Things Have Changed (part 2 of 3)…click HERE to read part 1.
There are four options for the church when it comes to interacting with culture. We can:
- cage culture
- comply with culture
- condemn culture
- create culture
We could just completely cage culture and do our own thing, but then we cease to do exactly what Jesus told us to do in the Great Commission. When we choose to ignore culture and put it in a cage, we become irrelevant. As a response the world cages the church right back. And when you are in a cage, you can’t really reach out all that far.
We could try to be like culture and comply with it. But this isn’t a good option either because we want to shape culture rather than be shaped by it.
We could point our fingers and condemn culture but that is just a cop out. If we condemn culture, culture will condemn us. Pointing the finger is the worst form of spiritual laziness. What if instead we decided to work our tails off and offer some incredible opportunities and alternatives in our culture?
Ignoring, complying with, and condemning culture will kill the church. But there is a healthy option. It’s an option full of dangerous, real, deep, meaningful, messy life change. It’s an option that should only be taken by those who are serious about loving God and loving people. The last option is to be a part of creating culture.
The Italian artist Michelangelo said it best when he said to “criticize by creating.”
In the end, our culture will treat us just like we treat it. Jesus never called the church to be out there condemning, imitating, or ignoring culture. He called us to REDEEM it.
