nature to obtain the certification and mark that would enable us walk and work with fear and tremble into the new person (Christian) we are expected to become by being holy which constitute our culture. But the challenge with most people is that they miss it. That grace is at work for us does not remove the consequence of the law; yes, Christ paid the price, but if you don’t measure up to the standard he expects you, you would have to pay it in eternity (hell fire)-Heb. 10:26-27- For if we go on willfully and deliberately sinning after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice (to atone) for our sins (that is, no further offering to anticipate), but a kind of awful and terrifying expectation of (divine) judgment and THE FURY OF A FIRE and BURNING WRATH WHICH WILL CONSUME THE ADVERSARIES (those who put themselves in opposition to God).
    It’s just like an American citizen falling into the illusion of mortgage/credit and Loan facility owing to the fact that, their system encourages it, unlike in Nigeria where it is very rare. Most people by that reason have fallen into so much debt that their life earning may not be able to pay off, unless they get another better job. The word of God says my people perish for lack of knowledge. The misunderstanding of grace is just the reason why such abnormality is found in the church, unlike some of the other belief system where the law of Moses is upheld. The truth is that if you take away that law in the their faith system there would also be tendency for some of them to fall into the category of those unserious born again.

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