Cultural redux, losing isn’t everything

You turn me upside down!

We live in a time when Modern systems, once thought unshakeable, are being disrupted and turned over worldwide. Industries, governments, and institutions built and strengthened in the height of 20th century Modernity, once considered established irrevocably on objective truths, are collapsing from their own weight. The Church, as an institution, is not singular in its predicaments.

The interesting, maybe even ironic, thing about the Mac computer and the PC war is that these days the Mac is actually doing better than ever. The Mac is growing in a PC market that is shrinking. And how well Apple is doing is in all the headlines. Once Apple let go of the war, that is when things started to change for the better. The Church could learn something here.

All analogies fall apart and diverge from usefulness at some point. My point is that if we can change our focus from one of war to one of interaction, contribution, even nurturing we can be relevant in the cultural discourse and trajectory. The Church isn’t just an institution. The Church, most importantly, is people. Institutions aren’t capable of love, people are. Institutions, systems, aren’t more important than what they were created to support. The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

The more I think it over, the more I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people—Vincent van Gogh

The Church can be relevant. We can be relevant in a way that, I believe, we are actually called to be relevant, person to person. Relevant as people creating and caring for one another. I recently saw a play about the Pentecostal movement and the Azusa Street Revival. At the end of the play William Seymour stands amongst his past and says “Maybe what we need is a baptism of love”.

“OK, all this sounds all very pollyannish and goody, goody. But what does this mean?” Glad you asked! People talk about “love” until the cows come home. But few really talk about what that looks like day to day. It is really sad, too, because it has resulted in a dilution of the meaning. I’ll take a quick stab at it here and hopefully get into more with future posts.

You want to really affect culture? You want to really see change? This means personal, one on one relationships and interactions. And that largely with people you might not consider Christians. I know! That’s messy and sounds like hard work. Well, it is. It may seem easier and more effective to affect change politically and through legislation. It really isn’t. Why do you think God fought so long to give Israel a king? Why do you think none of the commandments are “To love your politics with all your heart, mind, soul, and body”? Do you really believe God calls us to enforce a Christian worldview?

I have a bad habit of being too verbose. I am deliberately trying to keep my posts short. I’ve gone too long. But I will write more about this down the road. Besides, I like ending with questions.

Thanks for reading. Please write me with your own thoughts. Also, please let me know if I have permission to publish your thoughts.

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