I hear what you are both saying about uniformity, but I can’t agree with either position. Mason seems to be calling for complete uniformity. My question would be, “To what cultural form?” There is no neutral culture. All churches have a cultural form. Should we make all churches country music? Hip hop? 1950’s protestant?

Also, Trevin, I don’t know you well enough to know what you think about this, but I don’t believe God has cancelled his call for Israel to be Israel (Rom. 11:2). Therefore, Jewish culture (I’m keeping it simple and I know there is no one Jewish culture), is not equatable with simply any culture out there. The Jewish way of life is uniquely commanded to continue and be passed down generation to generation. This is not the same as having Hispanic, Korean, or Anglo churches to draw homogeneous groups together. It is a mandate for Jews to continue being Jews. At least that is the only way I can see Jewishness continuing and it seems to follow from passages like Romans 11 and 14.

Derek Leman
derek4messiah.wordpress.com

They joined the Reformed Church however precisely because of the unity of believers.

This is a reality the modern American Hungarian Reformed church is rediscovering.

I’m with you that the Church should not be divided into Jew-Gentile groups. But I also realize that people desire to worship according to certain cultural forms. In a city with a large group of Romanians, it’s not surprising to see Romanians gathering together to worship in their own tongue and according to their own traditions. I can see the usefulness for different churches with different traditions.

But you’re right… we should be aware and concerned about the danger of seeing our cultural forms as integral to our worship or the gospel itself. Such a move necessarily turns the gospel inward and threatens the nature of our proclamation that Jesus is Lord over all.