This is the 2nd part of a larger post. Click HERE to read part 1.
Stop before you keep reading and write down a couple of quick thoughts about Culture.
How should we, as the Church, respond to culture?
I was raised in a church where we had the MORP. Yes, that is what I said, the MORP. This was the opposite of the Prom. We dressed up, bought flowers, took pictures, and then sat at church and listed to Michael W. Smith. Don’t get me wrong. I love me some MWS. My point is this.
Our church’s paradigm was that culture was evil. We felt needed to create our own healthy version culture.
Other churches just skip it entirely. Their paradigm is to fear culture and hide from it. Some would say that is what we were doing with the MORP.
Still other cultures see culture as a tool to reach people. They use culture and what’s popular to bring truth to the world.
There are pros and cons to all of these views but I would like to suggest this paradigm.
Instead of asking…
How do we fix culture?
or
How do we hide or protect from culture?
or
How do we use culture?
How about we ask this question?
How do we DRIVE Culture?
For most of Christian history that is exactly what we did. It wasn’t until the last 50-75 years that we started to quit thinking offensively and started getting defensive. We gathered our flocks and went and hid behind our walls. We now longer sponsored Woodstock…we made our own little own Christian Woodstock. We stopped proclaiming truth through our art and talents and started pointing out what we didn’t believe was art.
BUT..what if we moved things back to the way they were?
If our paradigm is to Drive Culture we do things differently.
We stop making Christian music…and you make great music that proclaims truth.
We stop making Christian t-shirts that are cool to wear to church and create t-shirts specifically for kids to wear to school amongst their friends.
We stop getting offended and we get on the offensive.
We stop asking “Are you with us or against us?” and we start saying “Follow Me.”
So, here’s my thought. Take a Post-It and write “Drive Culture” on it and put it in plain view for the next couple of weeks.
Does it change the decisions you make? I bet it does more than you think it will.
