I do know that Apple computer owners from the very beginning have loved their machines and were loyal to the brand. Most, perhaps all, of my artist friends choose Apples over PCs. And for sheer aesthetics, Apple computers have more beauty than the functional looking PCs. Finally, I must admit that my PCs are always breaking down. Whenever this happens, perhaps monthly, my friends say, “If you owned an Apple, this would not happen to you!”

Marilyn, my wife, knows even less about computers than I do. So when her last PC died, she bought a used Apple. And she loves it. She loves the ability to make an appointment at the Apple Store and receive great service. She can go in and get instruction on how to use a certain feature of her computer. In the rare event that something goes wrong, she can get it fixed quickly. There is a culture at Apple of service, excellence, and of kindness toward “technically challenged” customers. This much is obvious to someone who has little technical knowledge or interest.

Which brings me back to Bono’s tribute. He said something provides the clue to the success of the Apple brand. Steve Jobs had a passion for beauty and for excellence. Bono writes:

I really respect people who are involved in business who have an artist’s eye and ear. There are very few. Steve was a very, very tough and tenacious guardian of the Apple brand, but the thing that endeared him to artists was his insistence that things had to be beautiful. He wasn’t going to make ugly things that made profits.

The big lesson for capitalism is that Steve, deep down, did not believe the consumer was right. Deep down, he believed that he was right. And that the consumer would respect a strong aesthetic point of view, even if it wasn’t what they were asking for. He believed that deep down, if he served what was right and what was great, then he would serve the Apple shareholder, and if he chased what they wanted, he would let them down.

The culture of the kingdom of God is manifest in Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. These virtues are to be integrated into all of our lives. Bono records that he knows very few people in business that have an artist’s eye. And sadly, too many Christians are governed by the culture of mediocrity and utility. We seem to have little concern for beauty. But Steve Jobs knew something that few of us grasp. He understood the importance of beauty, not only in the arts, but in business. He understood the Biblical virtue of excellence, even as this virtue is often forgotten by the church and thus by Western culture.

Christendom is healthy when she recognizes and lives the culture of the kingdom, the culture of excellence and beauty. Healthy Christian business people are concerned with making things that are excellent. They ask not only “is this product profitable?” but “is it moral?” And, “is it beautiful?” Healthy Christian writers relate ideas that impact the nation and not simply entertain bored readers. Healthy Christian musicians create music that is life affirming and beautiful, not death pursuing and repellant.

Steve Jobs “wasn’t going to make ugly things that made profits.” For Jobs, beauty took precedence over profits. He understood that human beings are wired for beauty. And when we are confronted with the beautiful–in a sunset, a field of spring flowers, the lovely form of a pregnant mother, or, yes, in a computer–we recognize the beauty. And, if we can escape the tyranny of pride for a moment, it touches something in our soul.

In spite of the absence of any profession of faith in Christ, Jobs’ commitment to excellence, the value he placed on people, and his eye for beauty (even in the manufacture of computers) … all these are kingdom virtues. Some non-Christians exemplify these truths more clearly than some Christians.

We can be grateful that a man of Steve Jobs’ creativity and vision also had a heart for beauty and excellence. In this he has reminded us something of the eternal.

by Darrow Miller – co founder of Disciple Nations Alliance

“Transformation” is a current hot topic in the church and in missiological circles. In general Christian usage, the concept reflects a movement from darkness to light – from individual and societal brokenness caused by sin toward the healing of that brokenness. This healing expresses itself in the relative presence of God’s Shalom – relative to the degree that God’s will is done.

Unfortunately, I think this concept is often presented from an unbiblical perspective. Specifically, there is an emphasis in current literature and in conferences that by doing certain things, churches, missionaries, Christians, etc. can – by their actions – cause movement from brokenness to healing. The actions proposed are generally projects that address general or specific expressions of brokenness such as poverty, human trafficking, abortion, etc. While such efforts are good, the current dialogue tends to suggest that it is our actions that bring about the changes we would love to see.

My reading of Scripture presents a subtle but I think crucially important difference. In brief I see the difference this way:

1. The personal and societal brokenness which results from sin is so complex and deep that it is beyond human solution. In other words, the best human wisdom and skills cannot in and of themselves result in biblical healing/transformation.

2. Biblical healing is supernatural and requires God’s supernatural intervention.

This intervention is both promised and conditional. First, it is conditioned on God’s people (note: not all people) acting in obedience, i.e., living the way God asks/commands. Second, it is promised. To the degree that His people live in such a way as to reflect his will/His character the shalom of His Kingdom will come.

This is one thing we learn from the Lord’s Prayer, “…thy kingdom come,” How? “thy will be done.” When? Now! Where? “On earth as it is in heaven.” This reading of Scripture doesn’t discourage human action but recognizes that our healing comes not from our action, but from God in response to our obedience. Our works are vitally important as a condition of God’s action. But we need to be aware that “transformation” is a result of God’s response to our obedience rather than of our good works. If we see transformation as a by-product of our efforts, we are at risk of glorying in our works rather than celebrating God’s initiative and thereby glorifying Him.

Bob Moffit is co-founder of Disciple Nations Alliance – www.disciplenations.org

Recently I have been looking back at times in history when business and mission have been connected. Although the term ‘business as mission’ is a fairly new one, there have been numerous points in the history of the Church where business strategy and mission strategy have been somehow integrated. This integration had much to do with how people were thinking at the time, reflecting both the ideas they had inherited and the mindset that they were intentionally trying to pass on.

It has been said before that the current emphasis and growing activity in business as mission is part of a broader paradigm shift in the global church, a long, slow shift in thinking sometimes referred to as the ‘breaking down of the sacred-secular divide’. Today when we talk about the sacred-secular divide, we often mean the latent tendency by evangelical Christians to label some activities as spiritual, worshipful or ‘sacred’ and others as material, worldly or ‘secular’ and to, consciously or unconsciously, ascribe value to those activities accordingly.  In practical terms, as we break down this divide in our thinking, we begin to integrate the whole of our life with our faith and values, we see our work and our business as a gift from God and as an arena for service to Him.

Over the years, as I have talked with those involved in business as mission, a breakthrough in thinking has almost always been part of their journey. As I consult with those preparing to launch into missional business, people often relate that a great barrier for them is the lack of understanding among Christian friends or from their church as to how business could glorify God. In some cultures the ‘barrier to action’ is higher than others, whether it is overtly expressed or not. For many Christian communities business is irrevocably tainted, the working life is not valued and if you want to really serve God the best thing you can do is to give up business and do something more ‘spiritual’.

We are still very much in a season of breaking out of ‘old ways’ of thinking!

However, looking back a couple of hundred years, we have a different picture. Many Christians in the 1700-1800s had the firm idea that they could change society and serve God through the arena of their vocation. Some of the global brands we know and love today: Cadbury’s, Boots and Guiness were started by business people who were weaving into their business strategy a clear goal to transform their communities, to bring about change in their own society. These were men and women committed to doing good, but crucially it had to make good business sense too. Alongside them, influential Christians like William Wilberforce, Lord Shaftsbury and others were working for change in other spheres.

William Carey, who is often called the father of modern missions, had a very rounded approach to his mission to India during the 1790s and into the new century. His biographers Ruth and Vishal Mangalwadi 1 describe how Carey put a lot of effort into translating and printing scriptures because he understood that individuals first needed to repent and know Christ, that personal transformation was the pre-requisite to family and societal transformation. However, Carey did not stop there. The Mangalwadi’s describe how he got involved in education, scientific advancement, social reform, literacy projects, healthcare, media and also in business and industry. He was involved in bringing innovation and new technology into the weaving, printing and forestry industry, and he started the first savings banks. Carey’s influence in Indian society was broad and lasting.

These are some of the famous cases from past centuries. Many hundreds and thousands more must have been quietly serving God through their business or working lives, just as many hundreds and thousands of Christians are today, whether that is in their home town or in another country. The point is that our actions and our working models reflect our ideas about work, vocation and service to God, as was the case for Christians in the 1700s and 1800s.

Some of the roots for the ideas they inherited were put down in the Reformation in the 16th Century. Martin Luther was the first to use the word ‘vocatio’ or calling to apply to all types of work. He went against the prevailing idea that the Priesthood or becoming a Monk was the true spiritual vocation. He realized that biblical values needed to be worked out in the context of ordinary life and that daily work is an arena for service to God. John Calvin reinforced this theme with his ‘doctrine of callings’, as he taught spiritual principles among the traders and artisans of Geneva. Gradually what became known later as the ‘Protestant work ethic’ emerged amongst Christians in Europe in the 17th Century and then through the Puritans into the New World.

The Moravians, themselves religious refugees in Europe, launched one of the first church mission movements in the early 1700s.  They were artisans and traders who started enterprises necessary for the survival of their own displaced community in Hernhutt, East Germany. When they then embarked on overseas missions, they instinctively integrated enterprise. Their leader Count Zinzendorf reflected Protestant attitudes to work when he said “man works not only to live, but man lives that he may work”. 2  In Zinzendorf’s writings he expressed that the missionaries should earn their own living first for the benefit of the people to which they were sent, in order to teach the people the dignity of labour, and then for their own good, to support themselves. 3

And this in turn brings me to a related question. If the ideas we inherit are so important, if our actions are confined or expanded by the ideas we embrace, what ideas are we in turn passing on? 

The Moravians realized, in the tradition of the Apostle Paul and Martin Luther, that the context of business and of working life is a powerful arena for discipleship, precisely because that is where we spend our lives. We are able to live out Christian values and apply a biblical way of thinking in the daily grind of a business.

Paul the Apostle had numerous reasons for being in the business of leatherworking or making tents. In modern times we have loaded up the metaphor of ‘tentmaking’ with so much meaning of our own, we have lost some of the original intent (pun intended!). A key reason that Paul gave to the church in Thessalonica for being in trade was to provide a model for new believers; ‘….with toil and labour we worked night and day, so that we might not burden any of you. This was not because we do not have that right, but in order to give you an example to imitate.’ 2 Thess. 3:8b-9. Paul was addressing a work ethic problem in the Thessalonian church and he set out to deliberately counter the sacred-secular divide of the day, a Greek mindset that disdained work.  Paul not only challenges prevailing attitudes towards work through his writings, but he very intentionally provides a living model for the new believers to follow.

If our life in business is a powerful means of discipleship, then we must be intentional and careful about what we are modeling.  Do we have lingering areas of divided thinking? Do we unconsciously place more value on certain activities over others?

I have observed that people often get into business as mission type activities with a particular focus or motivation, perhaps it is to start a social enterprise based community development project or to evangelize amongst an unreached people group. There is nothing wrong with being motivated in a particular way. However, often this quite narrow starting focus becomes much broader when those involved begin to see the wider impact that their business is having, or could potentially have, in terms of social, spiritual, environmental, political and economic transformation.

The paradigm shift we are experiencing today in our attitudes to business, mission and service to God are necessary because Christians in the 20th Century became much more polarized in their outlook. To simplify history a great deal, getting people saved became the focus for evangelicals, so in contrast, ministry to meet other needs became distracting or secondary. ‘Mission’ took on a much more exclusive meaning.

The challenge for us, even as we engage in business as mission, is not to polarize but to keep thinking biblically about mission and about business. If our business as mission enterprises are just a means to an end or reduced to a particular strategy, then we will pass on that way of thinking to the new believers around us.  Is the daily act of hard work and honesty in our transactions as ‘sacred’ or glorifying to God as the opportunity to share our testimony with words? Does creating jobs line up as an important outcome for our business alongside sharing the gospel? The challenge is to keep transforming our own thinking so that we can embrace the fullness of what it means to be a missional business.

Footnotes

1 Ruth and Vishal Mangalwadi, The Legacy of William Carey Crossway Books 1999

2 Plitt, H. Zinzendorfs Theologie (Zinzendorf’s Theology), 3 Volumes, Gotha 1869-1874, p428

3 Weinlick, J.R. Count Zinzendorf, 1956, p100; cited in Danker, W.J. Profit for the Lord, 1971, p32

Additional Resources

Lifework – Darrow Miller, 2009 – subtitled a biblical theology for what you do everyday, essential for understanding the historical and contemporary worldviews that influence your thinking.

The Integrated Life – Ken Eldred, 2010 – invites us to change our minds and as a consequence to change our action in the world through business. 

Business as Mission – Michael Baer, 2006 – explores ‘the seamless integration of business and mission’ in this pioneering BAM focused book. 

The Missional Entrepreneur – Mark Russell, 2010 -  gives a comprehensive overview of how Paul’s tentmaking connected with his mission, along with a lot more on principles and practices for business as mission.

Profit for the Lord – William Danker, 1971, 2002 – tells the story of how the Moravians and the Basel Mission Trading Company integrated business and mission.

Business Power for God’s Purpose – Suter and Gmür, 1997 – gives an overview of historical examples of missional business and lessons to be learned.

The Legacy of William Carey – Ruth and Vishal Mangelwadi, 1999 – along with other books written by them about Carey, this book is subtitled ‘a model for the transformation of a culture’.

Evangelical Faith and Public Zeal – John Wolffe (Ed), 1995 – collection of essays on how evangelical affected society in Britain, 1780-1980

Jo Plummer edits the Business as Mission e.zine. Visit their website www.businessasmission.com

I was in a reception line for a charity in Sydney a little while ago and people were filing past and politely saying ‘hello’ to the heads of the charity and then to my wife and then to me, and a very charming and gracious elder lady from a prosperous area of Sydney, immaculately dressed and manicured, looked straight at me in the eyes and great warmth radiated and she put her hand on mine and she said ‘Now Sweetie, I know I’ve seen you around Sydney many times over the last couple of decades. Worse than that, I know we’ve been introduced, but I’ve forgotten your name and I’m going to have to ask you to tell me who you are because I cannot resist the temptation to tell you that you bear an uncanny resemblance to that fellow John Anderson who used to be the Deputy Prime Minister.’

Lord Mayor Campbell Newman, it’s great to be here with you. I served for many years around a cabinet table with your mother. I was very fond of your mother; she was a lovely, warm, friendly person – one of those genuinely beautiful people – and I mean that in every sense of the word. You will know, as her son, that the smile often hid a very forceful and gritty approach to life.

I remember on one occasion she came to me with an idea that involved spending quite a bit of money on disadvantaged rural communities and she said, ‘Are you with me on this?’ and I said, ‘Absolutely!’ She said ‘Do you think that the Treasurer and the Finance Minister and the Prime Minister will be?’ and I said ‘No, not with that price tag attached to it.’ ‘Good’ she said, ‘Well I’ll go up and publish it now as our Policy, and then they can clean up the mess afterwards!’ And I have to tell you that she and I lost quite a bit of skin over that, but we got the Policy.

Well, like so many Australians, I watched on with horror at the recent seasonal events – out-of-seasonal natural events in the state – over the summer period and I want to say to you that our hearts certainly went out to you. We admire greatly the leadership that was shown and the volunteerism and all of the things that went to ensuring that the best of a dreadful situation was made.

It did cause me to reflect on something, and that is that, tragic as it was, and particularly tragic where lives were lost, we are fortunate indeed, are we not, to live in a country where we have the capacity to mount outstanding emergency responses, and the financial wherewithal to assist communities and indeed the state, frankly, to recover? Those are good things!

The great majority of people who live on the surface of the globe today do not live in societies where such things are possible. Yet we take them for granted. But I want to say to you, ladies and gentlemen, that I don’t think we should take the great blessings we enjoy for granted. I think we are in very, very great danger in the West of seeing our privileged position ebb away.

As a farmer, I’m very conscious that if you want to grow a good crop you have to first till the soil in which the crop is grown. The crop of freedom, of democracy, and all of the good things we take for granted in our lives, is, in fact, Christianity and yet our society has moved away from it and so little understands now, the soil in which the crops of freedom are grown, that I do not believe that we can continue to expect to grow those crops, and I’m deeply sobered and deeply concerned by this. I really am.

You know, it strikes me as a great irony that the atheistic regime in Beijing better understands our history than we do. I’m indebted to the ABC (I’m sorry, Heather – another media organisation, you’ve heard of them) to the ABC Religion Hour, if it still exists, for a broadcast they had a couple of years ago and someone gave me the transcript and it was with a very senior correspondent in Beijing and he was reporting on a major study that the Communist government had undertaken into the Christian church in China; and the report had come back indicating that the church growth in China was amazing and that it is not likely to be stopped.

And it caused great consternation, and that is, of course, behind the persecution of the house-church movement in particular in China. Why? I’ll tell you why, as our correspondent said. The Chinese government understands that it is Christians who start to agitate for the recognition of ‘the little person’. For the radical idea that we take for granted yet you find in no other culture. No other belief system that I’ve ever encountered. That all have dignity before God, and that the King must respect the peasant just as the peasant is expected to respect the King – the Good Samaritan story.

The Bible, of course, is based on the whole idea that each is precious; and the Chinese understand the European history! It was that radical nation that built the idea of representation in Parliament, peaceful means of removing those who become corrupted by the lure of power, which is almost all people who get hold of power. Not Ron Boswell and me, but most people, and you need a peaceful means to resolve that and democracy has evolved out of it. Nor do we understand the way in which transformed and renewed lives have transformed our society.

My political hero is a man called William Wilberforce. To many of you he’s still a hero today – to Christians everywhere. Here is a man who came from Hull, entered Parliament as an extraordinarily privileged and wealthy young man with the world at his feet, in an age of great moral ‘messiness’ in Great Britain. It was a ‘Superpower’ but it was a dreadful place; inequitable, corrupt, vice-ridden, and he had everything to gain by remaining the sort of dissolute young man that he was, but he got converted.

He got converted and he was transformed, and this man went on to do something that was extraordinary for somebody from the mercantile class; a very wealthy man. He came to see that people with black skin mattered equally to God to those with white skin and he led the greatest human rights campaign of all times, that which freed the slaves.

The Left in this country used to prattle on about human rights till whales became important; until the cows came home but we’ve erased our understanding that it was the Christians who gave rise to our democratic freedoms and to the idea that slaves should be freed, and so on and so forth. We’ve jettisoned it all.

In Indonesia, the most populous Moslem nation on earth right on our doorstep. There’s a hundred Bible Colleges in Indonesia. Did you know that? Just been there, and for all of the ferment in that country there’s a real interest in belief and some very strong Christian growth.

Africa: seventy percent Christianised. Now they say it’s a mile wide and an inch deep – desperate need for good teachers. I heard the Bishop of Uganda the other day describing how he has several hundred parishes that he cannot fill with trained men and women. Enormous need, but an extraordinary response to the Christian gospel.

What should we say then, in the face of all this? Should we despair at the state of our culture? At one level – yes! But what should it drive us to do? Gird our loins to take up our cross and to reflect the Hope that is ours! I had Tim Costello say to this city a few years ago (I’m Patron of SU in Queensland; a role I love. I always love it when Queenslanders are friendly to me, because I know how you feel about southerners in this state) and Tim Costello was saying ‘You know, one of the things we don’t understand any more; we’ve stripped our kids of hope. Our grandfathers hoped that if they ran the risk with their wives of coming out to this country and surviving the ship journey and then going out into the outback and building a life, they might develop a better future for their children, their grandchildren and their great-grandchildren. Our fathers’, he said ‘hoped that if they worked hard they’d have a comfortable retirement and be able to provide a better outlook for their children. Our children hope for a good time tonight.’ And he had a point.

We must broaden our horizons and understand the Christian hope. There is real work to be done, firstly in this country. We must do everything we can firstly on our knees to encourage people, our fellow-Australians to come back to faith. As a very big part of that we need to recognise that as a multi-racial society – great thing – many of the people who come here are very open to the faith.

I have a young Chinese friend in Sydney. He’s a Presbyterian Minister, he’s only 31, but you know he has a thing called Rice. I said ‘Why do you call it Rice?’ and he said because I come from Asia and we like rice. I said ‘What’s Rice?’ He said, ‘Once a month we get young, mainly Asian believers together in the Sydney Entertainment Centre for a night of fellowship. Not a church. Just a night when we come together for some fun, share experiences, sing, pray, what-have-you.’ I said ‘How many do you get?’ and he showed me a photograph. Auditorium full; he said eight to ten thousand people.

Wouldn’t it be an incredible irony if we from a traditional Caucasian background who walk away from our faith and our culture and let it decay around us, have the whole situation picked up and retrieved for us by New Australians? God bless them if it happens, but we ought to be working with them in every way we can. And then there’s the homelands they came from.

You know, the fascinating thing, the wonderful set of opportunities and responsibilities that arise for Australia stem largely from its geography. We’re of the West, that’s patently obvious, but we’re not in it. We’re in Asia, and Paul Kelly who’s a journalist I respect enormously is the Editor-at-Large of the Australian. He wrote the other day that if Wayne Swann is right to say that Australia can ride (and he was referring to economics, but let’s face it, it needs to go much beyond that I believe, and a whole range of ways) ride the rise of Asia. He went on to say to stop and think about whether our values are in sync with Asia, and he referred to their hard work, to their commitment to their countries, to their family values and to rising religious faith.

That’s what he wrote in the Australian just before Christmas and then he said, ‘You must realise these values are anathema to many of the people who run the debate in Australia today.’ And they are, but we know that they’re right and we need to ‘tap into it’ and to work into it and to recognise that if that is where God is working, there are tremendous, strategic opportunities and responsibilities for us.

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s been a great pleasure being with you. I seek to encourage you in that hope that in the midst of despair we need to recognise that God is building His Kingdom. He will not be mocked. He will not be thwarted. As Peter Hitchins says, that is a very stupid western idea that will only enjoy a very short currency, ladies and gentlemen, because in the end, we get our three score and ten; and our response in the midst of this must be to remember that God calls each one of us into a loving relationship with Himself through Jesus Christ.

We need, then, to use the gifts and talents that He has given us and which ultimately belong to Him to expand His kingdom here in our own country; here amongst those who come to us in our country and, I would suggest, wherever else we have the opportunity, but particularly in Asia. God bless you.

We’ve all seen the misguided claims of some nationalist groups that one particular nation or other in the world today is “God’s country,” or the dubious claim that one specific political system such as democracy, or a specific economic system such as socialism or capitalism, is God’s universal pattern for humankind. Throughout history, and the worldwide wars of the 20th century were no exception, combating sides often claimed that “God was on their side.”

Following the same pattern, a conversation concerning “the culture wars,” or cultural formation and the place of Christians and the Christian faith in impacting that formation can be similarly incendiary. In recent times, there has been a move in some strongly committed evangelical circles to call Christians to withdraw from cultural engagement language and activities. Energy expended in these activities in the mid and late 20th century was seen by many evangelicals as being an unacceptable social gospel, and in the 21st century, cultural engagement has again been labeled as a dangerous diversion from genuine Christian activity. It is being labeled by some as a bypath meadow, and as an affront to real gospel witness which, it is claimed, has to do solely with sharing a message of individual salvation through Jesus Christ and with a sanctifying, patient endurance by his faithful believers until physical death and the ultimate reward of eternal life in heaven.

On the other hand, some Christians around the world, just as committed to the authority of scripture as the people described in the previous paragraph, are exhorting fellow believers to re-engage with the public\sphere in an open, critical realist manner as a legitimate and indispensable expression of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So which group is right? Are faithful Christians called to help shape temporal affairs or not? Is the good news of Jesus Christ being thwarted and diluted by those who argue for Christian cultural engagement? Or are those who limit the gospel witness of Jesus Christ to personal salvation the ones who are missing out on the glory and fullness of the true biblical story? In this paper, we seek to introduce readers to a few significant perspectives on this important question.

First, we will define some of the terms that are used in this debate, so that we can have a clear understanding of what is meant by “cultural engagement” and “biblical.” Second, we will provide material taken from the two divergent positions, to give a genuine voice to the arguments of both sides. Third, we will explore perspectives from the Bible itself in an attempt to provide some insight as to whether or not Bible believing Christians are called to view cultural engagement as a significant part of the gospel story and their witness to that story in everyday life. Next, we will suggest ways that contemporary Christians can respond to this issue, and provide examples of believers in past history and modern society who have led the way. Finally, because the issue of cultural engagement is at the heart of its activities, we will explore the implications of this issue for Christians involved in education.

Definitions

Definitions are important, because even definitions are not neutral. They are culturally-bound attempts to understand something, and as such in their very nature, even definitions must be seen as argumentatively committed, weighted contributions to any discussion or point of view.

Biblical

This paper uses the term “biblical” to refer to the written Word of God, as found in the Old and New Testaments. The definition used here assumes that genuine Christians on both sides of our debate (often referred to as evangelical Christians) recognize the over-riding supremacy of the Bible as God’s authoritative Word for all of life. Therefore, when considering not just theological issues, but all other issues as well, these Christians seek to understand the biblical story and its rich literary, narrative, prophetic, didactic, historical, and divinely inspired character, as their primary presuppositional foundation for all of life. They try (sometimes unsuccessfully) not to reduce the Bible to some form of science manual or systematic theology textbook, but they comprehend it as God’s big story about his love for his world, and his gracious gift in Christ that is at the heart of the gospel. Therefore, all Christians in this discussion celebrate a clear allegiance to the divine authority of the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the primary formative document for life.

 If they come to sense that a particular lifestyle or course of action is consistent with the witness of the Bible, then they have a solid foundation to commit themselves wholeheartedly to that lifestyle or course of action. Thabiti Anyabwile, a Baptist pastor originating in the USA and ministering in the Grand Cayman Islands is the representative spokesman identified in this paper to speak against Christian cultural engagement. As he said in his blog (Anyabwile, 2010), “We need to hear the Bible, believe the Bible, preach the Bible, and live the Bible.”

Cultural Engagement

What is meant by the term “cultural engagement?” In the sense that this term has to do with one’s activities that both respond to and influence the shape and direction of the world in which we live, cultural engagement is inescapable. Think of a range of ordinary activities in which both Christians and non-Christians in many countries take part: taking a bus (or a train) to work each day; teaching your children “good manners”; driving a car on the right hand side of the road (or on the left in some countries); discussing politics or sports teams with friends at a weekend barbeque; interacting with friends (whatever that term means today) on an internet social networking website; hanging the household laundry on an outside clothesline or putting it in an electric clothes dryer; attending school, polytechnic, or university; paying taxes to enable governments to deliver an increasingly growing range of services; investing in the stockmarket; watching and being influenced by advertisements on television. The list is goes on. As we participate in these common human activities, we unavoidably affirm some cultural practices and repudiate others. We join with the rest of the people around us in shaping these cultural activities of our contemporary communities. This is inescapable. There is no neutral position. A person can’t avoid engaging the culture.

If this is so, then the concept of cultural engagement in the title to this paper must mean more than just carrying out the myriad of daily activities of life. What cultural engagement really refers to here is the deliberate, thought-out, philosophically-consistent activity of vocational and societal living that is proactively designed to reflect a biblical perspective on the world. Therefore, the question being asked in this paper is, “Does the Bible speak with clarity on the matter of how to live in 21st century society, and is it right for Christians today to spend significant time and sustained energy on deliberately seeking to shape how they and other people live and relate together and use the environment in response to this supposed biblical mandate, as a legitimate witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ?” Or is such an activity a dangerous diversion from the true biblical position of doing what is necessary to sustain life whilst focusing on the onl truly worthwhile purpose of helping individuals to become Christians and so in some future day after death, to enter into the wonderful promise of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord?

One Point of View:

Christian Cultural Engagement is Unbiblical

Together for the Gospel (also known as T4G) is a biennial conference of evangelical church leaders from differing denominational persuasions, but who are committed to celebrating the truth and integrity of the gospel. Organizers include Al Mohler, R. C. Sproul, John Piper, and Thabiti Anyabwile. Their key affirmation is as follows:

We are brothers in Christ united in one great cause—to stand together for the Gospel. We are convinced that the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been misrepresented, misunderstood, and marginalized in many churches and among many who claim the name of Christ. Compromise of the Gospel has led to the preaching of false gospels, the seduction of many minds and movements, and the weakening of the church’s Gospel witness (Duncan, J., Mahaney, C., Dever, M., & Mohler, R., n.d.)

At the 2010 conference, held in Louisville, Kentucky,7000 church leaders, many of a reformed persuasion, met together under a theme consistent with T4G’s primary affirmation noted above. The theme was “The Unadjusted Gospel.” One of the keynote addresses was given by Thabiti Anyabwile, with the title of Fine-Sounding Arguments: How Wrongly ‘Engaging the Culture’ Adjusts the Gospel. Anyabwile is a dedicated Christian, and an engaging speaker who desires to be guided in his thinking and living by biblical principles. In his T4G address, he chose as his reference point a section from Paul’s letter to the Colossians. His basic concern is that the language and activity of Christians relating to the term “engaging the culture” detracts from the centrality of the cross of Christ and is a diversionary addition to the true gospel. He claims that it may sound right to use language like engaging the culture, or to talk about the coming of the kingdom of God (another diversionary phrase according to Anyabwile), but that these beguiling concepts, in terms of T4G’s key affirmation,\are really misrepresentations of the gospel. They’re just the old social gospel dressed up in new diction, and they displace the true message of the Bible. Anyabwile suggests that the only really worthwhile focus for Christians, and the true meaning of the gospel which must reject the intolerable mission drift of cultural engagement, is the preaching of the gospel of individual salvation through the sacrificial and substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus upon the cross. He seems to suggest that the Bible, as our true guide, refuses to address the secular culture and its unfortunate excesses.

According to Anyabwile, the\Bible calls church people to live gospel lives rather than seeking to engage or reform the culture itself. The world and its ways of thinking are dangerous, and manipulative. There is an antithesis between culture and the gospel. Referring to James 4:4, he reminds his hearers that to be a friend with the world is to be at enmity with God.  He provides the example of the prosperity gospel as an example of the dangers of\ engaging the culture which leads to a diminution of the true gospel. “Almost without fail, discussions of engaging the gospel include some rationale for using the culture in ways that undermine the gospel,” said Anyabwile (2010, T4G conference address). The glory and centrality of the cross is lost when this mentality is adopted, he claimed.

A review of the blogs written by those who attended T4G in 2010 confirms that Anyabwile struck a chord with many of the church pastors who heard him. His focus on the centrality of Christ and the development of a uniquely Christian culture as a faithful alternative to engaging the culture seemed particularly appealing.

Another Point of View:

Christian Cultural Engagement is Biblical

In recent years, many Christian writers, especially some who would classify themselves as being of a reformed theological persuasion, would take what appears to be the exact opposite perspective concerning engaging the culture, to that presented by Anyabwile at T4G. Some would say that biblical insights from earlier Christian figures such as Abraham Kuyper and Francis Schaeffer led the way that celebrated the biblical concept of the centrality of the gospel for all of life in every area. Christians committed to this position claim that it is a gospel imperative, securely grounded in a faithful biblical hermeneutic, that the cross of Jesus Christ, the central point of all human history, is the key not just for personal salvation, but also for any understanding of faithful Christian living and gospel witness in every sphere of life. They often claim that there is no such thing as a neutral position when we think about life— that every thought, word, and deed is lived either in obedience to the Word of God, or out of service to some god-substitute. They highlight the importance of worldview, and suggest that the unexamined adoption of lifestyles of contemporary culture is little more than cultural idolatry.

There are many Christians that one could name as being representative of those who support the concept that Christians are called to engage the culture for Christ. One such person is Chuck Colson who, with Nancy Pearcey, wrote the book How Now Shall We Live? Colson, whose own religious conversion from being a central Watergate conspirator to becoming a leading Christian figure in the cultural wars and a strong advocate of the particular cultural engagement activity of prison ministry, is well known. Speaking about the need to develop a Christian worldview and thus be equipped to address every part of life with a biblically faithful, gospel focus that celebrates the Lordship of Jesus Christ over everything, Colson(1999) says the following (several ideas scattered across those pages are combined as one in this extract):

Many believers fail to understand that Scripture is intended to be the basis for all of life. In the past centuries, the secular world asserted a dichotomy between science and religion, between fact and value between objective knowledge and subjective feeling. Evangelicals have been particularly vulnerable to this narrow view because of our emphasis on personal commitment . . . [But] genuine Christianity is more than a relationship with Jesus, as expressed in personal piety, church attendance, Bible study, and works of charity. Genuine Christianity is a way of seeing and comprehending all reality…In every topic we investigate, from ethics to economics to ecology, the truth is found only in relationship to God and his revelation. (pp.14-16)

For Colson and many others like him, cultural engagement, with the cross of Christ at the centre, is an essential part of authentic Christian worship and service. “In every area of life, genuine knowledge means discerning the laws and ordinances by which God has structured creation, and then allowing those laws to shape the way we should live” (Colson, 1999, p.15). Colson appeals to many biblical passages to support his contention, including the same letter to the Colossians that Anyabwile used in his T4G address to support his opposing view of genuine Christian living.

How Do We Relate These Two Positions Together?

So there we have it. Two apparently contradictory positions. Who is correct? What does it really mean to live a gospel-driven life in the 21st century? In order to understand the situation, first it is necessary to note a key point of agreement.

The Word of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ

We should recognize that this is not a debate between a group of Bible-believing Christians on the one hand and liberal postmodernists on the other. Both groups champion a clear allegiance to the Bible as God’s revealed, authoritative written word, and to the centrality of the incarnation, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, God’s beloved son. Therefore, a fruitful discussion should be possible between both groups as they both admit to a common authority. This may not result in reconciling the irreconcilable, but it may point towards a re-shaped approach that can be understood as of a faithful way forward for all evangelical Christians.

What is Meant by Engaging the Culture?

Anyabwile (2010, April) is clear in rejecting engaging the culture. However, though he does attempt a definition of the word culture, nowhere in his address does he really define what he means by the concept of “engaging the culture”. His understanding of this term has to be gained inferentially from his talk. The closest he comes to a definition is his comment that, “This attempt to acculturate the gospel, to make it fit into our own cultural confines as we engage the culture, is an adjustment of the gospel and is less than the gospel.” From this comment, and from his presentation as a whole, it appears that his understanding of the term “engaging the culture” is synonymous with the term “conforming to the culture”. That is, he and those who oppose cultural engagement, seem to believe that cultural engagement refers to the unexamined adoption of ways of seeing and being in the world that mimic the values and lifestyle of the pagan communities in which we live.

A pivotal example that Anyabwile provides in his talk against cultural engagement, is the prosperity gospel movement. Wayward and worldly Christians, he claims, beguiled by a love of money, reconfigure their faith so that a biblical rejection of fulfillment through wealth somehow turns into a belief that faithful Christian living will be demonstrated through wealth acquisition. The prosperity gospel movement, suggests Anyabwile, is an example of cultural engagement, and should be rejected. The prosperity gospel movement should indeed be rejected, but it is not an example of engaging the culture. The prosperity gospel is an example of conforming or acquiescing to the culture, which is the exact opposite to the position of those who advocate cultural engagement. Unlike Anyabwile, I do not know of any evangelical Christians who espouse authentic cultural engagement but who also are committed to the prosperity gospel. Those two positions are antithetical.

The comments that follow might help to give some definition to the term cultural engagement as it is used by many evangelical Christians—apart from those who share the perspective of Rev. Anyabwile:

• Engaging the culture does not mean conforming to the culture; it means challenging and re-forming it.
• Engaging the culture means examining all that we do in the light of the Word of God which encompasses all of life, and then seeking to bring the hope of the gospel to bear on every thought,word, and deed.
• Remember that we said earlier that shaping cultureis something that everyone does.  It is an indispensible part of living. Engaging the culturemeans doing this culture-shaping activity proactively in a manner that does not mimic contemporary cultural patterns (which is cultural idolatry), but which seeks to bring every thought, and action into subjection to the Lordship of Jesus Christ (2 Cor 10:5). Therefore, whether it be our understanding of music, traffic patterns, family life, the church, politics, the internet, competition in sport, education, business studies…in all of life, we are called to celebrate the Lordship of Christ.
• Engaging the culture means subjecting all of life to the scrutiny of the Word of God, and breathing God’s message of hope where only secular hopelessness exists.
• Engaging the culture means carrying out the old social gospel not as a “liberation theology”alternative to grace in Christ, but as a faithful and pointed expression of that grace.
• Engaging the culture means recognizing that when John 3:16 says that God so loved the world, itmeans that God truly does love the world. Thereis a very significant multiuse of the term world in Scripture. God is offended by the sin of worldliness as opposed to godliness, but he loves the world which he made, and he sent his son to redeem that fallen world back to him. To assume that every time the word “world” is used in the Bible it is used in a derogatory sense, is misguided exegesis. We must use the context of the word within Scripture to help us comprehend whichmeaning is appropriate.
• Engaging the culture means to recognize that personal salvation, and the promise of eternal life,is part of the great hope of the Christian believer,and that we are called to give witness to this new life in Christ by how we live now in every sphere of life.
• Engaging the culture means that Christian living for the Christian who is a businessperson, for example, does not just mean praying for and with his/her workmates, but it also means applying biblical principles of justice, and mercy in the workplace, and considering matters such as the value and stewardship of a product as being as important as the potential for profit that a product or business practice provides.
• Engaging the culture means that Christian cultural engagement and living for the Christian academic for example, involves understanding thephilosophical presuppositions upon which one’s discipline rests, exposing these to the light of Scripture, and unashamedly exploring that discipline in classes, academic papers etc., in a manner that reflects a biblical worldview.

Biblical Foundations for Engaging the Culture

Although they may employ differing hermeneutical tools, both Anyabwile and Colson are committed to the authority of the Bible, and seek to subject their understanding and actions to its scrutiny. Therefore, an exploration of the truth or otherwise of the matter of Christian cultural engagement should be based upon the Bible. By so doing, it should be possible not to drive a wedge between Anyabwile and Colson and those who share their views, but to bring themtogether, even if this ultimately does require a substantial perspectival revision by one or other (or both) of the two groups.

How then, do the Scriptures shape our understanding of the issue of whether or not Christians should engage the culture? First of all, we must affirm the all-of-life embrace of biblical Christianity. Mike Goheen, another advocate of cultural engagement, put it this way:

The biblical story shapes us at an individual level so that it leads to personal conversion.However, it does more than that. It provides the whole context for our life and orientation. It begins with the creation and ends with the renewal of the universe. It gives meaning and shape to history. As such, this story must not only touch us as isolated individuals; it must shape the way we think and behave as we engage with the world. (Goheen, 2010, p. 5.)

It’s all very well for Goheen to reject the dualism of Greek thinking and its deification of reason during the Enlightenment. It’s all very well for him to make his claims about the Bible, but how does the Bible itself demonstrate this position of the centrality of the gospel for all of life and of the imperative therefore to carry out our culture-shaping activities in conformity to Scripture? The answer is that the Bible’s big picture story itself demands such an approach. One could turn to instructive passages such as Psalm 8, or Paul’s letters to the Corinthians or the Colossians to understand this point. Or one could look at Jesus’ rebuke of the self righteous in Matthew 25 when they were condemned for their failure to seek for grace and social justice. Such biblical explorations, plus many others that point in the same direction of exhorting cultural engagement, would all be very worthwhile. However, for our purposes here, it is very instructive to look at two famous passages of Scripture, and see the strong cultural engagement link between them. I refer to the Great Commission in Matthew 28, and to the Cultural Mandate in Genesis 1. Here are these two passages (NIV version): 

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Mat. 28: 18-20)

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground —everything that has the breath of life in it —I give every green plant for food.” And it was so. (Gen. 1: 26-30)

There are many things to explore in both of these passages. However, with regard to cultural engagement, we should note first of all Jesus’ Matthew 28 instruction to those who sought to nurture Christians: we should teach them to obey everything that he had commanded us. If Jesus, as part of the one triune God, commanded us to abandon the world as a fallen and irredeemable place, and concentrate only on personal salvation, then that is what we should do. If he has commanded us to recognize that the whole world is his, and that we are to assert the lordship of Christ and the relevance of the gospel for all culture, then that is what we should do. Which is it?

The answer is provided for us in the very first command that God (and remember that Jesus is a part of the Godhead which is referred to as “us” several times in Genesis) gives to humankind in Genesis 1, verse 28. We are to shape culture, and to do this as a faithful exercise of authority in obedience to our Heavenly Father. Read again the extract from Genesis1 above, and the meaning is clear: cultural shaping or engagement (ruling over the animals, engaging in farming etc) is not a secular exercise, to be done in some God-ignoring manner. As we are reminded in Psalms 8, cultural shaping or engagement for the Christian means obeying God’s pattern for life in how we live day by day in everything. It means denying the false claims of dualism which have restricted Christian activity to the spiritual realm, and it means celebrating the purpose and meaning of the Good News of the gospel in all that we do. Not only is cultural engagement inescapable; the calling for the Christian to engage and shape the culture in a biblically faithful manner also is inescapable.

In the light of this clear biblical perspective, supported as it is by many examples from within its pages—some of which are detailed below—it seems that when Anyabwile clarifies his definition for cultural engagement so that it reflects the biblical understanding and the intentions of people like Colson and Goheen, there may well be substantial agreement between the two camps on this issue. The claims and the hope of the gospel are for all of life, both here and in eternity; they are the legitimate concern of the church; and they are available exclusively through Jesus\ Christ to all who put their trust in him. In his T4G address, Rev Anyabwile commented that when one determines to engage the culture, the result is that the gospel becomes inappropriately adjusted, and that one might miss the deeper strategy of embodying the gospel itself. The contention here however, is that the opposite is true: faithful Christian living is actually carried out by engaging the culture in a manner that asserts the challenge and hope of the gospel for all of life.

It is also important to reflect briefly upon the term culture, from a Christian perspective. Anyabwile told his hearers, quite correctly, that all cultures are impacted by sin. This is a consequence of the Fall, and it’s why cultural engagement by Christians involves thevital gospel ministry of proclaiming the hope and truth of the gospel into all fallen cultural structures. However, this does not mean that the concept of culture,as God originally gave it in Genesis, is evil. The concept of people forming habitual structures in their relationships with each other is good. The concepts of the family, or of government, or of work, or of communication for example, are not in themselves evil. If the concept of culture is evil, then the incarnation could not have occurred. But praise God that his perfect son dwelt among us in a culturally embedded way. He came as a first century Jew, like us in reflectingand forming culture in every respect, yet of course he was without sin. Therefore, let us remember to differentiate between the concept of culture which is a part of God’s good plan, and the practice of culture which is what fallen humanity has done with that concept, and which is in need of the light of the gospel for it to be made well again. Craig Keener (1993), in his powerful introduction to the IVP New Testament Bible Background Commentary, unpacks this issue in greater depth.

Biblical Examples of God’s People Engaging the Culture

So far, we have identified the two prevailing positions within the Christian community concerning cultural engagement, we have outlined the key points of each position, and we have indicated the scriptural warranty or suggesting that, understood and exercised in a biblically faithful manner, cultural engagement is an important gospel task for all Christians. At this point, it is instructive to note some of the examples God provides us with in Scripture of what engaging the culture actually looks like. Here we have people of faith who sought not to be conformed to the world, but to be transformed by the renewing of their minds so that they could know God’s good and true and acceptable will as they lived for Him in their varied cultural settings (Romans 12):

•  Joseph, faithfully serving God and the people of Egypt by instituting a food conservation program (Genesis 47);
• Moses choosing to identify with the Jews rather than with Pharaoh’s court (Exodus 2);
• God’s instruction to Jeremiah whilst in exile, to seek the peace and prosperity of the city in which God’s people found themselves (Jeremiah 29);
• Daniel and friends becoming qualified to function in the king’s palace in pagan Babylon (Daniel 1);
•  Jesus endorsing the institution of marriage by his joining in the celebration at the wedding feast in Cana (John 2);
• Jesus confronting the culture by communing with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well (John 4);
• The men of faith in Hebrews 11:34 who, among other things, “conquered kingdoms, administered justice, became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.” These are great examples of cultural engagement;
• Paul making himself familiar with the pagan Epicurean and Stoic philosophers of Greece so that he had an onramp into the public discussion in Athens as he presented the truth of Jesus and the resurrection at the Areopagus (Acts 17).

Examples of God’s People

Engaging the Culture in More Recent Times

The concept of engaging the culture and so, in Jesus’ name, of seeking the welfare of the pagan city in which we live, has been borne witness to by humble Christians down through the ages—men and women, mostly unknown but who understand that God is their primary witness, and who have sought to bring a biblically faithful perspective into their cultural formation. They have not done this as an addition to the gospel or as an alternative to the gospel and the cross of Christ, but as a faithful witness to the centrality of that gospel for all of life. One would do well to explore the example of these Christians at a later date, in more detail. A few of them are mentioned briefly here:

•  William Wilberforce who, for the sake of a gospel perspective on justice and the God-image-bearing nature of all humanity, persevered for decades in the English political scene in seeking to outlaw slavery;
• The White Rose student group in Nazi Germany, some of whom were Christians, who stood up against public evil, even at the cost of their own lives.
• The Newvale Coal Company in New Zealand which implemented a costly land restoration program as an act of faithful stewardship before God and as an example to other similar businesses, in a time when extensive conservation measures were not a legal requirement;
• Gabe Lyons and the Q Project, plus his family’s joyful leadership in Down’s Syndrome issues;
•  The interventionist, child protection activities of South American missionaries like Marcia and Edson Suzuki, as recounted by Darrow Miller (2009) in his book Lifework.
• The Cadbury brothers in England—famous not only for chocolate, but also for their practical, Christian concern for their employees which covered worker safety, education, provision of quality housing, recreational activities, women in the workplace, and prayer and worship opportunities;
• Dr. Phil Bishop, in appealing all the way to the US Supreme Court in defence of the right and responsibility of university lecturers in public universities to acknowledge their own worldview prejudices to their students, and to admit to the impact that these beliefs have on the content and direction of their instruction;
• Andy Robinson, an ex-student of mine, spending time sharing a Christ-centred understanding of education with non-Christian teacher trainees at the University of Glasgow, and in so doing, encouraging his pagan hearers to find purpose and meaning in their vocation and in life as a whole by committing themselves and their pedagogical practice to the lordship of Jesus Christ;
• Benson Kamary, a Kenyan PhD student of mine at Kosin University in Korea, whose newspaper op-ed pieces on education and culture which emanate from a Christian worldview, have been printed in secular newspapers all over the world;
• The strategic activities of Christian leader Paulus Samuels and his dynamic organisation in southern India. Among other things, their work has seen homework clubs commence in dozens of rural villages where Hindu parents enthusiastically send their children to local after-school clinics in which the children are assisted with their homework;
• Mark Roques, Arthur Jones and friends in their work in cultural engagement in education in the United Kingdom and around the world.
• Steve Bishop and the Allofliferedeemed website.

For all of these Christian people, and for myriads moreall over the world, their motivation is Christ. Their allin-all is Christ. Their hope is Christ. They take seriously the calling to not be conformed to this world’s way of thinking, and their purpose in cultural engagement is obedience to Christ. They take seriously Jesus’ injunction in Matthew 5:16, to be salt and light in this world, and to “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”

Implications for Education

A key reason why some Christians, particularly in western countries and in some post-colonial settings elsewhere, reject the concept of cultural engagement is because they have been educated in a modernist worldview built upon the myth of dualism. Despite the opportunities (and challenges) provided by a postmodern paradigm, popular belief even among Christians continues to assert that religion is an important but private affair, which has no place in public arena areas such as education, politics, or business. This position obviously is contrary to the biblical claim that in and through Christ are all things (Colossians 1); that God has made and redeemed the world and sustains it moment by moment in all its capacities, by his word of power (Hebrews 1); and that we are called to bring every thought into subjection to Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 10).

In a world where the church and the gospel is consigned to a marginal belief area, and where public education nurtures children to accept this position by claiming that subjects such as science, history, math, etc are religiously neutral, it behoves  Christians to think very seriously about the educational choices that they make for their children. Jesus’ comment in Luke 6 that blind teachers (i.e. those who believe that religion is a peripheral matter and that it doesn’t impact core subjects in the curriculum) will result in blind children, who also come to believe in the essential irrelevance of religion, is very sobering. The Christian message is the exact opposite: fulfilled life, and knowing how to live, comes only from a right relationship with God through Jesus Christ, and this impacts how we understand and learn about everything.

Therefore, as Edlin (1999) has written elsewhere, education from a Christian perspective will seek to challenge students with a celebration of the lordship of Christ over all of creation. A key mission for the Christian school should be to assist Christian parents in equipping children for biblically authentic, radical, cultural engagement. As Wolterstorff (2002, p. 170) has put it, “The idea of a Christian school in our society is the idea of a school producing dissenters and agents of change in the name of Christ. The Christian school is a training ground for…dissent and reform.” Several writers such as Carpenter (2002, p. 3) have termed this\ biblical imperative “educating for shalom.” This cannot occur in a secular school, so that Christian parents must consider very carefully the type of school that they will select to assist them in the education of their children. Jesus, again in Luke 6, reminds his hearers that the student, when he is fully trained, will be like his teacher. But we want our children to be like Jesus, with a biblically powerful, culturally engaging, gospel mentality. This can only happen if our teachers, like St Paul, strive to be like Jesus. And despite the vital missionary witness of Christian teachers in public schools, this perspective can only fully flourish in the context of a Christian school. All schools are hothouses or glasshouses—nurturing institutions that select and deliver programs consistent with the religious beliefs or worldview of the educators.

The choice that Christian parents must make is not between the Christian educational glasshouse on the one hand, and some supposedly neutral state educational institution on the other. There is no neutrality. We must help parents realise the powerful implications of what Shults (1997, p. 230) correctly describes as the “unacknowledged ideological partiality of every discipline and theory.” in all teaching and learning. As a result, Christian parents will come to appreciate the sobering choice that face them in selecting schools for their children: the choice is between an educational community that seeks to put Christ first in every aspect of the curriculum and organization, or an educational community which nurtures children in their own omnipotence and in the essential irrelevance of the gospel message. Which would you choose?

Cultural engagement is also important at the tertiary educational level.

Unfortunately, as is discussed elsewhere (Edlin, 2009), many Christian academics have succumbed to the delusion of modernist dualism in their scholarly endeavours. We have contemporary Christians, and not non-Christians, to blame for the widespread assumption that Christianity is simplistic and anti-intellectual. Praise God for the growing cohort of Christian intellectuals who, despite often being criticised from within the church for spending their time on “non-essential, earthly things”, seek humbly to engage the culture and explore their scholarly disciplines in the light of God’s revelation as an act of obedient gospel service and worship.

Where To From Here

In its most simple form, the contention of this paper, founded in biblical principles as illustrated in Matthew 28 and Genesis 1, is as follows: Our Lord commands us to obey him in everything; the first command that he gave humanity is that we are to exercise a godly response and form culture, doing all to the praise of his glorious grace. Witnessing to the truth in Christ is fculture-challenging, undermining the false gods of our present age, so that cultural engagement is a faithful expression of the gospel. It is not cultural acquiescence. In fact, genuine sharing of the gospel requires godly cultural engagement in all those aspects of ordinary life listed earlier in this paper (riding a bus, attending school, enjoying the weekend barbeque etc.). It seeks the welfare of the city in which we live, and it highlights the centrality of the Cross for all of life. As Mark Greene (2010) urged during the October 2010 Lausanne congress in South Africa, it involves a fundamental, non-dualistic re-think by the church of the relationship between authentic evangelism on the one hand, and the daily walk of every church attender on the other.

Cultural engagement is a core theme of Scripture. It’s what Goheen and Bartholomew (2008, p.8) call “living at the crossroads.” It is at least a part of what Jesus was referring to in the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:10) when he prayed that God’s “kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.” Cultural engagement is a genuine, biblically-directed work that the church neglects to its own detriment and to the peril of the surrounding pagan communities to which it is called to witness. In the words of the Lausanne Theology Working Group (2010, p.1),

“Popular pressure to define and stick to ‘the essence of the gospel’ can become an avoidance of the gospel’s full biblical challenge, and is like asking for a beating heart without the rest of the body.” Surely the best way to conclude this discussion is by once again referring to Scripture itself, noting carefully how the wonderful gospel truths of personal salvation through grace and also of the importance of cultural engagement, are part of the same coherent whole, in Paul’s exhortation to believers in Ephesus: Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions . . . For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2: 4-10).

 this paper was written by Dr Richard Edlin who is President of Edserv International

References

Anyabwile, T. (2010, October 13). Does Calvinism create tensions in the churches? Retrieved from http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/thabitianyabwile/2010/10/13/does-calvinism-create-tensions-in-churches/

Anyabwile, T. (2010, April). Fine-Sounding arguments: How wrongly ‘engaging the culture’ adjusts the gospel [video]. Paper presented at the

T4G conference, Louisville, KY. Retrieved from http://t4g.org/2010/04/fine-sounding-arguments-how-wrongly-engagingthe-culture-adjusts-the-gospel-session-iv-2/

 Colson, C., & Pearcey, N. (1999). How now shall we live? Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House.

Duncan, J., Mahaney, C., Dever, M., & Mohler, R. (n.d.). T4G affirmations and denials. Retrieved from http://t4g.org/aboutus/affirmations-and-denials-2/

Edlin, R. J. (2009). Keeping the faith: the Christian scholar in the academy in a postmodern world. Christian Higher Education, 8(3),203-224.

Edlin. R. J. (1999). The cause of Christian education. Blacktown, Australia: National Institute for Christian Education.

Goheen, M. (2010, August). Dethroning the idols. Australian Presbyterian, 4-9.

Goheen, M., & Bartholomew, C. (2008). Living at the crossroads: An introduction to Christian worldview. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic.

Green, M. (2010, October). People at work—Presentation 1. Paper presented at the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization, Cape Town, South Africa. Retrieved from http://conversation.lausanne.org/en/conversations/detail/11359.

Keener, C. (1993). The IVP Bible background commentary: New Testament. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

Miller, D. L. (2009). Lifework: A Biblical theology for what you do every day. Seattle, WA: YWAM.

Lausanne Theology Working Group. (2010). The whole church taking the whole gospel to the whole world. Paper presented to the

Lausanne Congress on Evangelism, South Africa. Retrieved from http://www.lausanne.org/documents/twg-three-wholes.html

Shults, F. L. (1997, December). Rationality in science and theology: overcoming the postmodern dilemma. Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith, 49(4), 230.

Wolterstorff, N. (2002). Educating for life: Reflections on Christian teaching and learning. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic.

Today, a typical small farmer earns over $60,000 per year and the Christian impact that brought such change has spread to India.

Photo by Arvind Balaraman at freedigitalphotos.net

Kim learned to study the Bible, including the Genesis account that God is a worker and we must also work. Poverty was not God’s intention but was the result of human sin and its curse. “Our sinfulness has made life difficult but God is ready to forgive our sins.” He had sent His son, Jesus, “to save us from sin and its consequences, including slavery, tyranny, and poverty.”

Kim became a man of prayer … and of work. Matthew 6:33 became his life’s mission: “Seek first His [God’s] kingdom and His righteousness and all these things [food, clothing, shelter] will be given to you as well.”

He bought 50 hectares of wasteland and, inspired by the story of God transforming a nation of slaves to a free and prosperous society, called his farm “Canaan.” Kim believed that “God could also deliver his people from Japan’s tyranny and transform their useless land into a Canaan.”

Today, most of the villagers no longer worship nature.

Photo by hinnamsaisuy at freedigitalphotos.net“

This story is taken from an article written by Vishal Mangalwadi and posted on Disciple Nations blog

Like most 3^rd world countries, Fiji doesn’t have a welfare system to protect and nurture abused women, so HOH gives them an alternative to being homeless, to entering prostitution and further exploitation.

I’m sure many of you have been to Fiji for a holiday, and on the surface it appears to be the ideal paradise, with warm turquoise blue waters, sultry tropical weather and arguably the friendliest people in the World. But if you dig below the surface, you uncover a very dark sometimes sinister culture with severe social, economic, religious and political problems.

The U.S. State Department ranks Fiji in the top 10 nations for human trafficking.

60% of the population live in extreme poverty.

It is a growing corridor for people smuggling in and out of Asia.

1 in every 3 women under the age of 19 will have a child out of wedlock

1 in every 3 men and almost 1 in every 2 women under 20 will contract an STD

90% of women are victims of repeated domestic violence.

These are just a handful of the alarming statistics. Fiji only has a population of about 900,000 people, but everywhere you turn there are serious issues tearing at the fabric of this small but proud nation. A breakdown in traditional customs, poverty, lack of education, absence of healthy families/marriages, corruption in business and government. It all adds up to an environment where people are generally either struggling desperately day by day just to survive or they are at the other end of the social spectrum manipulating their position of authority to prosper at the expense of others. Sadly the countries moral compass has become very disoriented & permissive. But the real tragedy is that Fiji is just symptomatic of what is happening on a global scale.

In 2009, every second child on the planet now lives in poverty

1 in 6 people worldwide are considered to live in extreme poverty living on less than $2 a day

13,365 – Die every day from Hunger

Over 1 trillion people are suffering from malnutrition

143 million Orphans worldwide

45 million Abortions

32 Billion Cases of human and sexual trafficking

Slide 10 – 9 Million Deaths were caused by Alcohol and Smoking related illnesses

395 Trillion dollars spent on illegal drugs

73 Million Boys and 150 Million Girls were sexually abused

40 Million People are now living with HIV-AIDS

14 Million Deaths were caused by Infectious Diseases

Revenue from Pornography was estimated to total 97 Billion dollars

More than 30,000 images of child pornography are posted online every week.

Whether you have confronted issues like these first hand living overseas like we have, or travelling on overseas holidays or on a mission trip or just heard these sorts of shocking statistics conveyed through the media. No doubt like me you have probably felt overwhelmed and helpless given the magnitude of the problems. The tide of evil seems to be surging relentlessly and unrestrained.

But there is a showdown in our exposure and response to all these issues, where our trust in almighty God, for whom nothing is impossible; collides with this groundswell of wickedness We will all in some way wrestle with the depravity of humanity, but the truth that we stand on, is that where sin abounds, grace abounds more.

The mindset for us as people of FAITH should never become one of fear, futility, or indifference. It should be one of fortitude, Godly influence & compassion. So as we examine the Scripture the relevant question for us to answer is how would the Lord have us live in these troubled times when evil is so prevalent and needs are so great? What does he require of you & me?

If you will turn with me to Micah in the Old Testament we will get some remarkable insights from this little known prophet. Micah faced a very similar situation to us some 700 years before the birth of Christ – just not on the same scale of the 21^st century.

As Micah surveyed his community he exposed the nation of Israel as morally and spiritually bankrupt

•  Corruption was widespread
• The vulnerable were being exploited/crushed (2:1-3)
•  The rich were oppressing the poor (2:1-3)
•  The powerful were manipulating the weak (2:1-3)
•  Israel misrepresented God with their lack of compassion and immorality
•  The prophets and priests were self absorbed and arrogant  (3:1-12)

In response Micah challenged his gneration with God’s perspective. “The Lord has shown mankind what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Michah 6:8

Into all the spiritual, moral and social woes the Lord asserts a clear cut prescription:

1. This is the type of people I want you to be. 2. These are the things I want you to do.

The striking thing about this verse is its simplicity and yet great depth of meaning all captured in the one statement. We have one concise verse that skilfully sums up the essentials of right relationship with God.

If we examine the first part of the instruction, the Lord exhorts us to do justly, to do what He declares to be right. I think there are two features of doing what is Just. One is to maintain a standard of holiness, purity and integrity about our lives that reflects the righteous character of God.  Doing what is right and just in God’s eyes isn’t normally popular or prosperous by the world’s standards.

But we are not be conformed to the pattern of this world. We have transformed thinking that is counter cultural; we move in the opposite spirit, we set a moral example of what is pleasing to God, we live by principles and values that reflect His divine nature and character. The world’s paradigm is to look after number one; it is self-seeking, getting ahead even at the expense of others and by dubious means if you can get away with it. But our paradigm is the complete opposite, to be servants, to esteem others better than ourselves, to be governed by what is righteous.

The other feature of doing justly is that we intentionally involve ourselves where injustice is being perpetrated. We become advocates for those who suffer wrong. We are crusaders to stop prejudice and discrimination. Where people are defenceless and oppressed, we offer hope & understanding. Jesus showed us the way by ministering amongst society’s misfits and outcasts, like prostitutes, tax collectors and lepers. He saw the great need. He was moved not just to feel pity, but to turn that empathy into action. He identified with them, he sought to alleviate their hardship and destitution, but most of all he sought to give them eternal hope.

The second part of the verse requires us to love mercy.

This command reinforces the Lords intent that offering mercy should be both irresistible & compelling for us. Loving mercy requires us to have genuine/generous empathy for others in need. We are obligated to love the unlovable, minister to the broken, feed the hungry, and clothe the naked. The sentiment of the verse is that it should be a natural outworking of our faith to exercise unconditional love. Getting involved in people’s dysfunction, their messed up lives will come at a great personal cost to our own time, resources and self importance. Yet we should willingly die to ourselves and revel in the opportunities we have to lavish mercy on others because in Christ mercy has been so graciously lavished upon us.

Loving mercy means we give without limits; it flows from the living waters of Christ’s love that invaded our hearts and indwells us. The requirement of doing justly and loving mercy necessitates a strong hands-on practical expression to living out our faith. Whether we label it mission, outreach or a social Gospel we can’t escape the certainty that to please God means we must reach out and touch people at their point of need.

The final part of the verse calls us to walk humbly with our God.

One thing you quickly learn working in an environment like Homes of Hope is that in our own strength you will never make any meaningful impact. To walk humbly with God means we stay acutely aware that he is the source of healing, provision, strength. We know that without His presence and power our efforts are in vain and we would fail miserably.

It is the anointing of the Holy Spirit, the life of Christ, the resurrection power that enables us to keep ministering despite the magnitude of the problems I think the other aspect of walking humbly with God is that it strongly reminds us that we are all on the same journey, none of us have arrived. Not one of us is better than anyone else. When you are walking you are always on the move, we are not idle but pressing forward, open to new things, being teachable and constantly learning from the Lord and each other. When the danger to judge others arises or the temptation to take credit for success in any part of our ministry happens, walking in humility reminds us that without God we can do nothing.

It is so easy in our Christian walk to get into a comfort zone and at times we all need a shakeup to take us back to our Fathers heart. We need the Lord to constantly challenge our Christian worldview so that we don’t ever settle for less than a dynamic kingdom vision, a burning passion for the lost and oppressed. As we stand on the threshold of a New Year it is the ideal time to be reminded of what matters most to the Lord is that we are people of Justice, Mercy & Humility.

Today I would encourage and invite us to:

Realign our priorities

Rekindle our hearts

Renew our passion

Resolve our intent

Recommit our lives

Mark and Cheryl Wilson work with Homes of Hope in Suva Fiji.

That assertion is sometimes made of a comprehensive approach to Christian ministry such as taught by the DNA.

At one level, this is a straw-man argument, an attack of a caricature of wholism. The DNA is not among those who promote feeding the hungry while ignoring their spiritual dimension. But there’s another level to this discussion.

I thought about this recently while reading Abraham Kuyper, the Reformed theologian, pastor and Dutch statesman who powerfully influenced evangelical Christianity. His Stone lectures, given at Princeton Theological Seminary in 1898, include some helpful reflection on this question.

All agree that the Christian religion is substantially soteriological. ‘What must I do to be saved?’ remains throughout all the ages the question of the anxious inquirer, to which above all else an answer must be given.

Yet both body and soul were made by God, and God cares about both. What sort of gospel would consider physical suffering irrelevant? Is it a faithful witness to the cosmic Lordship of Jesus Christ to regard feeding the hungry as a distraction from the real work of preaching?  To reduce the gospel only to things eternal is to suggest that the creation and the life of man on earth are irrelevant and unimportant to God. The Bible, in places like Romans 8 and Colossians 1, affirms otherwise.

Kuyper writes of erroneous thinking by Christians which “has led to more than one sect to a mystic worshiping of Christ alone, to the exclusion of God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth. Christ [in this school of thought] was conceived exclusively as the Savior, and His cosmological significance was lost out of sight. . . . Certainly our salvation is of substantial weight, but it cannot be compared with the much greater weight of the glory of our God Who has revealed His majesty in His wondrous creation.

The proclamation-only view has its counterparts in other ministry domains as well. At the board meeting of a Christian university I heard someone say, “God doesn’t care about the business [of the university]. He cares about the education of the students.”

Does God care about the education of the students? Yes. About the doctrine courses? Yes. How about the classes on counseling? Yes. Or music? Yes. Does He care about the social life? The meal service? The accounting office? The board meetings? Yes, yes, yes, yes.

As Darrow Miller demonstrates in LifeWork, God cares about the business. (Check out this recent interview with Darrow on that subject.)

As Kuyper argues in the Stone lectures, he cares about all of creation and all of life.

Because He is Lord of all.

by Gary Brumbelow from Disciple Nations Alliance

Community transformation is possible, and it has to start somewhere, but ultimately it is about the grass roots fabric of a society actually turning around, so that the whole community is impacted by the change
Over the past 9 – 10 years I have had the privilege of travelling throughout a number of what we might call developing nations (or third world countries). I have met some of the most beautiful people you could ever meet, and have also seen some of the most wrenching scenes that would make even the hardest of hearts crumble.
Once in Lusaka, (the capital of Zambia) I visited the humble home of a young man and his family as they lived at the back of one of the Local Councillors (government officials) houses. This man and his wife where employed by the councillor to clean his luxury house and tend their finely manicured garden. For their 14 hour days, they would receive the princely sum of $2US (equivalent) per week between them. Not even enough to buy mille meal to feed their five boys. Their home was a lean-to made of rusted tin and cardboard, and each of the boys had clothes which looked like they had been ripped to shreds by a lion. As we sat to share a cup of Fanta (Lord knows how they managed to get hold of a bottle of Fanta) we heard a story that has now become all too familiar. In a world where there does not seem to be a social conscience at all, it is a dog eat dog existence, where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

In 2006 I spent 3 weeks in the Mathare Slum of Nairobi Kenya. One morning after a mob had run riot the night before ravaging one of the slum districts with axes and machetes, I saw a young man lying dead in a stream on the side of the road, already in a stage of riga mortis. I was on my way to visit a man who was dying from some kind of tumour that was growing out of his back, and had just spent the morning with a group of orphan school children in their tiny little school room in the back of a local tin shed church. You get to the place where no matter where you look there is a need, and you know you have only so much resource, only so much time, and your heart will only hold out for so long before it breaks completely.
And then you are reminded of the story of a boy found tossing starfish back into the ocean after a violent storm had washed thousands of them up on the beach. A passer by stopped to say, “Boy you’re wasting your time, there are far too many. You can’t possibly make a difference here”. Picking up another starfish and tossing it back into the ocean the young boy responded by saying “made a difference to that one”.
And so we press on. In the hope that somewhere in the midst of all this there is an answer, that may bring some kind of change big enough to make a difference.
Well in the midst of so much hardship and trouble, there are plenty of good news stories. Like the illiterate preacher in Uganda who decided to buy 6 sow piglets. He gave each of these piglets away to 6 orphans (not necessarily children) with the view to having each one give away a piglet from the first litter each pig bore. On last count I heard that there are now more than 300 orphans who own a sow pig that can provide a small income and some food to eat.

I have another friend in Uganda who has found that if you train an orphan in a life skill (sewing, wood turning, metal fabrication) you can turn their whole life around. He works in a bank and has been using half of what he earns to establish a small church and workshop where he can train people in these basic Life changing skills.
I met a man in Zambia who has a similar role in his community; however he and his wife help young girls who have been used as prostitutes, and rehabilitate them back to some kind of normal life including teaching them a life skill.
Everywhere I go I meet people who are making a difference where they are, with what they have.
But is it enough?
I have a train of thought that has been developing on this matter for some time, which relates to how a community can actually change.
As a Christian I have some very firm beliefs, and at the core of what I believe is the basic premise that there is a Creator God who loves the whole world and wants the very best for all of his creation. Many do not hold to that belief. However, what even the most avid of sceptics would agree on is that somehow in the midst of this mess we call the world there are some basic laws of the universe which seem to be constant under most circumstances.
For example: The law of gravity… ‘What goes up must come down.’
And then there is one of my favourites: The law of sowing and reaping… ‘You reap what you sow’
If we believe then that these and many more ‘laws of the universe’ are somehow irrefutable then it makes sense to work within the parameters of these laws to find the answers to our dilemma.
When it comes to African communities then, it would stand to reason that any society that has a culture of ‘live for yourself’, and ‘take whatever you can when you can’, will have had extreme repercussions from decades of this kind of neglect.
Take into consideration that whole generations of parents have been wiped out in certain communities through the aids epidemic (now rendering one in four infected throughout many parts of Africa), and the onslaught of war and famine. And you have a recipe for certain disaster. This is what we are seeing in many African nations where the average wage is now less than $500 US (equivalent) per annum.
OK, so what solution?

Without wanting to over complicate this matter I have purposefully simplified my theory to help the process of its outworking.
If we take the law of sowing and reaping and unpack it a little, we find a basic premise of life.
A farmer has a hand full of seed. He can (a.) Make some food to eat, so he can feed himself for this season. (b.) Sow his seed so that he has a crop to feed himself for the next season. (c.) Make enough food for this season and the sow the rest so that he has food next season.
If a man has time, talent, and a little treasure, he can (a.) Use it all for himself (b.) Give it all away. (c.) Use some for himself and give the rest back to society so that the next generation has a share of his wealth.
You reap what you sow.
If you sow sparingly you will reap sparingly.
If you give nothing back then the next generation will suffer.

The 3T’s of Transformation
One of God’s most basic laws (the Law of the Tithe) is based on this greater law of sowing and reaping. Give back a tenth of what you get. It’s not a tax, as it has always been a choice that we get to make, however there is more than enough evidence to say that God thinks we will be better off if we do. He even says, ‘test me in this and see if I will not open the flood gates of heaven.’
So to help transform a Community I have formulated these simple thoughts based around this law.
Giving back into our communities a portion of our TIME, our TALENT, and TREASURE will be the basis of a wider transformation that could ultimately change a nation.
If a generation can be taught to sow back into the generation that follows then society will change. Take some Time to teach your Talent, and give something of what you have (Treasure) back into society.
What I have noticed is that when people are taught to value each other, (another of God’s Laws – Love your neighbour as you love yourself) and the next generation sees this in actions as they grow up, then they develop a new culture with a different mentality.

So if a man gives away a pig, because someone gave him a pig, or a lady teaches another young lady how to sew because someone taught her to sew, or someone who knows how to read and write takes some time to teach a few others these same skills, and if people learn to respect the land as well as the people who share it, and community starts to change as a result, then why can’t a nation change.
In the midst of all that there are Big Brother neighbours like us in the west who have TIME, TALENT and TREASURE, and if we were to do our bit, not just give stuff away, but actually get on the ground and teach in these developing nations what we know, then we will have helped make a difference, even if it is only with one community.
At least it will have made a difference to that one.
So how many Africans does it take to change a nation?
‘One… at a time’

source  http://ministrynow.blogspot.com/2010/07/community-transformation.html