The USA Today section of my Lansing State Journal has an article in it with the startling title “Multitasking teens pick texting over sleeping.” The article goes on to say how teens spend around 9 hours a day on “entertainment media” which includes social media, music, gaming or online videos, (i.e. time on their smart phones) which is more time than they spend sleeping.
What struck me most about this is the power of culture to mold us and shape us. Every generation has their “When I was your age…” story, to which the younger generation always rolls their eyes. These stories are in response to how culture has molded and shaped the next generation in a way very different, and typically seen negatively, than the older generation experienced.
The more I think about what “culture” actually is, the more I am seeing it as a slave owner. Pretty much anything culture tells us to do, we do. In America, being a Christian typically just means taking a normal-looking cultural life and tacking Jesus on to the end of it. Talking to a Hindu about Jesus is interesting because they worship a million gods and have no problem adding Jesus to this group. It can often feel the same way with American Christians, myself included. Our gods are just must more amorphous.
I just started reading The Way of the Heart by Henri Nouwen and can already tell it will be a book that changes my life. In it he explores the Desert Fathers and Mothers, the 4th and 5th century men and women who fled to the Egyptian desert to live in solitude with the Lord rather than drown in the “shipwreck” that they saw society as.
I’m not planning to move to the Egyptian desert (yet), but some of the things in the first few pages of the book have really resonated with me, particularly on how frenetically busy our society is. (Also recognizing this was written in 1981, if it was bad then, think how bad it is now!)
“Just look for a moment at our daily routine. In general we are very busy people. We have many meetings to attend, many visits to make, many services to lead. Our calendars are filled with appointments, our days and weeks filled with engagements, and our years filled with plans and projects…We simply go along with the many “musts” and “oughts” that have been handed on to us, and we live with them as if they were authentic translations of the Gospel of our Lord…All this is simply to suggest how horrendously secular our ministerial lives tend to be…Our identity, our sense of self, is at stake.” (pages 21-22)
Here’s what’s hitting me so strong about all of this: the #1 reason people reject Jesus is because of their culture.
I’ve written at length about how most Muslims are cultural Muslims. They don’t believe in the Qur’an, don’t read it, and really don’t even know what’s in it. But they would not accept Jesus even if they were very compelled to because of the incredibly strong pull of their culture: their family has always been Muslim, their wedding and holiday traditions are Muslims, their very identity is in being Muslim, and often their entire economy is based around being Muslim.
I’ve been reading Isaiah and was struck by Isaiah 45, which is referencing King Cyrus, the Persian king who conquered the Babylonians. The Babylonians were the ones who were holding the Jews in exile; after taking out the Babylonians, Cyrus is the one who allows the Jews to return from Babylon to Israel. This is a powerful text of God not only using Cyrus in a mighty way, but revealing his supernatural nature to him in an obvious and personal way. But what seems to be a typo in verses 4 and 5 is that Cyrus is not a follower of God:
Isaiah 45:1 “This is what the LORD says to his anointed,
to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of
to subdue nations before him
and to strip kings of their armor,
to open doors before him
so that gates will not be shut:
2 I will go before you
and will level the mountains;
I will break down gates of bronze
and cut through bars of iron.
3 I will give you hidden treasures,
riches stored in secret places,
so that you may know that I am the LORD,
the God of Israel, who summons you by name.
4 For the sake of Jacob my servant,
of Israel my chosen,
I summon you by name
and bestow on you a title of honor,
though you do not acknowledge me.
5 I am the LORD, and there is no other;
apart from me there is no God.
I will strengthen you,
though you have not acknowledged me,
6 so that from the rising of the sun
to the place of its setting
people may know there is none besides me.
I am the LORD, and there is no other.
I read this and it hits me, why doesn’t Cyrus acknowledge God after God revealed himself to him in such a personal and powerful way? The answer is: because of his culture. Because he was Persian, not Jewish. He grew up Persian with Persian gods and Persian holidays and a Persian family with a Persian economy.
It’s the same reason the Old Testament Israelites always, and I mean always, went back to worshiping Baal. It was popular. It was accepted. It was culture. It was cool.
Fast forward to the New Testament and the 1st century Church, the very first followers of Jesus. We know that these early Christians had to trade in everything to become a follower of Jesus. Jesus warns of this very thing in Matthew 10:
Matthew 10:32-39 “Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. 33 But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.
Matt. 10:34 “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to turn
“ ‘a man against his father,
a daughter against her mother,
a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—
36 a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’Matt. 10:37 “Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.
Jesus was simply telling it like it was. The sword he was bringing wasn’t on the attacking end, it was on the receiving end. He was preparing his potential followers for what they would face (the literal sword for many martyrs) and to “measure the cost” (Luke 14:28-33) before making the decision if they believed he was God in the flesh and the Savior of the world, or not.
The cost they were to measure was if they would give up their culture or not, in exchange for Jesus. It wasn’t that Jesus required them to give up their culture, like the old fundamentalist who burns cassette tapes of rock music and smashes in TV screens. He wasn’t telling people to go and divorce their families once they chose Jesus. He was telling them that the culture that they knew would reject them once they chose Jesus. Obviously this would only happen if they truly, 100% accepted Jesus. They weren’t adding him to their existing million gods; it’s unlikely culture would would even pause to notice that. Acceptance of Jesus meant living in such a way, and believing such things, that everything and everyone they previously knew would reject them due to contrast Jesus was to their cultural norms.
Jesus was quite possibly the most uncool person to ever live.
This was pre-built in to a Roman and Jewish world. It was automatic.
Nouwen points out that what the Desert Fathers and Mothers discovered in the 4th and 5th centuries was that culture had shifted dramatically. Christianity was now the legal religion of the land. Persecution didn’t exist anymore. As a result, there was no longer an automatic, built-in, clean break from idolatry and Christianity. Instead of measuring the cost, you simply went with the flow.
Cultural idolatry consumed Christianity, blending together a milkshake of sin and Jesus with no chance of dividing the two.
I’ve always understood and taught that Christians are to transform culture. We are to be engaged in culture, have no division of secular vs. sacred art, affirm God’s hand in culture, and draw people to Jesus by our interaction with them in cultural spheres.
Some of these things still hold true and I have more reading to do before I draw any definitive solutions, but here’s a splash of cold water to the face that God just threw at me: transforming culture isn’t working. Christians aren’t the ones doing the transforming, we are the ones being transformed, shaped, molded, and conformed to the sinful world around us. And it’s not just that we are losing the battle, we’ve actually embraced our “We are transforming culture” (i.e. “We are so cool, don’t you want to be cool like us?”) mantra as justification to live in blatant cultural idolatry. We are reaching people for Jesus by using our idolatry, what a great set up! Who says you can’t have your cake and eat it too?
Romans 12:2 begins with, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world…” How many Christians can truly say their lives have not conformed to the pattern of our world?
Cultural patterns.
Patterns that didn’t even exist in cultures previous to us, but we swear by as dogma.
Conformed to the pattern of materialism.
To the pattern that bigger is always better: bigger TV screens, bigger houses, bigger better bolder faster cars, bigger yachts, bigger bank accounts.
More activities. More comfort. More luxury. More technology. More convenience. More money. More productivity.
More selfishness.
The pattern that we are to never stop working.
The pattern that technology and entertainment will salve our wounds.
The stress and craziness and hecticness and franticness that almost every single one of us lives under comes from the slavery we submit to from our culture telling us what to value and prioritize and how to revolve our entire lives around that. Slavery that tells us these are the places we will find satisfaction and peace and joy and security and value so go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go. Even though none of us feel satisfied or joyful or peaceful or secure or valued.
But if we all keep yelling “Chug! Chug! Chug!” and turn the music up even louder, maybe we’ll find what we’re looking for? I haven’t but everyone else sure seems like they have, so I better just play along.
We are such fools.
I am such a fool.
And frankly, I’m tired.
I’m beyond tired.
I’m tired of church and church planting strategies that revolve completely around being cool. Looking cool, dressing cool, having cool music, cool preaching, and a cool vibe. Because we hope that if people like us, they will like Jesus.
Or is it because we are so insecure we can’t stand the thought of someone not liking us?
They can then like Jesus and not have to change anything about their lives, because the utmost goal is being cool, not being like Jesus–which is a very effective way of getting people to like Jesus and join our church.
I’m tired of racist churches staying racist because this is the way to reach racist people in our culture.
I’m tired of greedy churches staying greedy because this is the way to reach greedy people in our culture.
I’m tired of idolatrous churches staying idolatrous because this is the way to reach idolatrous people in our culture.
I’m tired of the “gospel” of Jesus being divorced from the message of Jesus. A “gospel” that says ask Jesus to forgive you of your sins and you’ll go to heaven and now you can live however you want. Oh and try to be nice. And if you send your kids to our children’s ministry, we will teach them how to behave.
A “gospel” that completely ignores the radical, counter-cultural, uncool, sacrificial teachings of Jesus. A “gospel” that completely ignores the Great Commission’s command to “teach them everything I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:20)
I’m tired of working like a rented mule because it’s all I’ve ever known and it’s the armor I wear every day to protect myself. I’m tired of working like a rented mule because if I stop to rest and enjoy God’s presence, all of the other rented mules around me will judge me.
So we chug along. “Chug! Chug! Chug!”
So if it requires me moving to the Egyptian deserts, it would be worth it.
In the meantime, I plan to allow God to continue to radically speak to me and I plan to radically listen.
I plan to read Christ and Culture by H. Richard Niebuhr (1951) and study and pray over how Scripture and church tradition has responded to these questions of Christ and culture.
But I am done trying to be cool.
I am done doing things because culture tells me to.
I’m done trying to make Jesus cool.
Jesus is not cool. He never has been cool. He never will be cool.
He is:
Author of Beyond the Battle: A man's guide to his identity in Christ in an oversexualized world
Host of the The Flip Side Podcast
Join an online men's small group led by Noah and team at BeyondTheBattle.net
- Ep. 107: Mark & Beth Denison on Betrayal Trauma - November 4, 2024
- When “I follow the Lamb, not the Donkey or the Elephant” falls short - October 31, 2024
- Why We Can’t Merge Jesus With Our Political Party - October 24, 2024
As convicting and challenging as this is, I love it. I really appreciate your thoughts here. I think I’m going to have to pick up a copy of that book.
Thanks Steve. Yeah man, I’m really wrestling with the “how do I respond to culture?” I know we aren’t to throw it out, I know that culture is not sinful and that we are to create culture as Christians, but I can’t help see the power of non-Christian culture and how so many of us conform to it, without even knowing it. Or just the sheer power of culture getting people to do whatever it wants, whether that is worship a million gods, be devoted to Muslim tradition without any faith in its actual book, or get teens to spend 9 hours a day texting! That’s what really getting me, is just how insane American culture is getting and we all just sucked deeper and deeper into it, like slaves: work 8 days a week! Work 25 hours a day! Never rest! Never stop! Do more! Buy more! And how this seems to control all of us.
Do you see it as ironic how forces such as cultural and political orthodoxy and cultural innovation are both slave holders? We all to often find ourselves torn between the two masters, while avoiding the one true Master. Of course we know the consequences of serving more than one master.
We can become slaves to pretty much anything. I think it shows our gaping need for love and acceptance, a need that can only be filled by Christ. The challenge is most of us become slaves to whatever the culture we are born into is enslaved to. It’s very difficult to see through or above the culture that surrounds us, like the analogy of the fish not knowing it is wet because water is always around it and has always been around it.
Excited to watch our “uncool” Shepherd mold and redefine your relationship with Him, church, culture and His lost kids (inside and outside the church). #grownupchurch
Amen! Thanks Brent.
I like the overall message of the article. It makes me think of 1 John 2:15 and Romans 12:2. However, I am not a fan of the 4th and 5th century monastic movement. There was a lot of heresy, asceticism, and religious pride among those people. Also in their divorce from the world they seemed to no longer cared to reach the world. Almost like the modern day Amish.
I agree David. I know in Niebuhr’s book, he breaks down the different approaches, one of them being the Amish-like approach of “Christ against Culture”, which I know is not the view we are to take. I’m excited about God molding me and shaping me and my views on this as I bring them before him. I will definitely do some follow-up posts under this umbrella. I’m also looking forward to finishing Nouwen’s book. Thus far, the main thing Nouwen is doing is calling out the sins of anger, greed and busyness within the 1981 culture (actually how greed and anger are tied to busyness). That busyness isn’t a God-value, it’s a product of our culture. Nouwen didn’t flee to the Egyptian desert, though interestingly enough he did end up leaving his professor position at Yale to shepherd mentally handicapped people where he also lived among them.
What the Desert Fathers and Mothers seem to have modeled well is the need for regular and deep solitude time with the Lord, which is a much neglected (completely neglected many times) spiritual discipline today. I haven’t finished Nouwen’s book, but I think that’s the big takeaway he pushes.
I think we’re collectively very afraid of being looked down on. Personally, I’d have to admit that I am. If you don’t at least land somewhere within a culturally bargained and accepted threshold within the bell curve of “coolness” (as this article terms it), you’ll come under ridicule.
It’s like being in Jr. High. for your whole life – you just don’t want to be the lowest guy on the social ladder. I may not play sports well or have a girlfriend, but as long as there is someone still below me on that ladder then I can feel good about the fact that I’m higher up than the kid with acne and thick glasses who reads comic books and picks his nose. As long as I go to church, I can still inwardly judge the lady in line at the grocery store with food stamps, even though she has a smart phone and name brand clothes. I think I’m getting overlooked for this promotion at work (which ticks me off), but I -did- just lease that new SUV, and I -am- going golfing with the boss next weekend. It becomes a comparison game where the smart play is to just not compare myself to the people who are better than me at the things I want to be good at.
…I honestly wonder if I even have the fortitude to live permanently and purposefully as an outlier from popular culture.
That’s where the transformation by the Holy Spirit comes in though…once the rulebook is thrown out, then the whole frame of reference is changed as to what “living like an outlier” looks (and feels) like. Culture and people will see me as an outlier, yes, but what is that compared to being an -insider- in the family of God? Jesus’ disciple John referred to himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved” – I’ve heard it said that he wrote it that way because that was the clearest, most succinct definition of how he viewed his own self. That was his core self-identity, which is weird when you consider that his own “core self-identity” was a value and quality and permanent characteristic that was bestowed to him by Someone -else-. John wasn’t playing by the rules anymore, so the public beatings and getting dragged in front of the religious leaders and false imprisonment and getting exiled to an island didn’t factor in for him anymore.
I’m not there, but that’s where I want to be.
“Jesus is not cool. He never has been cool. He never will be cool.”
Now that’s – dare I say it – cool.
It’s really hard to escape being the product of your culture unless a conscious choice is made to do so. If I was born in a Muslim country I’d probably be Muslim as Allah’s given there as the answer to our God-given hunger to know God. That fact of life makes me more tolerant towards Muslims and really thankful to be here where growing up, Jesus was the cultural answer to finding God.
What hits me too often about our culture is how entertainment driven it becomes. And I don’t mean the form, it’s not just tv and movies and internet. I mean how much almost everything almost seems designed to distract from knowing God and following Jesus. The news, politics, even social issues can take our time, fill our vision, and steal the heart. It’s not that any of these are bad/wrong/evil but it would be better to follow Jesus into things rather than hope to find him thru them. Being a follower of Jesus should mean that we follow, that we’re led by the Spirit, that we have ears to hear, and the only choice becomes whether to obey where he leads. Our culture presents so many choices but never that one.
The other thing that gets me is how result/impact driven I am and look at things, and I’m not sure how much of that’s on me and/or on culture. Reading the gospels, I’m challenged by how little Jesus seems to care about results. He just lived in/to God for others, spoke and did what he received from the Father, and everything that follows happened because of that. Fruit just came from life being present. Sometimes in church culture, the decisions/actions always seem to revolve around results in the church and impact in the world, and the question is never asked whether what we’re saying and doing is something we’ve received from God. Or we just do things because we just do them. It would be so refreshing to go to a church service just once and the pastor stood up and said he couldn’t bring a message that day because he hadn’t received word from God. If it is the body of Christ meeting, he would have provided thru another, body life would continue.
We should be in culture but not with the goal of transforming it. God makes no promises of redeeming the culture of this world. We should have no fear but freedom to be in culture fully if lead by the Spirit and embrace whatever good work God has given each to do. The testimony of Jesus isn’t just what we say, it’s who we are in Christ. The thing that matters/counts is the reality of God in Christ being present thru His Spirit in us, everything else is everything else and less. Christ in us touches others and God takes that and gives life and transforms whom He will. But the results are on Him and that should mean peace/rest and the freedom to go and do.
One of my cultural heroes is Makoto Fujimura who is following Jesus making contemporary art. That simple passion has produced works that for me touch spirit and point to God, and God has him on a journey in that passion that has reached so many in unexpected ways. I’ve tried to copy one of his pics below but it looks just like code. You can find some of his story and work at http://www.makotofujimura.com/ or you can hit google images. He’s articulate about his faith and art and a great resource that way. You may not have heard of him or even like his work and that’s OK, point is God has set out a road for each of us where our passion for Jesus means life for others.
Alan, your comments on the enigma of following and results struck a note with me. The emphasis on leadership in the church has been niggling on me lately. We emphasize how important it is to raise up leaders, but I have been thinking that it is more important to raise up followers. After all “What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? They are servants through whom you believed, as the Lord has assigned to each his role. I planted the seed and Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.…”. I sounds like we all are called first to be servants and followers, then God will multiply the fruit.
One caution about leader-centric ministry or the idea that followers should blindly follower their leaders (basically when there’s no accountability / checks and balances in place), is that the leader can became egotistical and arrogant. We’ve seen several high profile evangelicals be fired recently for this, which is sad. It’s sad, but also is a byproduct of the type of celebrity culture the Christian subculture has bought into. It’s dangerous and something to be cautious of. It can certainly swing too far the other direction as well; both extremes must be guarded against.
Hey Brian, I’m all for leaders in the church, but how church goes about it often seems so un-spiritual. Leaders should be those who have followed Jesus farther, who know Christ in a deeper way because they’ve walked with him and have been transformed by that. There’s reality to who they are in Christ.
Church here in the west puts too much stock in leaders being those who have the most Bible training and giving them a title. There’s nothing wrong with knowing the Bible but I want to hear from those who know Christ and can open His word to show Him. The Bible is living with power to set free but too often messages aim only at more bible knowledge, not knowing Christ. There’s no life, merely academics.
All followers of Jesus are leaders to the reality they’ve found in Christ. Spiritually, God raises up leaders organically; apart from that, what we do to try to accomplish that is fruitless.
You are hitting on something here Alan. I don’t know if you have these billboards where you live but around here there will be these “Graduate of Life” bill boards, which show photos of people that may not have high-end college degrees but have persevered through a lot of hardship in life, which gives them a different sort of seasoning and wisdom. Basically a call out to employers not to write people off if they had a checkered past or their resume’ doesn’t pop. I think that’s a good translation to what you’re getting at spiritually and in the church. I’d much rather have someone who is high in the fruits of the Spirit, especially humility (Though not listed in the fruits list, definitely a spiritual fruit), than someone with tons of degrees or tons of “coolness” which is becoming the young evangelical equivalent of the highest attribute. And I’m not knocking formal education, I love formal education. But that can always come later. Whereas for some, humility never comes. Give me a humble, loving person who knows very little about the academics of the faith over someone with tons of degrees and charisma and a satchel of pride, ego and arrogance.
I think I’ve seen those billboards but outside Joisey (I haven’t seen too many inspirational billboards driving around the Garden State), and agree there’s a value to experience and testing not found in formal education. It’s not that they’re at odds tho, there are depths to the Bible that only come from study. It’s more along the line that in spiritual matters, studying the Bible doesn’t necessarily result in spiritual people. It’s like what Jesus said in John 5 to men who made the scriptures their life’s work, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.” If bible training was the measure of spirituality, America should be paradise.
Maybe it’s becoming familiar with the persecuted church, but they have so little of the resources we do, even to the point of having no bibles, and yet meeting them, there is a reality about knowing Jesus that is almost tangible. The Jesus they follow in suffering, and the joy and peace they have, is real. Having said that, there’s a great need for Bible training and trained leaders in persecuted countries, and Bible training is not opposite experience. The leaders who will most help the church will be those who combine the two.
Crazy stat is that in Muslim dominant countries, over 80% of converts to Christ have seen/met Jesus in a dream or vision. What makes church so vital in persecuted countries is they start out meeting Jesus in a real way and then get the training and doctrine to explain what has happened. Here, too much seems only academic and mechanical, it’s not of/from the Spirit, and it never brings you to Jesus.
Today thru July 5th is Ramadan when many Muslims are seeking an experience with God. We should pray that it is Jesus they meet.
Great point about the persecuted Church and how leadership would be quantified there — we have so much to learn from the persecuted Church! And Amen to your prayer that Muslims will meet Jesus this month!
Hey Alan, thank you so much for the Richard Wurmbrand book! Awesome!
If you’ve never read anything by him, it’s theology in the best sense.
To get a feel for the man, check out some videos on YouTube:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7_1j5FXC2Aw
Enjoy
I heartily concur with the statement that we shouldn’t be worrying about transforming culture – that’s a huge paradigm shifter.
I hope you’ll expand this idea out of individual ethics and into institutional life. Ethics is an incidental aspect of fidelity – when Christians cater to institutions (government, schooling, military etc.) the consequences are infinitely more perverse because there is infidelity on a mass-scale, opening up the door to doctrines like the rapture and a platonistic, other-worldly view of heaven, both of which are nonsense and reminiscent of pagan death cults.
In short, maybe its even more uncool to challenge institutions than to challenge ethics.
To clarify, it is more “uncool” to challenge Christians who pander to institutions than Christians who pander to “non-Christian” ethics.