Culture Making: For the Church, For Christians, or Both?

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: Christianity, church, city, contextualization, culture making, Gospel, idolatry, incarnational, theology, urban, Urban Tulsa Weekly, video, work
• Date: Jun 28,2011

Is the church called to transform culture?

Are Christians supposed to engage their callings in society for the sake of the Gospel? If so, what does that look like?

I am passionate about Christ-followers living out their giftings in the domains of society. In fact, I think the church would do well to develop a more robust theology of work for their people. Far too many see the work of “ministry” as relegated to only a select few. Not until we “clergify” everyone will we see culture renewed and restored. But what about the church as a whole?

The Gospel Coalition posted a video this morning via Twitter that I think gets at this conversation in a very helpful way:

Chandler, Horton, and Keller on the Church in Culture from The Gospel Coalition on Vimeo.

After watching the video, you can see this is a difficult discussion to wade through. The church as an institution should be slow to see itself as a “culture maker.” But as Matt Chandler says, I believe the Bible is clear that the church is supposed to champion individual Christians enacting the Gospel through their gifts and callings in society.

We all make up the priesthood of believers (1 Peter 2:4-10). All that come to Jesus are being built up into a spiritual abode. We are the stones being placed together to proclaim the excellencies of the Chief Cornerstone. This happens wherever we are. And whatever we are. Pastor, firefighter, politician, homemaker, student. In these spheres, we have the opportunity to shape culture.

I have always loved to write. God instilled a love for words at an early age. My mom tells me I would read the newspaper to my grandparents as “entertainment” when I was the wee age of 3. One of my college professors would always tell me that I was in the wrong line of work (music) and that I should seriously pursue something in the English field. I didn’t listen to him. At least not in the way he saw it.

A couple of months ago, I was having coffee with a fellow church planter and friend in town and he asked me if I had any interest in contributing once a month to the religion column in the Urban Tulsa Weekly. UTW is Tulsa’s independent weekly newspaper with a circulation of about 35,000 distributed to the metro area. It truly is Tulsa’s alternative news weekly.

I told him I needed to pray about it but would get back to him soon. Within a few days, I felt like God wanted me to pursue this. I’ve had the honor of writing a few articles for UTW and now, I’m writing three times a month for their “Above and Beyond” column. It is an awesome privilege.

What does this have to do with culture making? Well, as a pastor, I am regularly getting the opportunity to winsomely share the Gospel in a secular news medium. Like much printed media in today’s world, I don’t know how many people read the UTW (although I’ve been told its readership is quite high), let alone a religion column, but I believe I’m doing Kingdom work “outside” of the institution of the church. Is this culture making? I think so.

I am praying that in some small way, God uses this opportunity to make Himself famous. I’m thankful to bring the good news of Jesus within the pages of a weekly that is passionate about many things that I’m passionate about: urban development, the arts, issues of justice, etc. But I’m also excited that this column is able to sit alongside other columns that reek of some of our culture’s idols. Amidst the cornucopia of issues in the UTW, I’m praying Jesus shines through.

I will be reposting my UTW articles here on transformission.com so stay tuned. Let me know what you think. Engage in conversation. Shalom…

the church for whom?

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: church, church planting, city, contextualization, culture, Great Commission, incarnational, irreligion, mercyview, missiology, mission, missional, missional church, missional living, post-Christendom, relevintage, sent, urban, video, vision
• Date: Nov 7,2010

As I prepared to move to Tulsa to plant mercyview [Lord willing, a network of missional communities and expressions scattered all over this city and region], I had countless interviews “exegeting” the culture here, sitting under the wisdom of Tulsans from many different sectors: business, government, religion, etc.

Before I even visited the first time, I knew I was stepping into a highly churched culture. My research was confirmed as I talked with folks here. And in my conversations, it became very clear to me that new churches, for the most part, were contending for the same small slice of the pie that represents the “reachable” people groups.

I realized that Tulsa is in desperate need of a mobilization of Jesus-followers who are concerned about bringing spiritual and cultural renewal to the forgotten, the broken, and the wounded in the city; servant-messengers who are in the city, for city. Particularly, for those not-yet-Xians…

Michael Frost echoes this sentiment in this video:

notes from mercyview lab #4

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: acts, Bible, Bible study, Christianity, church, church planting, city, community, culture, culture making, emerging culture, evangelism, Gospel, Great Commission, homosexuality, incarnational, Israel, mercyview, missiology, mission, missional, missional church, missional living, Old Testament, Paul, post-Christendom, Poverty, religion, Revelation, social issues, social justice, theology, urban, work
• Date: Aug 3,2010

This past Sunday, it was great to see new and familiar faces, to intercede for one another and the future of mercyview, to dig into the Sacred Text, and to dialogue at mercyview lab #4 [we have one more next week before we move into a new phase for our burgeoning community].

We are fervently praying that as we approach the end of the summer, the “culture” of mercyview is crystal clear and God will call together a group of men and women who have an overwhelming desire to plant the Gospel deeply in their hearts and in the great city of Tulsa.

Here is the content from the previous labs if you’re interested:

–-Lab #1: The Gospel: The Center of Everything [download synopsis here]

–-Lab #2: Salt and Light: An Alternative City Within a City, For the City [download synopsis here]

–Lab #3: A Missional People: Sent as Missionaries to be Witnesses [download synopsis here]

In Lab #4, we talked about how a center-city church, seeking the “shalom” (peace) of the city, can redeem culture. Here is a synopsis:

–In Jeremiah 29, we find the purpose of the Babylonian exile for the Israelites was cultural assimilation and while the Jews were living in that place, as a counter-culture, they were to engage fully in life, even in the life of a city that was ostensibly opposed to God, “seeking the peace and prosperity” of the city.

–This may sound radical to us today but it is very much in accord with what Jesus deemed to be the second greatest commandment, “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt. 22:39). And It is right in line with the idea that Israel, God’s people at that time, was to be a “blessing for the nations” (Gen. 12:3)

God’s invention

–An Old Testament city would look like a human settlement surrounded by a fortification or a wall. This was very important because behind the wall, human society was very different than what existed outside of the city in the countryside.

–The average city in Old Testament times was 1000-3000 people and 205 people per acre (NYC has 105 people per acre). What made a city back then was not “bigness” but density, diversity, and mixed use (within 10 minutes you can walk to work, eat, learn, shop, live). The same is true for today’s cities.

–It is widely understood that when God tells Adam and Eve to “have dominion” and “fill the earth” he is directing them to build a God-honoring civilization. They are to bring forth the riches that God put into creation by developing science, art, architecture, human society. Therefore, God was calling Adam and Eve to be city builders.

–This new Jerusalem is the city is the Garden of Eden, remade. We began in a garden but will end in a city. God’s purpose for humanity is urban! Why? Because the city is God’s invention and design not just a sociological phenomenon or invention of humankind.

–City building is an ordinance of God just like work and marriage. God made the city to be a developmental tool, designed to draw out the riches he put into the earth, nature and the human soul at creation.

Cities develop culture

–Cities are the main creators of culture, values, and belief.

–Whatever develops in the center-city tends to have a profound effect throughout the rest the city, region, nation, and world. Influence tends to move from the center-city outward.

–In the latter half of the twentieth century in America, many churches left the cities and moved out to the suburbs. Today many evangelical Xians in the United States bemoan the fact that they have lost their influence on the culture. The reason is obvious: they are no longer in the cities.

How cities develop culture

1. The city as a place of refuge and safety

–It has always been a place where people come who are too weak to live in other places. When Israel moved into the promised land, the first cities were built by God’s direction as ‘cities of refuge’, where the accused person could flee for safety and civil justice. Thus God invented cities to be a sign of divine, not self, protection.

–Even today, people like the homeless, or new immigrants, or the poor, or people with ‘deviant’ lifestyles, must live in the city. The city is always a more merciful place for minorities of all kinds. Why? The density of the city creates the possibility of strong minority communities.

–Density creates diversity.

2. The city as a cultural “mining” center

–Even the description of the wicked city of Babylon in Revelation 18 shows how the power of the city draws out the resources of creation-of the physical world and of the human soul.

–Cities draw and gather together human resources and tap their potential for cultural development as no other human-life organization structure can.

–The city was designed by God to do, as an instrument of glorifying Him, by ‘mining’ the riches of creation and building a God-honoring civilization.

3. The city as the place to meet God.

–Cities are the key to evangelism in any area. Paul’s missionary journeys essentially ignored the countryside. When he entered a new region, he planted churches in the biggest city, and then left.

–Because of the diversity and intensity of the cities, urbanites are much more open to radically new ideas – especially the gospel. Because they are surrounded by so many people like and unlike themselves and so much more mobile and subject to change, urbanites are far more open to change/conversion than any other kind of resident.

–We need to care about the center-city: We need to be concerned about the city, if for no other reason than our future is likely to be profoundly influenced by what happens there.

–We need to change our view of the center-city: It is not an evil place from which we ought to flee. Negative views are directly linked to disengagement.

–We need to understand the crucial importance of the center-city: We need to commit ourselves to living in the city. All true ministry is incarnational. We are unlikely to have much effect on the city if we are not living where we can be salt and light.

–We need to engage the center-city at many different levels: proclaiming Christ to individuals and communities, doing justice, engaging culture, and integrating faith and work

–We need to reach the center-city to reach the rest of your city, the region, and the world

–We need to reach the center-city to reach your own heart with the gospel: You will eventually come to see that you need the city more than the city needs you. Tim Keller says it this way:

1. In the city you’ll find a) people that seem ‘hopeless’ spiritually, and b) people of other religions or no religion and of deeply non-Christian lifestyles that are wiser, kinder, and deeper than you. This will shock you out of your moralism and force you to either finally believe the gospel of sheer grace, or give it up altogether.

2. In the city you will find that the poor and the broken are often much, much more open to the idea of gospel grace and much more dedicated to its practical outworkings than you are.

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[1] Adapted from Allen Barth and Tim Keller, “A Vision for our Cities,” from Redeemer City to City.

[2] Adapted from Tim Keller, “A Bibilcal Theology of the City,” from Evangelicals Now.

[3] Adapted from Tim Keller, “City Vision” from UPL Consultation 2 mp3.

[4] Adapted from Barth and Keller, “A Vision for our Cities,” from Redeemer City to City.