Spend any amount of time in London and you’ll find yourself trying to get around on “The Tube,” the London Underground subway
system.  Imagine – You and a friend just finished riding the London Eye and are now strolling across Westminster Bridge.  As you both admire Big Ben, your stomach growls loudly, startling your friend and letting you both know that it’s time to eat.  The downside

is that you just shelled out £29.50 for your trip on the Eye and seriously cut into your meal money.  You and your friend weigh your options as you get closer to Westminster Station on the other side of the bridge.  Finally you and your friend look at each other and say in unison, “Takeaway!”  You walk into the station to take a train to Paddington.  Moving past other travelers and through the turnstyles you both make your way to the track.  Your stomach keeps growling, but your friend’s stomach kindly joins the conversation.  It’s a bit difficult to focus on much else once the train pulls up.  Fortunately a friendly British voice calls out a familiar
reminder to you as you board:  MIND THE GAP!  Between the platform and the train is a slight gap that people are warned of so that they don’t hurt themselves boarding.  This phrase is so common that it can be found on tee shirts, coffee mugs, and anything else that can be screen printed.  It also serves to alert Christians of their need to mind the cultural gap.

Mind the Gap

Christians find themselves in an ever-widening cultural gap that they need to mind.  That gap has always been there but it is becoming ever more apparent in a society that has long since loosed itself from its Christian moorings and cast itself adrift.  The

plates are shifting, and a chasm is opening up.  For some, it yawns menacingly directly beneath their feet.  With one foot on either side of an ever-widening gap, time is running out for some Christians to quickly choose where they stand.

Am I being overly-melodramatic?  I really don’t think so.  There used to be a time in our society when Christians and non-Christians held a shared set of values.  As a matter of fact, values or morals is how this was typically described.  A shared value system allowed many people to get along well and have little to quibble over.  That’s generalizing, of course, but it contrasts well our current situation.  Shared values within our culture are no longer shared, or, at least, they are no longer defined the same way.  We value truth yet differ in its definition or even authority.  We value personal responsibility but see it through different lenses; some view it in the context of community, while others are more concerned with individuality.

The good news is that while the lines were once blurred there is a growing distinction in what it means to be Christian.  Believers have an opportunity for distinction in this world that many haven’t had for quite some time.  It is often difficult to share the gospel with that neighbor who feels she believes the same as you but without the religious stuff.  That’s a misnomer anyway, because the gospel was never simply about living a good life or following the right code.  Right living is a result of the gospel, but a redeemed life is the goal.  Christians who choose to remain undiluted will have the privilege of being different, of showing the distinctive nature of the Christian faith.  As my pastor, Mark Adams, recently said in a sermon, “There is no such thing as a Christian life that is not counter-cultural.”

While the ever-widening culture gap brings distinction, it’s not necessarily the exalted kind.  This isn’t all “good press” that we are talking about here.  In the midst of moral revolution and cultural decay, choosing to stand with the truth of Scripture is unpopular and makes you the target.  It also serves to bridge the gap, and it is what God calls Christians to do.  “And I sought for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the breach before me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none” (Ezekiel 22:30).

God is calling believers to “mind the gap,” to embrace the distinction and even dishonor that comes from staying true to God’s Word and the Christian faith.  To shrink from this is equivocation with culture, resulting in diluted living.  Christians must be undiluted, living as the “light of the world” without being hidden under a bushel.

I have just begun a sabbatical and plan to explore this passion of mine – helping Christians to live undiluted lives in the midst of cultural change.  My prayer is that these efforts serve to strengthen all of us to hold fast to the truth without retreating, and so become a bridge to a world that needs Christ.