A new culture

Once again William Willimon has put into words an important truth about preaching:

I don't believe that the Bible wants to "speak to the modern world." Rather, I think the Bible wants to change, convert the modern world. . . .

Rather than reaching out to speak to our culture, I think our time as preachers is better spent inculturating Twenty First Century Americans into that culture which is called church. There is no way that I can crank the gospel down to the level where any American can walk in off the street and know what it is all about within fifteen minutes. One can't even do that with baseball! You have to learn the vocabulary, the rules, and the culture in order to understand it. Being in church is something at least as different as baseball.

Amen. I highly recommend Dr. Willimon's whole essay.