One Surry Hills-ite emailed me to check the context that I used in yesterday's post about Jesus living in Newcastle.

I should clarify something for the Surry Hills people. Living in Surry Hills means it is entirely natural if you act Surry Hills-ish. Living like a Novocastrian there would be just as contrived as the opposite way around.
My clumsy attempt at an analogy was simply meant to illustrate that we should be Christians existing naturally in our setting ... by getting our fundementals right (ie relationship with Jesus and knowledge of his word) we can effectively be "in" without being "of" our setting.

It get's a bit more difficult when a local church attempts to formulate their own culture. Being just a lay person, I can only admire the efforts of a local church leadership when they try to package their message in a way that is readily consumed by their target audience.

Here's the conundrum: so much of the bible is shockingly different to the pervading culture, no matter where it is. Jesus displayed an approach that is at odds with typical human motivations. He was not interested in personal gain, accumulation of stuff, achieving power or position socially, or fighting for his "rights". So how do you present these non-typical cultural mores to a seeker?

You can't do away with them, because they are foundational aspects of our faith. At the same time, you don't want to look loopy and disuade people from inquiring (as someone brought up pentecostal, I'm all to aware of how weird we can look).

So, I'm inclined to think that the answer is in each of us becoming well grounded in our own faith, and existing naturally as people who are undergoing transformation. If this means you live in Surry Hills, it would just mean that you keep your bible in your tsubi pocket, whereas someone in Newcastle would keep it in their King Gees. The culture of the church you attend would then simply be an extension of the lives its members are living. Takes some pressure off the church to have a "strategy" for creating a culture. Being real first, means that the church culture will simply evolve (and probably end up looking similiar to the surrounding setting but with some unique Christian aspects).