Going back to comments from the last post, the church is the people, and the people have their human nature. For the church to change the broader culture, it has to be different. And for the church to be different, the people have to be different. It will take fundamental transformation at the individual level for the church to change, and only from there it can spread outward.

It should go without saying that the transformation comes through relationship with Jesus, and is honed and developed in community. Note: one’s nature is not changed by guilt trips or commands from the pulpit.

So if the question is “how can we influence the culture?”, I think the clear answer is that you have to supplant it with a better culture. Railing against “those lazy punk-ass kids” and telling people to whine less and volunteer more isn’t going to do anything. Neither is preaching about transformation, for that matter.

When I’ve seen the church really WORK (i.e. people changing, loving, and drawing others in) it was driven entirely by the community, people being loved and loving in return. Had very little (if anything) to do with what the pastor talked about on Sundays, what the music was like, anything like that. It was the church (the people) being the church. No convincing was needed; people could see it with their own eyes. You fight culture with culture, and when a soul gets a taste of what it was designed for, you will win every time.

As with many things, be who you are supposed to be and the rest will take care of itself.

That was a full zing…and I enjoyed it.

There is another dynamic of church-going Christian who (as I mentioned in the For God’s Sakes thing) are trying to change the culture around them. I realize the point YOU are making here is that we need to do more to influence the culture as opposed to the culture influencing us (I am assuming by “us” that “we” are the church btw), and I absolutely agree with you.

I only think it is also important to challenge those who think they ARE influencing culture when in reality they are only trying to change the culture to something that the culture simply is not going to become. I am talking about those still fighting a battle that we lost years ago.

Instead of being necessarily ‘defensive’, what if we were ‘proactive’?

Instead of attacking the dark; being a better light (that whole thing)?

Instead of assuming the worst; seeing the beauty in?

Thanks for this! This was the most invigorating and intoxicating conversation I’ve had all week. (subtle zing)