In his new book, "God's Continent, Christianity, Islam and Europe's Religious Crisis," Philip Jenkins argues that Europe is really not being Islamized, that Christians from Africa and Asia also are pouring into Europe. And both Muslims and Third World Christians are running full-square into Europe's secular culture, says Jenkins, who also has written the acclaimed Next Christendom and New Faces of Christianity books.

What's interesting, the Penn State professor reports, is that the great faiths aren't fading away. Instead, Islam and Christianity are adapting to the culture around them.- The Dallas Morning News/ Editorial Columnist William McKenzie

In McKenzie's article he asked a the question: How does a faith adapt without losing its essential meaning? 

Some would say that Christianity is about Jesus, and it does not adapt to any culture, it is its own culture. Others say that the Church has been adapting to its surrounding cultures from it's inception.

Romans 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, in order to prove by you what is that good and pleasing and perfect will of God. 

Conformed meaning: Made to resemble; reduced to a likeness of; made agreeable to; suited. (Websters)

What kind of adaption is good, and how do we know when to stop adapting. When does adapting turn into conforming?

Personally, I  can see Christians adapting to diverse cultures both in good ways and bad ways; and it seems to me that the motive is the key component in understanding which side of the line we fall on.

To be actively working towards our call in the great commission we must be in the world; in its culture, understanding or at least finding a place that we can responsibly reach the lost where they are at. We can't expect the lost to come running to the church house to be saved when ever we announce a salvation service. If that was the case, everyone would be Christian, since we seem to have a church house on every street corner.

That does not work, that is why Jesus told us to "GO" into all the world. He was telling us to go where the people are. For most of the Christian world, we are not full time, so, we live in the world. We work, socialize, eat, purchase everything IN the world. So we have to find a way to live, and be Christian, while daily swimming through the rivers of our surrounding diverse cultures. 

That's one of the things I love about hanging out in coffee shops. I love to write there, have meetings there, or just hang out there. Why? Because there is a beauty in experiences the diversity of many cultures coming together.

But... just because we must learn to live, as followers of Jesus, 'in the world', this does not mean that we must became 'of the world'. I recently went with a friend of mine, for part of his bachelor party to a bar. He asked me to come and be a support. He does drink socially, but some of his co-workers drink very heavily. He had never been drunk, and wanted to make sure he had someone with him that would hold him accountable. I don't drink at all, and I have no problem helping him stay within the boundaries he and his soon to be wife talked about for his night. 

While I was at the bar, I ran into many 'Christians' I had associated with in the past that happened to be at the same bar. Some were totally wasted, and some were in very compromising situations with others. This, to me, was very disheartening. This was being in the world, and of the world.

Who knows how or why they got there. But the more Christians socialize with sin, the more we become desensitized to its draw. We come closer and closer until we've crossed the line totally and don't know or don't care how we got there. This is why many Christian couples have fallen into sexual infidelity, or become alcoholics, or drug addicts.

As Christians I think that we must adapt to the culture around us for many reasons. Yet at the very same time, it is important to remember who we are: Christians. We do not have to do what the world does. We are Christians. We are people on a mission. People with a specific purpose.

I also found that some bars are way too laud to do anything in, while others are a perfect place to let my light shine. During the night that I was with my friend, I was asked by one guy why I don't drink. I didn't say it is because I am a Christian. I told him "I have made it my goal not to start doing anything that I may have to pay a lot of money in the future to stop." He thought that was clever and then opened up about his issues with internet pornography. He said that he felt bound, which opened the door to talk about how Jesus set me free from being bound to angry, and the love of fighting. It was great. 

So, I say, don't be afraid to go into the darkness, just remember that you are light, so your natural reaction will be pushing back the darkness, because the smallest flame cannot be consumed by all the darkness in the universe. It's a scientific fact.

Samuel W. Connelly