Influence Culture

Over the centuries, the church has been taken mixed postures in how we relate to our culture. Jesus taught we are of necessity “in the world” but not of necessity “of the world.” As J.B. Philips effectively translates Romans 12:2, we’re not to “let the world squeeze you into its mold.”

On my commentary this week, I quoted Andy Crouch from his book Culture Making: Recovering our Creative Calling. Crouch points out various postures Christians have taken regarding our culture: condemnation, critique, consumerism, and copying. We can’t just stand back in a condemnatory posture. By doing so, we alienate those we are trying to reach. But if we only consume or copy culture, we lose our calling to be salt and light.

Crouch recommends a posture of cultivation and creation: nourishing the best in our culture and creating things that have never been done before. We at Moody Radio can do that. We’ve called ourselves to help listeners unpack today’s issues from the Biblical world-view. We can affirm the good things in our world. And we can create positive, innovative content that can help people connect with our Message.

I don’t want us to become so taken with the evils of the world that we neglect the great positive, life-changing truth of God’s word. As we move to more talk about issues, it cannot be at the expense of our main calling to point people to Christ, the living Word, and the Bible, God’s written word.

Paul, the Apostle, said it perfectly. “Don’t be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”