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I came across this gem by Tim Keller today and simply thought he said it well. I have been teaching through a series called the new normal, and the first few weeks the conversation centered around looking at the effects of worldview and culture on faith. Keller notes:
“Even if 80 percent of the population of a country are Christian believers, they will have almost no cultural influence if the Christians do not live in cultural centers and work in culture-forging fields such as academia, publishing, media, entertainment, and the arts. The assumption that society will improve simply be more Christian believers being present is no longer valid.”
Center Church: Doing Balanced, Gospel-Centered Ministry in Your City
It’s not a numbers game, it’s about creative influence. God created us all to be cultural artists and gardeners. The way to see things change is not by condemning, critiquing, copying or consuming culture, rather it is about creating more culture that is winsome, authentic and powerful. To create more culture we need to unleash men and women of faith in the key centers that Keller notes ion his book.
There is a beauty and a freedom when you realize the best way to change things is not to fight, but rather to be like God and create.
There is no doubt that creative people can have a disproportionate influence on culture. I would add to this that there are so many notions of what a “Biblical worldview” is by folks professing to be Christian (some of which are quite unbiblical) that this negatively impacts relative influence.
For example, how many professing Christians rail against same gender sex (for good reason – based on Hebrew Scripture and Paul’s writings) yet are themselves divorced and remarried (something Jesus himself calls “adultery”)?
A positive Christian influence on culture is more than just a marketing campaign, it should be a consistent Biblical ethic creatively expressed.
good thoughts tony…worldview is an incredibly complex and important conversation. We tend to mesh together a few major worldviews in the US and everyone thinks they have the right one, or the biblical one, and in reality it is more a variant worldview influenced by culture…the starting point is ruthlessly interrogating my reality to see what I believe and where it comes from before I am able to speak into or against something…and dead on that christian influence is not a marketing strategy…it is a consistant biblical ethic lived out in all cultures and worldviews, and that is where the creativity comes in….