Q: What are some key things for young pastors to keep in mind when they are urged to “engage the culture”?
Carson: Know what the gospel is first, comprehensively, accurately, faithfully. Work out from there. Learn to preach to your own people, not to the aggregates set out in books by Barna and Wuthnow (though much can be learned from such books). Whether the “engagement” is part of how you engage people evangelistically, or part of how Christians in your church do good in your own community, keep thinking through what the Bible itself says — and then try, like the men of Issachar, to understand your own times.
