Finding Your Way With the World

Ed Stetzer has written a great article about being in the world for Outreach Magazine.

Unless you are trapped in a crazy Tom Hanks movie with only a volleyball as a friend, then you live, breathe and swim amid the beliefs, values, art, customs and institutions that make us who we are as a people. So how do we respond to the predominant social forces around us? Here are three typical reactions and one better way.

Flamethrowers

“I love the smell of napalm in the morning …you know, that gasoline smell. The whole hill smelled like … victory.“
–Robert Duvall as Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore in Apocalypse Now

Flamethrowers are 21st century Jonahs, who, like their namesake, are sent to engage a different society for its redemption but instead hope for its destruction. To a man like Jonah, vindicating truth superseded God’s redemption message. Jonah-like churches reach out only by propositional truth and antagonistic tones, while they forget their neighbors’ faces. All skeptics are targets for scorched-earth evangelism.

Shelter Dwellers

“I hope I am always able to risk everything for the just and right cause. If we did not make this decision, we could never again call ourselves innocent–and that, in the end, is what we have protected here: innocence.”
–William Hurt as Edward Walker in The Village

In 1999, fearful that the Y2K bug would shut down all computers, some Americans hid in shelters under their homes awaiting the miniapocalypse. A spiritual counterpart exists in many churches–people who live in fear of an infectious cultural bug. They are always looking for a way to inoculate themselves by creating a “Christian” alternative. The mission of God is engaged only to the extent that personal risk is not involved.

Appeasers

“What if God was one of us? Just a slob like one of us/ Just a stranger on the bus/ Trying to make his way home.”
–Joan Osborne, “If God Was One of Us”

I grew up during the ’70s and witnessed a movement ready to jettison absolute truth. People loved to ruminate on issues without passing judgments. Pacifist churches loosened their theological moorings by giving credence to every other belief system. They sincerely hoped that a blind respect for all other beliefs would gain the trust of the world. They were and remain wrong because lost people are not dumb. They rightly assume that believers actually believe something.

Heroes

“Do you know the difference between dying for nothing and dying for something? … That’s the only reason why I managed to stay alive in China, so I wouldn’t die for nothing. Today, I can die for something.”
–Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Bauer in 24 “Day 6, 6:00 a.m.-7:00 a.m.”

God’s kingdom will overrun the world only when we die for the cause–that is when the glory of God is displayed in the Gospel’s power. How is that expressed?

First, use truth rather than opinion when rejecting the aspects of societal influences that run counter to the Gospel. The Word that divides soul from spirit can speak into the culture. Use it pervasively.

Second, change the existing culture. Whether through the arts or the PTA, see your role as a member of the coming kingdom. Use an eternal perspective to interact with the world. Then, we can help the lost see the eternal scope of their decisions.

Third, shape the arriving culture. Operate with a vision of God’s purpose in the world and, thus, lead people to see the evidence of God’s grace given to humanity. Suddenly, you will become a bearer of the light rather than a radioactive reactor.

Culture is nothing to fear–or love. It’s simply where lost people live with you. So defuse your cultural bombs and get out the bridge-building tools. Today–not tomorrow–walk into the light of day or the cold of night, taking the Gospel to the people you encounter.