quickly, while the baby sleeps...

I was at the Y earlier and whilst traversing the treadmill Alastair Begg addressed the topic of our culture as it relates to the Christ-follower. I'd read a blog post about this topic last weekend that stuck with me, and I'm prompted to share. Alastair was speaking specifically of Starbucks, and how easy it is now to walk into one, pull your laptop alongside a stranger, and pretty much start up a philosophical conversation about anything. The phrase that sticks in my head was that he said we should be 'one foot in the Bible, one foot in the culture'... my paraphrase is that in order to share our stories and let the love of God pour out we need to be sure we're not cloistered away. Share the goods with the world around us, engage where we're able.

A couple of excerpts from the blog linked to above:

"It is implied that Christians should be counter cultural regardless of what values are upheld by the culture. But acting in that way only encourages pride, stunts the growth of the Church, and ignores the Spirit of God at work among all peoples. In fact, the Church can learn a lot from nonChristians, and if nonChristians agree en masse about something, that's called culture. And sometimes nonChristian culture is right. Many cultures without the influence of the Church, for instance, are right about the importance of respect for their elders. Other cultures are right about personal liberty in the face of oppression. So to be blindly counter cultural ignores the image of God emblazoned on each and every culture. Somewhere in each culture, He's there. We must learn to recognize those aspects, learn from them, and use them as inroads for the Gospel."

I really like that last part about finding common good, worthy aspects of culture, learning from one another, and using them as inroads for relationship.

and this point:

"So the problem with our view of the disease of culture is not that it exists, but where it exists. The Church should be made up of people who point to themselves and say, "Me. It's me. I am the problem with the world." When Christians, as His representatives on Earth, fail to recognize the sin in our own hearts, even the cultural sin, we mar His image and bring ill repute to His name. Yes, there is sin in the world that we should fight. But we must always look to find the sin in ourselves first. When pastors, authors, and teachers encourage us to counter contemporary culture without regard for the broken cultures within the Church, we look like a bunch of finger-pointing hypocrites."

no time to elaborate, baby stirring. just food for thought. would be happy to hear any thoughts you have about the church vs. culture (how do YOU define 'culture'?), being 'in the world but not of it', etc.

-m.y.