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By Tyson Thorne

January 21, 2014
 
 

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Any engagement of culture is a corporate act. Sin came into the world through one man, and the salvation of the world comes through one man, but engaging culture is not the job of a single individual. In Luke 9.1-.6, Jesus sent the 12 disciples into various towns and villages to spread the gospel of hope. He could have sent each off on their own in 12 different directions, but He didn’t. Jesus sent them out in pairs. Later when Jesus sends out the 72 (Luke 10.1-.20), he sends them out in 36 pairs. Furthermore, when others received the message of hope they were not left to fend for themselves. Rather they were welcomed into the body of believers. Likewise, when criticized for their message it wasn’t one disciple who was blamed, they were criticized collectively. Even in today’s culture the church falls under attack, rarely individual believers. How often have you personally been called a “hypocrite”? How many times have you heard an unbeliever say, “The church is a bunch of hypocrites”? So engaging culture is by definition an act of the universal church body, and we should lean on the local body for support whenever possible.

We may engage the culture collectively, but we engage it with God’s Word. We must make the Bible relevant to the culture. We must make it relevant to our family, friends and co-workers. We must make it relevant in our-space, their-space and cyber-space. But perhaps most importantly we must make it relevant in our own hearts and minds. When the Word becomes relevant to us, it is a simple matter to apply its answers to the problems of culture and the problems of the real people around us. The Bible, and its Author, shape our worldview. If we are going to hold a biblical worldview then it must be able to be practiced in and applied to life.

The apostle Paul’s example is one of the best to follow. In Acts 17.17-.34 Paul uses an altar to an “unknown” god to launch a creative discussion about Jesus. He begins with creation and leads his audience up to his use of the “J” word. Christians should follow this example by creatively using what is common in their culture to teach God’s revealed truth.

For example, if your interest is in art teach about biblical creativity, God’s creative nature, and about how art leads culture. If your interest is in economics, talk about how to be fruitful in all you do and apply biblical principles to modern economies. If your interest is in government, lead your community in a biblical vision for local government. If you have a passion for nature, teach others about biblical stewardship and use animals as a platform for revealing God’s nature. The point is, pick a platform that you are interested in and enthusiastically us it in your discussions in every-space.

Using our interests gives us a natural platform for declaring God’s truth and a biblical worldview, but we must never forget the reason for our platform: to declare Jesus Christ. We must be able to bridge the conversation from our interest to Jesus. We must be able to give a pithy presentation of the gospel. If we teach the Bible or even a biblical worldview but do not preach Christ then we have lost the battle.

Click for the next article in this series: http://www.think-biblically.com/8-blog/32-engaging-culture-101-culture-space