culturing //

"Culture is an outworking of our most deeply-held beliefs. It is religion externalized."

-Joshua Appel

 

everybody wants to be a culture-shaper.

Everyone wants to leave their mark on the world and influence those around them. As Christians, we are especially encouraged toward this. We look at the Great Commission, or the Cultural Mandate, & we immediately see a grand opportunity before us.

This is our chance, we think, to shake up secularism.

This is our excuse to go into their world and take dominion.

 

but what if that's not the only way to shape culture?

What if we can shape it just by following our calling?

 

God calls us to live in this world in different ways. He gives us different paths, and different responsibilities. He created each of us with unique gifts, and He gives us those gifts so that we might use them.

 

He also gives us different loves. He gives us passions--

the things that make our eyes light up, the things that give us joy. The things that we can bestow upon the world as evidence of His faithfulness.

 

what if that's the best way to shape culture?

To live relationally in a relational world,

using our whole lives to shine the light of what we love and who God has made us to be on others?

What if we were to merely follow our calling, take the gifts and joys and delights God has given us

and give them, in turn, to everyone we meet?

 

"A man skilled in his work will stand before kings."

 

we are Christians. We are God's chosen people, living in His world.

Everything we do in Him, in His joy, in His love, is faithful culture-shaping.

If we do what He has called us to, what He has made our hearts sing for,

He will use it.