For a long time already, I’ve been thinking of writing some of my entries in English. So this is my first one and I hope to use this wonderful language in the right way to communicate my thoughts without missing the point.
Let’s talk about culture–not in the way many good social experts are doing it, but from a “lay, non-expert” point of view.
Henry Blackaby suggests joining God right where He is at work in the world. I prefer to use the word culture instead of world, just to avoid confusion with those who feel the word “world” is in fact an evil one.
If we believe God is at work, even before we show up, then we should accept what He is doing in using a wide variety of ways in a wide variety of scenarios.
God’s heart is always passionate about those outside of a relationship with Him. He cries and seeks for each living person in our planet, no matter if this person is worshiping other gods or claiming to be an atheist.
Now, the way we think He is seeking to build that relationship is crucial in our understanding of our role in God’s plan. Usually we think God is “calling” people to leave their natural environment (whatever it is), and join a safe “Christian” one. By believing this, we accept that our call is to “invite” people to church, where the worship leader and the pastor will give them an invitation to make a prayer and become Christians. From that point on, our role changes and soon we’ll be the people in charge of leading these new believers in a lifestyle marked by the total abandonment of their former environment.
On the other hand, if we think God is not “calling” people to leave their natural environments, but “working to change” those environments, then our role should be different, too. Instead of trying to drag people to our church services and make them “one of us”, we’ll be “going” and joining their very environments with a missional or missionary mindset.
By holding this position, the goal is not for the new believers to leave their natural environments, where all their relatives, friends and colleagues are, but rather to embrace them with a transformed and transformative heart, and through the Holy Spirit’s help, to impact, therefore, the culture around them.
The story of God’s intervention in human history (as it’s related in the Bible) is always in the frame of culture: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in their relationship with their neighbors in Canaan, Joseph in Egypt, Daniel in Babylon, Nehemiah in Persia, Paul in the Greek cities of the first century, and, of course, Jesus in His own cultural setting in the Roman province of Galilee. Today God is doing the same in our cities and communities around the world.
We are called to be yeast, salt and light. These elements are only helpful if they are used on raw, dark or non-salted environments and if these environments are present in the culture.
Thus, we have to ask ourselves: How is God working in the culture within our communities today?
