Culturally Relevant and Biblically Faithful: Are we in the world but not of it?

When the ministers in our section (South Central Section (NY) Assemblies of God) meet in September our theme will be:
Christianity and Contemporary Culture: Responding to the need to be culturally relevant and biblically faithful.
The following scriptures will frame the discussion.

1. The first is John 17:13-18
In this passage Jesus states:
a. That it is not his desire for the Father to take the disciples out of the world.
b.That he has sent them into the world.
These two statements speak to our need to “be in the world” (i.e. culturally relevant)

At the same time Jesus:
a. States twice that the disciples are not of the world.
b. Asks the father to keep them from the evil one and sanctify them by the truth.
These statements relate to the need to be set apart by the truth and therefore, not of the world(i.e. biblically faithful).

Questions to think about
1. What does it mean to be “in the world”?
2. What does it mean to live as people who are “not of the world” and set apart by the truth?

2. The second passage is Romans 12:1, 2.
It speaks to our need to be biblically faithful – “Do not conform to this world…be transformed by the renewing of your mind…”

3. The third passage is 1 Corinthians 9:19-23.
It speaks to the need to be culturally relevant – “I have become all things to all people, that I may by all means save some”

Paul, the author of both Romans 12:1,2 and 1 Corinthians 9:19-23, did not do the very thing he asked others not to do (i.e. “conform to the world”). In other words, there is a need to relate to people in their own social/cultural setting without compromising the truth and thus failing to conform to God’s will (Rom.12:2b).

Questions to think about
1. How are we doing at fulfilling the imperatives of Romans 12:2?
2. How do Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 apply to us? Are we using all possible means to save people? Have we allowed personal traditions and/or preferences to become hindrances to people becoming part of the church? Have we wrongly assumed that the “way we have always done things” is “the way God wants us to do things”? Are we willing to accommodate to the culture where no scriptural principle is at stake?

In the past month I have had five conversations with non-Christians about faith. One is 21 yrs old, three others are in their thirties and the fifth is a 40-something. Not one of them have ever had anyone take the time to explain Christianity to them. I am finding this ignorance of Christianity more and more. Are we really living as the "sent ones" Jesus said his disciples would be?!