The church is not called to be ever changing or seeking to become culturally relevant.  Cultural relevance makes the church biblically irrelevant. The call of the Christian and the church of Jesus is to be consistently reforming from the deforming effects of the culture.

What does it mean to be always reforming? The statement is rooted in a historical movement, indeed a historical revival known as the Protestant Reformation. The idea is that God’s people not only need to be capital “R” Reformed, but we need to be continually reforming. The world, the flesh, and the devil are consistently deforming the Christian, therefore, the phrase ecclesia reformata, semper reformanda (the church reformed, always reforming) became a staple statement long before bumper stickers and Christian t-shirts existed. The church is to be always moving, but moving in the right direction—back to Scripture. The church is not called to be ever changing or seeking to become culturally relevant.  Cultural relevance makes the church biblically irrelevant. The call of the Christian and the church of Jesus is to be consistently reforming from the deforming effects of the culture.

Reformation Movement

Historically the Reformation was not about liberating the church from formalism. It wasn’t about replacing lofty cathedrals with store front relevant churches. The Reformation was about liberating the people from paganism and mysticism. That protest (of the Protestant Reformation) continues to this very day. This is why we have a rich history of creeds and confessions which serve as a stake in the soil of biblical truth to say, “Here we stand.” In short, the Reformation was a move to the Bible.

When the Bible was unleashed in the pulpit, it set the world on fire with Gospel truth. The result was perhaps the greatest revival and awakening since Pentecost. When the Word of God is preached with power and calls into question the state sponsored religion of the day—the result is both praise of God by his people and persecution of the church by the culture. However, such persecution only fulfills Jesus’ words and serves as a means of church growth that destroys the efforts of God haters. This must be something that we remember as we live in a day where America seems poised to embrace a form of national religion through the social justice movement that will certainly unleash persecution on the church in America.

From Deformation to Reformation

The culture around us is consistently deforming our walk with Christ, our worship of God, and our witness of the gospel. This deformation comes through entertainment, politics, and secular education. Often the message is subtle, but it’s nevertheless present. It appears in code that goes undetected in the beginning, but such language is normalized through various media that delivers the same message repeatedly until it’s the accepted standard of the day. We see this in our current culture with words like “equality” and “systemic injustice.” What exactly do these words mean and how are they being employed?

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