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(Thursday, June 7, 2007-)
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# The Cultural Mandate
That's something i've never heard of before. But it helped explain to me a lot of things that CHC were doing. Why they do what they do. Why they are so "extreme".
*****WARNING....EXTREME CONTENT TO SOME MAY FOLLOW.... READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED*****
So what exactly is this cultural mandate?
In Genesis, God gave Adam the mandate/responsibility to tend the Garden of Eden. According to Ps Kong (who is currently my preaching hero!), the word "tend" actually came from the root word "cultura" which actually means to culture. To grow, according to a certain style i guess. So basically, God wanted us to have dominion over culture, wanted us to shape culture and the world we live in, beyond just the physical "garden".
So what's this culture we see today?
Killings, vulgarities, obscenities, crime?
As we would know, the devil is interested in one thing, ruining God's plan and thus we can all see the fallen state of culture in our world today. But not all is lost.
We still see beauty, care, love, amazing discoveries, fashion (read Proverbs 31 with fashion in mind and see what Ps Kong means). So many things are still going right in a world gone wrong. And obviously not all that is right "comes from God" or better put "coming from Christians". There are good things being done by non-Christians, who are not explicitly given this Cultural Mandate to influence culture, but they are doing a pretty good job. Think charities (other than NKF if that helps ur flow of thought), humanitarian aid, great music, great inventions/discoveries (like broadband internet =).
So if Christians were given this mandate to engage culture, how come God has allowed others to influence the world (for the better as well)? It's through this phrase originally coined by John Calvin, "common grace". It's basically God's grace poured out upon all creation because God is a creative God. Elohim which was the word used to describe God in the begining of time actually means "creator God" or "creative spirit". Yes, in order to create, you need to be creative. One look at our world and you can tell there is a pretty creative God out there =)
So there's this common grace that enables business men and women to succeed, artistes to come up with great songs, scientists with amazing breakthroughs. And with these, they shape, or "tend" the world we live in.
So where does the church come into the equation.
People pay $888 to see one man sing and dance
Some people need to be "paid" to come to church
People sell millions of copies of their albums in music stores
People can't "survive" a 30 minute praise and worship session
People spend hours and days practising their dance moves/routines/stunts for competitions
People need to be asked to serve in church
People queue up for concerts/wait for tv programmes to start
People come as late as they can for service and leave as early as possible
The state of the church is a joke. We show ourselves to be holy and good. So holy and good even Jesus Himself might not enter. After all, He befriended prostitutes and tax collectors, ate with sinners and drunkards. While we Christians "mock" the world for being so evil and polluted. And the world looks at the church as if we're not even living in the same world as them. As if life on the inside of the four walls of church belongs to another dimension while the world moves on.
The world moves on.
The church has lost its relevance. It has failed it's cultural mandate to engage the culture of this generation. And even worse, some churches are even proud to be irrelevant. Proud to be seen as not of this world, to an extreme twisted end "holy and set APART"
What then do we say of John 3:16
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.
If you love something, you long to be with it, to be a part of it, not APART from it. We have become so estranged from this world that people don't dare to believe in God cuz it doesn't look like everlasting life belongs to the Christians. It looks like once u enter church, u're in a cultural prison, where you no longer belong to society because of all the things you can't do in a church.
But clearly the word of God tells us to be "in the world, but NOT of the world" but most Churches choose to not even be in the world. But why? Are we afraid that by letting Christians listen to secular music, they'll become satan worshippers? By letting them watch movies, they'll become materialistic?
Hello... "Greater is He that is in us, than he that is in the world". We are to engage the culture we are in today, be a part of it, shape it the way God meant it to be.
If you want to be a rapper, let the church be the place you showcase your rap for the glory of God.
If you wanna be a breakdancer, let the church teach you how to be excellent at it.
If you wanna be a fashion designer, let your youth group be your test bed.
If you want to be a writer, let your cell group be your editors.
I mean, come on, the church isn't ONLY about praising God and worshipping Him (although in no way am I downplaying the significance of that role), but the church is called to be so much more. To meet the true needs of the community, not just feeding the poor and housing the homeless.
There is a generation out there waiting to flourish, and if the church won't engage them, guess who'll get them to sign a contract first?
"The tide is turning, this is redemption's hour...." - UNITED - Point of Difference
Labels: Cultural Mandate
the story ends like this;
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