Recently I caught up with one of the workshop presenters at our November 6th Gathering, Christian Ray Flores. Christian is a Renew.org co-founder and has an interesting perspective on culture and the church. Christian pastors a church in Austin, TX, and he sports a cowboy hat in his current Facebook profile. What culture would you think Christian Ray Flores belongs to?
The answer is more complicated than it appears.
If you zoom out, you’ll see that before pastoring The Tribe in Austin, he served as a pastor in Russia and Ukraine. And if you zoom out even further, you’ll realize that before he was a pastor, he was a hugely successful Russian rock star. Keep zooming out, and you’ll realize that Christian speaks 4 languages and has lived on 4 continents. He is quite literally a Chilean-Russian rock-star-turned-pastor leading a church in Austin, TX. So what’s his culture?
Hold that thought for this question: What culture does the Church belong to?
Here’s where Christian Ray Flores offers a fascinating answer. If you care whether or not the church reaches the surrounding culture, you’ll want to hear Christian’s answer.
