Posted on June 15, 2011 at sometime around 11:24 am
Andy Crouch came to Northeastern Seminary this past week and lead a conference entitled Culture Making: Recovering our Creative Calling. I had a great time hearing his thoughts and connecting with many church leaders/seminary students. My friend JP, who works for Northeastern, asked that I “live tweet” the event and was glad to spread the inspiring thoughts being shared from Andy and the other teachers.
First off, I think it is important to nail down a definition of the word “culture”, since everyone has a different definition of the word. You can read Andy’s shorthand version in the picture above (which I find to be a good one).
Culture is the things we make and/or the meaning we make.
But what I would like to focus on are some of the thoughts he shared regarding how we as Christians do/should respond to the culture around us. Andy suggests that the first four responses below are reactive, whereas the last two are Biblical.
6 Ways to Respond to Culture
1.) Condemn it
One common response from Christians is to “condemn” the world around you. The idea is that the world will continue to morally decay until Christ returns, so we should condemn the culture for everything wrong with it. Looking back 60 years ago, this would be the common Christian thought. Christians should not play card games (could lead to gambling), watch any movies, or listen to any music that did not have a Christian label on it.
2.) Critique it.
Another response is to “critique” culture. This would be Read More »
Posted on March 19, 2009 at sometime around 3:47 pm
Ok. I’ll admit it. I am not a homosexual as people normally refer to with the “coming out of the closet”. However, I am coming out and saying that I am part of the Emergent Church. Sorry for the gimmick.
If you are a reader of mine, most of you will not even know what this means. There are so many different theological expressions out there (traditionally and organizationally called denominations) that interpret the Bible much differently from one another. The emergent church transcends denominational lines and is more about the manifestation of faith rather than an exact belief system. The emergent church is defined in a book called, Emerging Churches: Creating Christian Community in Postmodern Cultures by Eddie Gibbs and Ryan Bolger, (Baker Academic, 2005) as follows:
“Emerging churches are communities that practice the way of Jesus within postmodern cultures. This definition encompasses nine practices. Emerging churches (1) identify with the life of Jesus, (2) transform the secular realm, and (3) live highly communal lives. Because of these three activities, they (4) welcome the stranger, (5) serve with generosity, (6) participate as producers, (7) create as created beings, (8) lead as a body, and (9) take part in spiritual activities.” Read More »
Posted in Jesus
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Also tagged Bible, Brian McLaren, Christian living, Christianity Today, church, Dan Kimball, Emergent Church, emerging church, Inner Metro Green, Jerry Falwell, Jesus, lofitribe, postmodern, Rob Bell, Scot McKnight, Tony Jones
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