vimeo.com/.../146937567

with to you antique roche is used to
asking some probing questions as the

senior editor of Christianity Today an
award-winning magazine founded by billy

graham he's covered the church from just
about every angle today he's moderating

discussions at the eight-letter
conference held by the Epiphany a

network it's a wake-up call of sorts for
the North American church Wendy speakers

say is complacent and confused is an
appeal to seal but what is the source of

this confusion some might say it's a
product of our culture one in which

anything goes but crouch says the church
needs to get back to culture to truly

find its way in this world why write a
book on culture I had the feeling that

we needed a new way of thinking about
culture in the north american search

because you don't have to pay very close
attention to realize that the

relationship between Christians and our
culture has gotten quite dysfunctional I

think I think often it's assumed that we
are just critics of our culture often

much of what you hear in the church
about culture is very negative and I

wanted to give us a different vocabulary
for looking at what were called to do

ask questions in the midst of culture
right but it seems that we don't really

understand culture it's such a broad
terms of can you try and define culture

for us

culture is horrifyingly large concept
some people say it's a second most

complicated word in the English language
after nature and so you know often we

use it to mean something we often use it
just a mean high culture so you know the

opera or the fine arts but culture is
not just the thing that cultured people

do

what I my favorite definition for
culture is what people make of the world

what we make of the world depends a lot
on what we believe but what if our

greater culture is one of unbelief
that's the situation in which the Church

finds itself today according to crouch

but not necessarily bad news we have
lost cultural power over a number of

generations and we're still frustrated
that we no longer have the kind of

authority and culture that we once had I
think we have to recognize many times in

history Christians have been a cultural
minority and yet it's often been at

those times that they've been the most
culturally created and have been the

greatest blessing to their cultures and
certainly the early Christians were a

tiny minority and yet were able to be
very culturally transformative in the

Roman Empire this loss has led some to
feel alienated it's led some to withdraw

and others to engage but Crouch says
neither is the best approach will that

idea of engaging culture Christians have
been really preoccupied with how do we

engage our culture how to be culturally
relevant you think that's a futile thing

to be searching for I do think engaging
falls a little short of what were called

to do I prefer to other words
cultivating culture and creating culture

so to start with creating we are made in
the image of a created God and to me

engaging culture often stops with just
sort of paying attention but we're

actually made to contribute not just to
pay attention to culture or to analyze

culture or even just to try to be
relevant to sort of keep up but we're

actually made to advance the human
project of making something of God's

world with such as a matter of imitating
being cultural like I'm putting a

Christian tag on it exactly and that's a
very easy thing to do you know you can

take a popular advertising

and just tweak a few words and make it
about Jesus you know and that's there's

just not that much

image of God in that he says humans not
only bare God's image but his creativity

to that's why he says the church needs
to reconnect with its words I'm curious

in your book you were saying that the
gospel message is itself a cultural

message website how does that work

you know I think we often think that
culture is one thing over here and and

then christianne in the Gospels this
other thing but in fact the gospel is

essentially the good news that God has
not given up on the world they got

hasn't abandoned the world to the
effects of the fall and when God begins

his intervention to redeem the world
what does he do he creates a nation the

nation called Israel he takes this one
family the family of Abraham in a

particular time in a particular place
and says I'm going to make really a

cultural tradition out of you so that
when God decides that he is not going to

abandon humanity to our own independence
from him but it's going to come back

into the human story he begins by
forming a whole nation and then that

that story culminates eventually in
Jesus who who lives in the midst of

culture and for thirty years Jesus does
nothing except what every good he

provided which is absorbed Jewish
culture absorb that story and then

fulfill that story in his own life and
changed culture and in doing so he

unleashes the greatest cultural
transformation of history

Jesus is a great place to start when
looking at how to make culture but how

does that look today Jesus do not just
deliver a message from a heavenly blimp

you know or even a heavenly broadcast
but he lived in the midst of a

particular place in time and I think
Christians are called to do that as well

at the same time Jesus did not just live
according to the horizons of the place

in time where he lived he introduced
radically new ways of relating to women

of relating to the sick

relating to those who are possessed by
demons new teachings new forms of

teaching like the parable can you give a
modern-day example of maybe how that

looks

there are two things happening right now
at a remarkably unremarkable extensive

way that are great pictures of this one
is an organization called International

Justice Mission which is a Christian
human rights organization that is not

just a group of Christian saying oh we
care about human rights to kind of a me

too and imitated kind of organization
but is actually pioneered ways to help

the rule of law work for the poor in
countries around the world and is now

influencing the way that other human
rights organizations to do their work

the other example very different is the
movie studio Pixar the most commercially

successful movie studio of our time
which is not a Christian organization

but has several senior executives and
directors who are deeply committed

followers of Christ and when you look at
the movies that Pixar makes they're not

Christian movies they're not explicitly
at all about proclaiming the gospel but

there are about offering a way to
imagine what it is to be human being

that resonates with the gospel the
reality is most of us are not going to

make films or be famous so where do we
start there are things that you can do

that people who operate at these very
high lead levels of culture cannot do so

we we need to sort of rid ourselves of
the idea that only a few people create

culture we all are creating something
and cultivating something and I think we

need to look right around us and asked
what places got put man who is a given

me as friends and partners and what
could we created our neighbors would say

wow that that brings Sholom brings peace
flourishing into our neighborhood and

this touches on the very public nature
of culture it's always shared and and

one of the mistakes we can make is is to
think that all of our cultural

creativity should happen within the
church and sort of for the sake of the

church and I would never want discourage
anyone from

being creative and church and and and
doing things and culturally excellent

ways in church but if all of our energy
goes to activities within the walls of

the church the reality is most of our
neighbors will never encounter if what

we create isn't just for our cells or
people with the same background and

believes how do we know the date the
other creations out there said the idea

of a culture war we're competing beliefs
go up against each other has tainted the

redemptive role of culture we can't
ignore the areas where we have to take a

stand

we need to balance that by taking a
stand on some things where we have

something in common with our neighbors
and we can say well I may not agree with

you about this but we should read about
this let's say in the United States

education is just something we ought to
audio to agree we can do better and so

an organization like Teach for America
which is recruiting young people to

teach him and some of the hardest
schools has a disproportionate number of

Christians there are more Christians
volunteering for Teach for America than

from any other group that's a tremendous
witness in the midst of cultural

conflict to say we care about a lot of
the same things that are neighbors care

about this idea of transforming culture
but not imposing changes on culture

often the culture wars are driven by the
desire to control culture and we never

will and we didn't even really control
it and we didn't do that good a job of

controlling when when we had control but
culture is too big to be controlled so

rather than seeking to control culture
or you've been seeking to transform

culture I kind of see that as God's job
description God is committed to human

cultures because he's committed to his
his creatures but our job is simply to

ask where God's put me right now with
the people I've been given what could I

do that will reflect God's creative
intent here and God is at work in our

culture whether we notice it or not
according to crouch get up off

which brings us back to that wake up
call if we just see ourselves as

consumers consumers are responsible for
culture thing they're responsible for

its figure out what they liked and
buying out and and critics are not

responsible either if all I do is just
complain I'm not taking responsibility

but what if I asked ok not everything is
as I wish it were as a follower of

Christ but what am I responsible to
cultivating create here then I think I'm

being not just responsible but but
faithful to God who's put me in this

time and at this place for a reason

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