Culture Changes You

I remember taking an introductory communication course during my first year of college. It wasn’t a profound experience, really, just a community college course outlining a few social science theories while most of the class worked on math homework or played Angry Birds. Something from that course stuck with me though. It was the first day of class when the professor challenged us, “try to not communicate” the professor said. So we stopped talking and put on an expressionless face. “Nice try, but you failed” quipped the professor. “You are always communicating something. Through your body-language, your choice of clothing, your mannerisms, your vocal inflection. You can’t not communicate.”

After forgetting most of what I learned that semester, that stuck with me (granted, it helps that every communication professor starts their semester with this little exercise. Since I studied communication theory for my undergrad, I’ve probably blended a dozen or so lessons into the story above). But the point holds true.

Drenched in Culture

To take a page from my old professors, I would like to suggest that the same is true for culture. Take a minute to try to imagine a person not influenced by culture. I’ll wait.

Do you have your imaginary case study ready? Maybe it’s a sort of unabomber character, living off the land in Montana. Maybe it’s a small town fundamentalist preacher who hasn’t watched a movie, played a card game, or read a “secular” book since 1971.

Well, thanks for playing, but even these folks can’t escape the reach of culture. Culture is as ubiquitous as the air we breathe. The clothes we wear (or don’t wear), the language we speak, and the things we buy—which are all evidence that we are all drenched in culture.

Culture is everywhere and, like it or not, culture is changing you.

After watching that movie last night, listening to that album, reading that book, binge watching House of Cards, and buying that new shirt you are not the same person.

On a recent Christ and Pop Culture podcast we asked Dr. Greg Thornbury, president of King’s College in New York City, about engaging culture. To which he responded,

“You want to engage culture?—too late! Because culture has already engaged you . . . It’s the air you breathe. You’re so suffused with it, that to talk about engagement is almost a misnomer.”

Thornbury then recalled this old Palmolive commercial. “You’re soaking in it,” Madge tells her friend in the commercial. Just as our curiosity is peaked about culture and Christianity, we realize that we’ve been soaking in it this whole time.

Maybe you fully realize this, but fear the growing influence of secular culture, and try to avoid that which seems antithetical to Christian morality, or liberal, or heterodox. However, because we are unable to escape culture and since culture is undoubtedly influencing us, the question cannot be “how can we avoid being discipled by culture?” and should be “how can our involvement in and consumption of culture be harnessed as a gospel-centered discipleship tool?”

For the rest of this article, I will lay groundwork for the latter question and, in a series of monthly posts at Gospel-Centered Discipleship, I will go through several case studies using different cultural artifacts.

What exactly is Culture, anyway?

What: What is culture? Culture is hard to define because culture is both profoundly visible and invisible. Both concrete and abstract. Culture is what you are expected to say when somebody sneezes. Culture is the free version of Hamlet in the local park. Culture is the billboard on the highway. Culture is how long you are expected to pray, if at all, before a meal. Culture consists of the shared ideas, norms, and practices that knit humans together. Culture forms us and we form it.

Why: Why do we create and consume culture? Maybe more important than understanding the precise definition of culture is understanding why we create and consume it. As articulated by James K.A. Smith in Desiring the Kingdom, humans create and consume culture because we are lovers––that is, we participate in the cultural practices that we do because they promise to fulfill us. “We are essentially and ultimately desiring animals, which is simply to say that we are essentially and ultimately lovers. To be human is to love, and it is what we love that defines who we are,” says Smith (50-51). Simply put, the cultural practices that we participate—sometimes without even realizing it—reveal what we desire.

Culture is much more than beliefs and ideologies. Culture is a collective conscious and unconscious  striving for happiness, understanding, and fulfillment. To quote James K.A. Smith again, the ideas and practices that make us human are “always aimed at some vision of the good life, some particular articulation of the kingdom” (24).

“Pop Culture”: To briefly summarize for clarity, “pop culture” is the media, practices, and artifacts that are produced by culture.

Popular culture is one big, diverse collection of desire-driven narratives. We often buy certain clothes because we believe that how we look will lead to some sort of fulfillment. We watch films that explicitly reflect our desire for reconciliation or subtly reflect our desire for beauty. These artifacts are what Smith calls pictures of the good life. We are being discipled (changed into the image of something) by what we consume,

“[A]esthetic articulations of human flourishing as found in images, stories, and films (as well as advertisements, commercials, and sitcoms). Such pictures appeal to our adaptive unconscious because they traffic in the stuff of embodiment and affectivity. Stories seep into us––and stay there and haunt us . . . . we can’t not be lovers, we can’t not be desiring some kingdom” (58, 75).

Considering the power and ubiquity of culture, we cannot afford to ignore it. Nor can we afford to go to war with it. If “The earth is the LORD's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein”(Ps. 24:1), then we must recognize the import, God-ordained role that culture has to play in our lives. More than, culture can be used as a valuable discipleship tool. With all the complicated messages that culture presents, we need supernatural help to view it as such.

Trained by the Spirit to See

The beauty of grace is that we aren’t going to get it right, but that’s okay. God is actively living and working inside of sinful people.

I grew up in a non-Christian home, intellectually discipled by my dad to love and appreciate great film, music, and literature. Before becoming a Christian at sixteen, I found refuge in the music of Bob Dylan and Uncle Tupelo, the writing of Salinger and Vonnegut, and the films of Kurosawa and Wes Anderson. These cultural artifacts shaped me, dare I say, in wonderful and healthy ways.

When I became a Christian, my life was changed by Jesus. I understood that I was a bad person who needed to be saved from myself. I found security where I had only known insecurity. I also found Christian culture, and, for about three months, I gave up “secular music” and listened only to Christian radio because I thought that’s what Christians did. It was like only feeding a kid spinach for three months—”I know it’s good for me.” I would tell myself, “but it’s so awful going down!” I don’t remember the day that I gave in, but going back to my Wilco and Rolling Stones albums was a breath of fresh air. And those albums turned out to be some of the most helpful discipleship resources I’ve ever interacted with. They displayed what it looks like to wrestle through doubt, insecurity, and loneliness. Not to mention, expressions of joy, historical rootedness (here’s looking at you, Mick Jagger), and intimacy. As I began to study the Bible, I found that culture expressed similar emotions and often strove towards the same goals, and fell into the same trap.

There is an invisible thread that runs throughout culture. Christians have the grace of the revealed knowledge that this cultural mystery is the Logos—God himself working through culture, history, and music. Paul quoted Aratus and Epimenides of Crete in Acts 17 to show the Greeks that God was at work in their culture. While the Spirit teaches us the substance of this thread (the gospel narrative) through the preached Word, the sacraments, Scripture, community, and prayer, we can learn to boldly draw parallels between the seemingly secular, obtuse, or ignored and the Creator of the universe.

After years of being well-discipled in a gospel-loving church—a safe place to wrestle through the inherent goodness or badness of the pop culture that I love so much—the Spirit trained me (and is continuing train me) to see how, while broken, human culture is divinely infused. Through cultural expressions of honest doubt, sincere beauty, and vulnerable intimacy, the Spirit has taught me the cathartic joy of identifying with human longing and the art of seeing the sacred in the secular.

The Spirit teaches us to view the world and culture through gospel colored glasses. Humans who create culture are creatures who are longing for redemption—creatures with eternity written on their hearts and the image of God in their DNA.

“Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.  And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual” (1 Cor. 2:12-13).

Our spiritual nature (that is, united by faith to Jesus) allows us to see the world for what it is. We are taught by the spirit to see people as made specifically in the image of God, longing for something to save them from their fallenness. The culture that humans create—Christian or not—reflects this Godward orientation and can itself lead Christians to understand God in rich, previously untapped ways.

Take The Brothers Karamazov—the book that, apparently, led Reza Aslan to reject Christianity. The same book that I would call one of the most import books in my spiritual life. While I saw pure, Christ-like grace exemplified in the characters of Alyosha and Zossima, I saw a wise vision of ecclesiology in the chapter “The Grand Inquisitor” and even when Dostoevsky inevitably strays from Protestant orthodoxy, as I read I grew in love. I don't need it to be explicitly evangelical to see God’s divine imprint in Dostoevsky's work.

Enjoying good culture is a joy and a blessing. When we see God’s fingerprint on it, we can be sure that the Spirit is teaching us that he loves his creation and culture as a good, undeserved gift. No need to freak out at the upsurge in “secular” culture. If God created culture and man is wired to know God, even the most anti-Christian cultural expressions will not be able to overcome God’s redemptive plan and will, in some way, reflect gospel truth. One of the joys of being a Christian is that we get to search for it.

Granted, Scripture says that some things are truly wicked and should be avoided (see 1 Cor. 10:23-33), and that many things are unhelpful, though lawful. Pornography, hate speech, and like are to be rightfully abhorred and actively fought against. However, everything is a mixed bag, including Christian culture (and certainly including this article!). So we must be careful not to draw black and write lines in the sand, calling everything that disagrees with our theological and moral sensibilities irredeemable smut. Culture is complex, and more often than not has much more to offer us that we think, not less.

Culture can be spiritually detrimental, but often it simply exposes our already corrupt heart. If we are unrepentantly greedy or adulterous, films like The Wolf of Wall Street and Goodfellas will feed those desires. However, if we approach these films with an explicit desire to understand the character of God, culture, even the most seemingly unredeemable can point us to the gospel.

Maybe you zone out to How I Met Your Mother every night after work. Maybe you just bought Weird Al’s new album and you’ve been jamming out to “Tacky”  this week. Whatever it is, it isn’t “secular”—it’s shaping you. Be encouraged though, as you learn to view it through a gospel lense—like Paul did with the poetry of Epimenides and Aratus. God can use it as a means to reveal himself and the good news of his Son.

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Nick Rynerson lives in the west suburbs of Chicago with his groovy wife, Jenna. He is a staff writer for Christ and Pop Culture and a marketing coordinator at Crossway. Connect with him on Twitter @nick_rynerson or via email.

Choosing Grace Over Outrage

In his book, We Learn Nothing: Essays and Cartoons, political cartoonist and New York Times Op-ed writer Tim Kreider describes the modern epidemic that he calls “outrage porn”:

So many letters to the editor and comments on the Internet have this . . . tone of thrilled vindication: these are people who have been vigilantly on the lookout for something to be offended by, and found it…Obviously, some part of us loves feeling 1) right and 2) wronged. But outrage is like a lot of other things that feel good but, over time, devour us from the inside out. Except it’s even more insidious than most vices because we don’t even consciously acknowledge that it’s a pleasure. We prefer to think of it as a disagreeable but fundamentally healthy reaction to negative stimuli, like pain or nausea, rather than admit that it’s a shameful kick we eagerly indulge again and again . . . [It is] outrage porn, selected specifically to pander to our impulse to judge and punish, to get us off on righteous indignation.

The commitment to feel 1) right and 2) wronged seems to be a fairly common phenomenon. But is this a fruitful way for Christians in particular to engage in public conversations about the issues of the day? I think Jesus taught us another way.

There are surely going to be times when we will disagree with others, sometimes in a passionate way. A follower of Jesus is by definition a person who carries certain convictions. Yet when we must disagree, being steadfast in our loyalty to Jesus demands that we not be disagreeable as people. When people assume a different viewpoint than ours, we are never to hold them in contempt. Scorn and disdain and a chip on the shoulder are not Christian virtues. Rather, they are Pharisaical vices. They may at times contribute to winning an argument, but they will never win a person. A disagreeable spirit—or as my fellow pastor Ken Leggett likes to say it, “habitually putting on a no face instead of a yes face”—is not the way that Jesus intends for his followers to engage in disagreements and debates.

Tim Keller says that tolerance isn’t about not having beliefs. It’s about how your beliefs lead you to treat people who disagree with you. This is where biblical Christianity is unparalleled in its beauty and distinctiveness. I am not talking about distorted belief systems that pretend to be Christianity but are not. I am talking about the true, pure, undefiled, unedited, unfiltered, unrevised, and an altogether biblical and beautiful system of belief—the one that visits orphans and widows in their afflictions, the one that loves all its neighbors who are near or in need, the one that is kind to its enemies:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?”

Jesus did not merely speak these words as an edict from on high. He became these words. “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). While we were running from him, while we were passively resisting him, while we were actively opposing him, while we were his enemies, Christ in love gave his life for us.

Do we need any more reason to be kind to those who see things differently than we do? What more reason do we need than that through Jesus, we are forgiven and free and loved and will never ever, ever, ever, be condemned or scorned by the courts of heaven?

Having received such grace, Christians have a compelling reason to be remarkably gracious, inviting, and endearing in our treatment of others, including and especially those who disagree with us. Let’s be known by what we are for instead of what we are against. Let’s be less committed to defending our own rights—for Jesus laid down his rights—and more enmeshed in joining Jesus in his mission of loving people, places, and things to life.

When the grace of Jesus sinks in, we will be among the least offended and least offensive people in the world.

Jesus already took us seriously by giving his life for us. There is no better reason than this to take ourselves less seriously.

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Scott Sauls, a graduate of Furman University and Covenant Seminary, is foremost a son of God and the husband of one beautiful wife (Patti), the father of two fabulous daughters (Abby and Ellie), and the primary source of love and affection for a small dog (Lulu). Professionally, Scott serves as the Senior Pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church in Nashville, Tennessee. Prior to Nashville, Scott was a Lead and Preaching Pastor, as well as the writer of small group studies, for Redeemer Presbyterian of New York City. Twitter: @scottsauls.

Originally posted at www.scottsauls.com/blog. Used with permission from Scott Sauls.

Adopting a Missional Posture

Mission is why we exist as disciples. God’s love inspires us to be missionaries to the world around us. Emil Brunner says, “The church exists by mission just as fire exists by burning.” Mission begins at home, serving in our local church, and reaching our community. As disciples, we have been sent as missionaries to share the gospel in our present culture and to fulfill the Great Commission. The church is rooted in the concept of the missio Dei, which recognizes that there is one mission, and it’s God’s mission. The missio Dei is a Latin theological term that can be translated as mission of God. The word missio literally means sent. The church is not an end in itself; the church is sent into the world to fulfill the mission of God.

God is a Missionary

Understanding what it means to be a part of the mission of God begins with understanding that God is a missionary God. The very being of God is the basis for the missionary enterprise. God is a sending God, with a desire to see humankind and creation reconciled, redeemed, and healed. God’s mission can be seen throughout the pages of the Bible and history. Nowhere is the mission of God better understood than in the person and work of Jesus Christ. John 3:16 tells us, “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

Many Christians and churches teach and preach that missions are something we support or do, such as sending or supporting missionaries in other countries. This was the case twenty to thirty years ago. However, in the twenty first century the mission field has come to us.

We live in a post-Christian world where people simply don’t know the gospel anymore. Therefore, we are all called to be missional disciples and share in the mission of God. Ed Stetzer says, “Being Missional means actually doing mission right where you are. Missional means adopting the posture of a missionary, learning and adapting to the culture around you while remaining biblically sound.”

Jesus: The First Missionary

Being a missional disciple is simply following the way of Jesus. Jesus Christ was the first and greatest missionary. The Bible tells us that he came from heaven to earth to die for a lost and dying world. The following scriptures reveal how the mission of God was fulfilled through Jesus Christ and how we are called to continue and complete the missio Dei in our culture.

• “Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work’” (Jn. 4:34).
• “I can do nothing on my own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and my judgment is just, because I do not seek my own will, but the will of him who sent me” (Jn. 5:30).
• “For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me” (Jn. 6:38).
• “I know him; because I am from him, and he sent me.” (Jn. 7:29).
• “And he who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him” (Jn 8:29).
• “We must work the works of him who sent me, as long as it is day; night is coming, when no man can work.” (Jn 9:4).
• “And Jesus cried out and said, ‘He who believes in me does not believe in me, but in him who sent me. And he who beholds me beholds the one who sent me’” (Jn 12:44-45).
• “For I did not speak on my own initiative, but the Father himself who sent Me has given Me commandment, what to say, and what to speak” (Jn 12:49).
• “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who receives whomever I send receives me; and he who receives me receives him who sent me” (Jn 13:20).
• “And this is eternal life, that they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent” (Jn 17:3).
• “For the words which thou gave me I have given to them; and they received them, and truly understood that I came forth from thee, and they believed that thou didst send me” (Jn 17:8).
• “As thou didst send me into the world, I also have sent them into the world” (Jn 17:18).
• “Jesus therefore said to them again, ‘Peace be with you; as the Father has sent me, I also send you’” (Jn 20:21).

Sent on a Mission

As the Father sent Jesus, he also sends us into our time and culture. Mark Driscoll says, “It is imperative that Christians be like Jesus, by living freely within the culture as missionaries who are as faithful to the Father and his gospel as Jesus was in his own time and place.”

We have been chosen by God to live in this time and place in order to fulfill the mission of God. Acts 17: 26-27 tells us that God has determined the exact place and time where we should live so that that men may find him. It is truly awesome to realize that you have chosen by God to be his representative to this world. It is both a great privilege and great responsibility.

Paul describes our calling in the following way, “We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were entreating through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” (2 Cor. 5:20).

Being missional is God’s way of showing the love of his Son Jesus through his church. Christians must strive to always be like Jesus, our perfect example. Jesus said, “The Son of man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many” (Mk. 10:45). This scripture beautifully embodies the task of Christian ministry. To be a disciple is to be a servant. We are to serve and give our lives for others. Serving is the example that Jesus gave; therefore, we should follow it.

As the church we are called to care for a lost and dying world that is in desperate need of a Savior. Too many times we compartmentalize the different ministries of the church. We have viewed social ministry as something we do on one hand and evangelism on the other. God is calling the church to rediscover the biblical model of holistic ministry.

Jesus met both the physical and spiritual needs of the people he ministered to. As the Body of Christ on earth, we are his representatives to a lost world. Therefore, what we do and say are of eternal importance. Being missional disciples is not an either or situation. It means that we care about people’s souls and their bodies. It means that because we care about the gospel we should care about social and environmental issues. Being missional disciples brings all of life together under the banner of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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Dr. Winfield Bevins is the Director of Asbury Seminary’s Church Planting Initiative. He frequently speaks at conferences and retreats on a variety of topics.  He has a doctorate from Southeastern Seminary. He has written several books, including Our Common Prayer: A Field Guide to the Book of Common Prayer. As an author, one of his passions is to help contemporary Christians connect to the historic roots of the Christian faith for spiritual formation. He and his wife Kay, have three girls Elizabeth, Anna Belle, and Caroline. Find out more at www.winfieldbevins.com.

Eating Stories for Life

“We are narrative creatures, and we need narrative nourishment—narrative catechisms”

—N. D. Wilson

Many of my earliest childhood memories revolve around stories. My parents read to me a good bit. Many of these books were passed down to me and I now read them to my children. Although I didn’t know it then, I was being discipled through those stories. They were providing “narrative nourishment” as N. D. Wilson calls it. Just as we use catechism to sear truths deep into our bones, we must use stories to sear truths into our hearts. Stories mature us by laying hold of our affections. We love the truths of stories and so learn to love the God of truth. In Desiring the Kingdom, James K. A. Smith describes this “narrative nourishment” of affections:

Our ultimate love is oriented by and to a picture of what we think it looks like for us to live well, and that picture then governs, shapes, and motivates our decisions and actions . . . . A vision of the good life captures our hearts and imaginations not by providing a set of rules or ideas, but by painting a picture of what it looks like for us to flourish and live well. This is why such pictures are communicated powerfully in stories, legends, myths, plays, novels, and films rather than dissertations, messages, and monographs” (53).

Famed biologist and atheist, Richard Dawkins acknowledges the power of story when he recently said, “I think it's rather pernicious to inculcate into a child a view of the world which includes supernaturalism – we get enough of that anyway . . . ” and “Even fairy tales, the ones we all love, with wizards or princesses turning into frogs or whatever it was. There’s a very interesting reason why a prince could not turn into a frog – it's statistically too improbable” (The Telegraph, “Reading fairy stories to children is harmful, says Richard Dawkins”).

It was The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe that first fueled my affections. I was enthralled with Narnia’s fairy world, distant, yet so close to my own—a world where sacrificial love wins the day. Later in life, I was intrigued by mythology, King Arthur’s knights, Beowulf, and Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, and later J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth (a place that holds my affections fast even as an adult).

Many Christians read stories to their children or read fiction for themselves. Some don’t read at all, and simply don’t see the benefit. I worked with an older Christian woman who told me that she never reads fiction because it’s a lie. C. S. Lewis comments on this kind of thinking: “We must not, in false spirituality, withhold our imaginative welcome.” Few, in my experience, read stories as “narrative nourishment”—as fuel to capture our hearts with a vision for beauty and truth that drives our affections to God. I hope to change that.

My daughters love stories with princesses (Frozen was on repeat for months in my home) and mystery like The Boxcar Children. They reenact these stories with cousins and friends using their imagination. My oldest daughter Claire just told me yesterday that it’s hard playing Frozen when her cousin and friend Emma comes over because they all want to be Elsa. The truths of those stories then are rehearsed, and rehearsed, and rehearsed every time they read them and play them out. If stories have this power to grab our affection, then the stories we read (and the ones we don’t read) are important.

The Gospel: A Story Aimed at Our Heart

When we meet together as a church, we rehearse a particular liturgy. The strength of that liturgy depends on how well it connects to the work of the Trinity. In my church, the pastor ends the service with a benediction from Scripture and sends us out into our city. We are scattered with the gospel speeding our steps.

That rehearsal of the gospel is foundation for Christian discipleship. But it should produce a life that’s centered on the gospel throughout the week as well. In a way, all of life should be part of our discipleship—whether we eat, drink, walk, sleep, whatever (Deut. 6:4-9; 1 Cor. 10:31). We live in light of the story of redemption (1 Cor. 15:1-3).

We are rescued by God, redeemed by Christ, and made new by the Spirit. Our lives fit into this gospel narrative, not as heroes, but as integral image-bearers, ambassadors, and heralds of the Christ. When God calls his people to live in a fallen world, he says, “You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you; therefore I command you this today” (Deut. 15:15). He rehearses a true story to them. In Old Testament Ethics for the People of God, Christopher Wright says, “Personal experience of God’s goodness is turned into motivation for ethical behaviour that responds out of gratitude and love” (42). This doesn’t change in the New Testament. Paul regularly rehearses the truth of the gospel story (Rom. 1-6; 1 Cor. 15) before providing any kind of ethical imperative (Rom. 12-16). This pattern is a regular feature of Paul’s letters.

Even the development of the New Testament, bears this out. The church first held dear stories of the life and death of Christ and rich doctrine sprung out of those stories—because stories of sacrificial love, death, and resurrection dig into our hearts. We want them to be true. “We all like astonishing tales,“ says G. K. Chesterton, “because they touch the nerve of the ancient instinct of astonishment.” There is no more astonishing tale than God becoming man to die for his enemies.

Stories and Missional Discipleship

So as we read stories that highlight truths that the gospel also teaches us, these are opportunities to nourish the delight, astonishment, and wonder in ourselves, our children, friends, and unbelievers. Once our hearts are in love with the story, our minds will not be long in following suit. Tolkien makes this point in a letter to his son Christopher.

“[C.S.] Lewis recently wrote a most interesting essay (if published I don’t know) showing of what great value the ‘story-value’ was, as mental nourishment—of the whole Chr. story (NT especially). It was a defence of that kind of attitude which we tend to sneer at: the fainthearted that loses faith, but clings at least to the beauty of ‘the story’ as having some permanent value. His point was that they do still in that way get some nourishment and are not cut off wholly from the sap of life: for the beauty of the story while not necessarily a guarantee of its truth is a concomitant of it, and a fidelis is meant to draw nourishment from the beauty as well as the truth.” (‘96 To Christopher Tolkien’, 109)

With stories that don’t reflect truth of the gospel, it’s an opportunity to contrast the gospel truth with the shallow, faulty, affection grabbing stories of that “secular liturgy” as James K. A. Smith calls them. We can read and see what worshiping other gods looks like. How those false stories are lived out. Christopher Wright says, “The ethical teaching of the Old Testament is first and foremost God-centered . . . [T]his underlines for us the importance of the first commandment: ‘You shall have no other gods before me.’ For any ‘other god’ would result in a different ethic” (46). Some stories demonstrate what this different ethic looks like.

Also, reading good stories provides missional opportunities. Whenever I run into atheists who love Lewis’s Narnia or Tolkien’s Middle-Earth, my ears perk up. I know that if they love those stories, if they love truths rehearsed in those worlds, if their hearts are entangled in them, then they are not far from loving the gospel. It’s an amazing way to share the gospel. “If you love that this is true in Middle-Earth, God has done this same sort of thing in our world. How can your heart long for the truth and beauty found in Tolkien, but not in your own life?”

So we must not neglect narrative nourishment. We must eat stories for life—to grow and mature as disciples. Christians who refuse to do so are missing an important part of their discipleship because Christians are part of a story-formed community. C. S. Lewis compares the Christian who refuses narrative nourishment with the non-Christian who eats it as her regular meal.

“A man who disbelieved the Christian story as fact but continually fed on it as myth would, perhaps, be more spiritually alive than one who assented and did not think much about it. The modernist . . . need not be called a fool or hypocrite because he obstinately retains, even in the midst of his intellectual atheism, the language, rites, sacraments, and story of the Christians. The poor man may be clinging (with a wisdom he himself by no means understands) to that which is his life.” (‘Myth Became Fact,’ 67)

Let’s not waste the opportunity for making, maturing, and multiplying disciples that reading, talking about, sharing good stories affords. Scripture is made of stories. Christ fulfills the gospel story. We live in a grand story. And the best stories help us know the gospel better—by grabbing our hearts.

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Mathew B. Sims is the Editor-in-Chief at Exercise.com and has authored, edited, and contributed to several books including A Household Gospel, We Believe: Creeds, Confessions, & Catechisms for Worship, A Guide for Advent, Make, Mature, Multiply, and A Guide for Holy Week. Mathew, LeAnn (his wife), and his daughters Claire, Maddy, and Adele live in Taylors, SC at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains with their Airdale Terrier. They attend Downtown Presbyterian Church (PCA). Visit MathewBryanSims.com!

Living in Light of the Incarnation

If we do not understand the weight of the miracle of the incarnation of Christ, it is because we do not understand the weight of the holiness of God. The incarnation is shocking. It is outrageous to think that an infinite and holy God would voluntarily become finite to live with unholy sinners. In fact, the incarnation is so appalling that it is the thing that separates Christianity from Islam and Judaism. The Jerusalem Talmud says, “If man claims to be God, he is a liar” (Ta’anit 2:1), while the Quran says, “Allah begets not and was not begotten” (Sura al-Ikhlas 112). Jews and Muslims understand how ludicrous it is to think that a holy God would humiliate himself by becoming human.

The Dreadful Holiness of God

The holiness of God is fearful. But if we want to know God and ourselves, we must begin by seeing how much God loves his holiness and cherishes his purity. If we do not start here, the gospel will become cheap to us. As A.W. Tozer wrote in The Knowledge of the Holy,

“Unless the weight of the burden is felt, the gospel can mean nothing to man; and until he sees a vision of God high and lifted up, there will be no woe and no burden. Low views of God destroy the gospel for all who hold them.”

Under the old covenant, people responded to the holiness of God with awe and reverence. When Moses met the Lord, he “hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God” (Ex 3:6). Then, years later, when he begged to see God’s glory, God said, “You cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live” (Ex 33:20). When the ark of the Lord was being brought back to Israel, some men looked inside of it and, as a result, the Lord struck down fifty thousand men. The people despaired, “Who is able to stand before the Lord, this holy God?” (1 Sam. 6:20). When David was bringing the ark to Jerusalem, one man merely touched it, and God struck him down immediately, “And David was afraid of the Lord that day, and he said, ‘How can the ark of the Lord come to me?’” (2 Sam. 6:9). The nearer Ezekiel approached the throne of the Lord, the less sure his words became: “Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell on my face” (Ez 1:28).

Not only did people tremble at his holiness, the Lord himself frequently spoke about it. Through Isaiah, he said, “Who has measured the Spirit of the Lord, or what man shows him his counsel … All the nations are as nothing before him, they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness” (Is 40:13, 17). When Job finished calling his character into question, the Lord answered from the whirlwind, “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? . . . Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?” (Job 38:2, 4).

The Incarnation of that Dreadful Holiness

Jesus embodies the holiness of God because he is God and has been with God from the beginning (Jn 1:1-2). This means that, when God acted under the old covenant, Jesus—as part of the Godhead—was right there with him. This is why the incarnation is a shocking miracle. In Christ, God has effected self-disclosure. Our holy God, who told Moses, “for man shall not see me and live,” became incarnate. People saw him and lived.

Our holy God, who struck down a man for touching the ark and another fifty thousand for looking inside of it, became incarnate. People spit upon him and lived. Our holy God, whose throne was so magnificent that Ezekiel failed to find words to describe it, became incarnate. He was born as a baby in a manger, not a throne. Our holy God, who demanded blood sacrifices to atone for sin, became incarnate. He allowed himself to be butchered on a cross.

Our holy God, who asked Job, “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?” became incarnate. He was born in an insignificant little town and worked as a mere carpenter in Nazareth.

Incarnation in Our Cities

What does the incarnation mean for us today?

First, the incarnation means that we live in the world, but not of it. As Jesus prayed for his disciples, “I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world” (Jn 17:15). In other words, we pursue holy lives of obedience and sacrifice even as we engage in our cities.

Second, the incarnation means that we seek opportunities to deny ourselves. Self-denial is not a popular topic in our culture, but it is the starting point for Christian growth in the mind of Christ. When Jesus became incarnate, he voluntarily denied himself the privileges of being God in order to be mocked and killed (Phil. 2:8). He did this because he longed to redeem us and knew that, in order to accomplish our salvation, the demands of his holiness had to be met. We could not meet them, so he met them for us. We, in turn, are to have the same mind, “do[ing] nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count[ing] others more significant than [our]selves” (Phil. 3:3). We deny ourselves to love others.

Third, the incarnation means that we do not love money. God is the richest being in the universe. Everything is made by him, through him and for him. Yet as he looked upon the world and decided into what family he would come, he chose the poorest of the poor. When Mary and Joseph went to the temple after the birth of Jesus, Luke records, “And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought [Jesus] up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. . . and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, ‘a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons’” (Lk 2:22-24). Under the Law, the regular sacrifice was a lamb, but there was a provision for poor mothers: “If she cannot afford a lamb, then she shall take two turtledoves or two pigeons” (Lv 12:8). This is what Mary brought. Jesus, who had all the riches of the world at his disposal, chose to be incarnate into a family that could not even afford a regular sacrifice. Let us not love riches.

Fourth, the incarnation means that we should not overvalue physical beauty. Our culture loves external appearances, but the incarnate Christ chose to come as someone who had no physical beauty or majesty. He is the most glorious person who has ever lived, but we did not recognize his glory. Thousands saw him with their eyes, but they saw nothing with their hearts. We, in turn, must look for beauty in our world with the eyes of our heart. What will we see when we look at the world this way? We will see that, today, the Lord lives in the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, and the prisoner. As Jesus taught, when we care for such people, we do this unto him.

Finally, the incarnation means that God is for us. Paul was not merely referring to the crucifixion when he wrote, “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Rom. 8:31-32). He was also referring to the incarnation, when Jesus left the side of the Father to become man and accomplish our salvation. The incarnation means that God is for us. Jesus left the Godhead and all the privileges thereof to die. He lived a humiliating and self-denying life to bring us to God, where there are pleasures forevermore (Ps 16:11). He veiled his awful and fearful holiness so that we could touch him, see him, know him, and love him. No longer does he say, “No man can see my face and live.” Today, he says, “See my face and be satisfied” (Ps 17:15).

When we live in light of the incarnation of Christ, our lives will be shocking to others. Although we are sons and daughters of the King, we must humiliate ourselves by serving others. All things may be permissible, but we will deny ourselves certain things or activities so that we can grow in our love for God and others. We will earn money, but we will strategize how to give it away for the sake of the kingdom. Living in a physical world, we will spend more effort on cultivating our inner beauty than our outer beauty. We will trust in the promises of God more than our circumstances because we know he is for us. When we live like this, people will think we are ludicrous. They will find our choices shocking. Yet we will point to the miracle of the incarnation of Christ. Our lives will testify to the great news of Advent. That news is this: Christ has come, God is with us.

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Bethany L. Jenkins is the director of TGC’s Every Square Inch and the founder of The Park Forum. She previously worked on Wall Street and on Capitol Hill. She received her JD from Columbia Law School and attends Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, where she was a Gotham Fellow through the Center for Faith & Work. You can follow her on Twitter.

Joining Jesus in Restoring Culture

What do we mean when we talk about “culture”? In Culture Making, Andy Crouch defines culture this way: “Culture is what we make of the world. Culture is, first of all, the name for our relentless, restless human effort to take the world as it is given to us and make something else.” All of us make something of the world. And our contributions actually communicate quite a bit about what’s important to us. What we make of the world either gives people a surprising vision of the Kingdom of God or reinforces their spiritual numbness as citizens of the dominion of darkness. This is the essence of Jesus's teaching in the Sermon on the Mount.

Now that we are citizens of a better Kingdom that is breaking into the world, Jesus invites us to participate with him in what he is “making of the world” via the Kingdom of God.

During a flight to Denver, a man named Ben and I talked for a couple of hours. He shared how he used to be a Christian but now isn’t sure how to categorize his spirituality. As the conversation continued, we began to speak about the role of the Christian church in the world today.

“I think Christianity is primarily characterized by fear. Churches are shrinking away from culture out of fear.” Ben stated.

I replied, “That’s a fair assessment. That’s certainly not how it should be.”

Then I began to share good news about Jesus with him. What followed was one of the most mutually encouraging Jesus-driven conversations I’ve ever experienced. I introduced Jesus as the restorer of culture.

A Robust Redemption

Jesus is our atonement. Jesus is our substitute, our propitiatory sacrifice, and our expiation. Jesus is our example. Jesus is our ransom. Jesus is our reconciliation. Jesus is our redemption. Jesus is our triumph and victor. Yes, he is all these things. But Jesus is also the restorer of culture.

What makes the atonement so beautiful is that, like a well-cut diamond, there are so many angles from which we can view its brilliance. But without that last facet, virtually all of our understanding of the atonement can become  individualized. Jesus is not merely redeeming us; he is redeeming all things.

As Mouw points out in When the Kings Come Marching In, there is more to the atonement. The redemptive ministry of Jesus is bigger and extends into culture.

I believe Jesus is good news for children who are victims of violence. Jesus speaks a word to citizens who live under murderous, corrupt governments. Jesus offers hope to those in sexual slavery. And his message is more than just, “Repent. Believe. Be baptized.” Jesus also says to them, “I am your restorer. This is not the way things are supposed to be, but my Kingdom is here and my Kingdom is coming.”

Ultimately, we will proclaim an atonement that covers our perception of the scope of sin. So if we believe that sin is only individual, we will preach redemption that covers only the individual. However, as we begin to see that sin also reaches into every area of creation, we uncover the need for an atonement that is larger in scope. And thankfully the atonement is big enough to cover both individual and systemic sin.

 What Ought to Be

Genesis 1:28 gives a command that scholars have dubbed “The Creational Mandate” or “The Cultural Mandate.” God says, “Adam and Eve, check out the good creation I’ve made! Now go cultivate, subdue, tame, innovate, and make.” To play off Crouch’s understanding, God is saying, “Go make something of the world that reflects my sovereign rule over it.” When sin soiled the good that God made (Gen. 3), things were fractured. Perfect culture became distorted culture.

But God is the ultimate creative maker. He has made us in his image so that we also would also creatively “make” in such a way that points people to his invisible rule. He has redeemed the fallen world in order to help us flourish once again. What we make of the world should inevitably point to a picture of this human flourishing.

We believe that Jesus will return again to set up his Kingdom here on earth (Rev. 11:15). At that point God will abolish sin, injustice, pain, oppression, and disease. As citizens of God’s Kingdom, we are to use our talents, skills, and passions to give people a glimpse of what the Kingdom of God is like. We live now in the reality of what will be. That means we have the joyful opportunity to join God in the renewal of all things. Each one of us has an opportunity to help the world taste the Kingdom by being a “restorer” and introducing people to Jesus and his ways.

If this seems strange or foreign to you, here’s the essential building block for this conversation: God’s Kingdom is what ought to be. The brokenness of our world is what ought not to be. Jesus’s ministry as prophet, priest, and king is about nothing less than initiating – and eventually consummating – what ought to be.

Participating in Restoring Culture

The world is messy. There is division, destruction, hatred, greed, slander, debauchery, and plenty of other types brokenness. It is all around us. How does understanding God's desire for culture translate practically? Here are a few points for consideration and action.

1. What is? Like a fish in water, it can be difficult to consciously observe the water we swim in. Yet Jesus and his disciples seemed to be good at observing people, places, and patterns that everyone else was gazing right past. In the community you inhabit, what are the norms of life? What’s good and enjoyable? What’s broken or perverted?

2. What ought to be? Disciples of Jesus are driven by a vision of a different kingdom. We know how God created things to be, how they were before the first sin. So ask the Spirit for some creative imagination and ponder: “What would this community look like if the Kingdom of God broke in? If Jesus was ruling here, what would be different?”

3. How can I participate? What do you sense the Spirit asking you (and/or your church community) to create? Who or what is he asking you to confront? What specific actions and strategies will you enact to see the Kingdom of God break in?

Wherever you happen to find yourself right now, the surrounding culture is a landscape ravaged and twisted by sin, yet still bearing glimmers of Eden. And God is inviting you to participate with him in the renewal and restoration of all things. Under the leadership of Jesus, he invites you to make his invisible Kingdom visible. By the power of the Spirit, he invites you to abandon fear and imagine what ought to be and then pray, innovate, confront, create, redeem, and restore.

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Sean Post resides with His wife and son in Maple Valley, WA. He serves as Academic Dean for Adelphia Bible School  - a one-year Bible and mission immersion experience for young adults. Sean is also a leadership coach, doctoral student, book-lover, and a has-been basketballer. Twitter: @Sean_Post

Stereotypes prevent lasting Community

In 2004, Pixar introduced The Incredibles, a family of superheroes posing as a “normal” suburban family. After a series of unfortunate incidents followed by equally unfortunate lawsuits, superheroes are forced into “the Superhero Relocation Program,” in which they are forced to pose as normal citizens in order to evade any further legal action. Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl become Bob and Helen Parr, insurance agent and stay-at-home Mom, complete with three children. As a result of their hidden superpowers, Bob and Helen’s children are caught in a net of confusion. They know they are different but every voice they hear seems to say, "different is not good." Things come to a head when at dinner one night when their daughter, Violet, complains to her Mom, Helen: “We act normal, Mom! I want to be normal!” Their son, Dash, wrestles with similar issues. After being told he can’t try out for the track team because he’s too fast, Dash says: “But Dad always said our powers were nothing to be ashamed of, our powers make us special.” His Mom responds by telling him that “everyone’s special, Dash,” to which he retorts: “Which is another way of saying no one is.”

Though born different (with super powers), society no longer values their differences. Instead, they want the “supers,” as they’re known, to simply blend in and be like everyone else. Soon, Syndrome, a super villain, emerges wreaking havoc and giving the Supers no choice but to come out of retirement and use their powers to save the very people who want them to just be normal. They’re not normal. It’s only when they’re are able to truly be themselves that they  can rise to their full potential and fight the evil that threatens their world.

The movie raises interesting questions about perception versus identity. When urging the children to use their special powers, Helen gives them masks, saying: “Your identity is your most valuable possession. Protect it.” At a climactic moment, Syndrome reveals plans to sell super weapons to everyone, noting that, “When everyone’s super, no one will be.” When we all fit the expectations, there’s nothing left to differentiate us.

Christian stereotypes prevent real, lasting, effective Christian community.

Sadly, this is exactly what much of what passes for Christian community does. We forget that each one of us is fearfully and wonderfully made. We expect everyone to look and act the same. Our community is weakened because we try to smooth out people’s rough edges. We forget that our community is strongest when we encourage individuality, not at the expense of, but for the sake of community. Christians, of all people, should get this.

Near the middle of my time in seminary, John Piper preached in chapel. I don’t remember most of the sermon, but I do remember that, at one point, he took an aside, mentioning that he was preaching to a room full of men who were training to do the same. He noted that when we graduated, most of us would try to emulate our favorite preachers, but we wouldn’t be any good at it. Instead, he offered, "we should strive to become sanctified versions of ourselves rather than watered-down versions of someone else.” That phrase has haunted me, in a good way, like no other during my subsequent years of following Jesus.

I have spent a good deal of my life in “ministry” being compared to and contrasted to celebrities and stereotypes. Everyone has their idea of what a pastor should be. Everyone has an idea of who their pastor should be. But it goes deeper. Everyone has their own idea of what a Christian should be. And when everyone has their own idea of what a Christian should look like, we race towards the middle: the blandest version possible (so as to not offend anyone, of course). The very people who should be the most distinct, expressing the most individuality for the sake of community, end up being watered down versions of a stereotyped celebrity that doesn’t even exist: An idealized Christian who no one really likes and no one can actually be but everyone seems to think is the standard.

American Christians have produced some of the most anemic community known to man. We have perpetuated closed-off, private, judgmental, and stereotypical environments where everyone feels an unspoken (or sometimes spoken) expectation that everyone should look and act the same. The result, of course is that what passes for community in many churches is nothing of the sort. People are afraid to let their idiosyncrasies show and many are afraid to be honest about their shortcomings and struggles because all the other Christians have it together (even though, of course, they really don’t).

Who We Really Are

Christians ought to be the most comfortable with who they are and the most welcoming and celebratory of uniqueness. We know we are “fearfully and wonderfully made” by God himself (Psalm 139:14). Though we were by nature children of wrath (Ephesians 2:3) and enemies of God (Romans 5:10), he has adopted us into his family (Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:5; Ephesians 1:5, etc.). We, who were once far from God, have been brought near to him (Ephesians 2:13). We have become his children, his heirs (Romans 8:17, Galatians 3:29, etc.).  What is true of the Savior is becoming true of his people. He stands on our behalf even now interceding with his righteousness (Romans 8:34). The Holy Spirit who raised Christ from the dead dwells in us (Romans 8:11)!

There is a direct correlation between individuality and community. Community is strongest when people are most encouraged to explore their individuality; to just be themselves and walk in honesty. If we are free of needing people’s approval, we are free to serve sacrificially.

Why doesn’t this happen?

Why do we allow stereotypes to typecast us into a blandardized versions of likable but not real characters? Everyone knows the answer but no one likes it. We judge each other and hogtie real community because, deep down, we believe that it matters how you look before others and before God because that’s how he loves us more! So, I become tied to your approval of a fake version of myself which means that I can never actually give myself up to truly serve you because I’ve created a weird co-dependency thing that you may or may not be aware of.

In short, we choose to believe lies. Jesus told us that the “Truth will set us free” (John 8:32). If Truth sets us free, then it would seem that lies hold us captive. Deep down, we don’t believe that God’s acceptance of us is enough. We may not even be sure if it’s sincere. So we are never free to truly be ourselves because it’s always tied to a search for acceptance. But what if this is not the way God meant it to be?

How Does God See You?

If you were to picture God looking down on you and your life, how do you picture his facial expression? What do you think he might say over your life? Would he say: "Dangit, I’ve given Brent so many chances, why can’t he just get it together? Or, Oh man, I’ve just had it with Brent’s failures! This has gotten ridiculous!"

What do you really think he would say of you and your life?

Do you remember when Jesus went out to his crazy cousin John to be baptized in the Jordan? Mark 1:10-11 tells us that when Jesus came up out of the water, the Spirit descended upon him in the form of a dove and a voice came from heaven saying, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” What might change in our communities if individuals believed that what the Father says of the Son, he says about us? That, because Jesus stands on our behalf, the Father loves us, he is pleased with us, and we do not have to work for his approval or anyone else’s.

I wonder why our first thought is so rarely that God is pleased with us for who we are and not what we do? I have seven sons and one daughter (four biological sons, three foster sons and a foster daughter) and I love them each for who they are.  They are each very different from each other. It would be foolish of me to expect them all to have the same interests, play the same sports, read the same books, listen to the same music, etc. It would be even more foolish if I based my acceptance of them on how well they all tried to act the same. And yet that’s exactly what we often do to one another.

The Fruit of Disbelief

We don’t believe that God truly loves us for who we are so we don’t believe that anyone else will love us for who we are. We pretend and there’s no real community because no one is really themselves because everyone has adopted a false caricature of what what we should all look like. Since our relationships are bound up in seeking approval, we never have the freedom to truly serve one another.

But the Truth sets us free. What if I no longer need your approval because I have God’s approval through Jesus? Now, I am free to be myself which enables me to serve you sacrificially because I no longer need your approval. It doesn’t matter what you think of me. I can and will find ways to show you God’s love. Because I can, not because I should.

When Jesus sets us free to truly be ourselves, community flourishes. And as community flourishes, I am even more comfortable showing you just how screwed up I am. And community flourishes as we accept one another as a “beautiful circus of crazies and freaks” to quote my friend Aaron Spiro. But we won’t ever have real community until we accept one another for who we are because we’ve accepted ourselves for who God has made us to be. And only the Gospel can do that.

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Brent Thomas (MDiv) and his wife Kristi live in Glendale, AZ with four biological sons and one foster child. Brent pastored in KY and TX before moving back to AZ to plant Church of the Cross which exists to make, mature, and multiply disciples through gospel, community, and mission. He sometimes writes at Holiday At The Sea and hosts house shows with The Habañero Collective.

Other Articles by Brent:

• Creating Culture in Your Living Room
• The Un-American Church

Redeeming Fantasy Football

This next season it is estimated that some 30-45 million Americans will participate in a fantasy football league of some sort or another. Leagues are formed all over the country through work places, neighborhoods, and family gatherings to give sporting fans a competitive means to be involved in the sport itself. To the world, fantasy football has become a billion dollar idol in which many find identity, purpose, and mission. While some Christians may ignore this opportunity for community or reject fantasy sports altogether, fantasy football should not be dismissed as a pointless activity. With a mind and heart for the gospel, we can use the tool of fantasy sports as a missional activity for the sake of sharing the gospel with unbelievers. Here are a few ways we might go about that:

1. Participate in a league with unbelievers.

Often our tendency in thinking about activities such as fantasy sports is to compartmentalize who we participate with. How many churches have formed their own softball leagues (or play in church softball leagues) when the cities they inhabit already have leagues? Instead of being missionaries into those leagues, we build a Christianized version of the same thing and insulate ourselves from the lives of unbelievers.

Fantasy football is another opportunity for us to think about gospel-intentionality. Form up a league at your office or workplace where you can spend time with your coworkers (off the clock of course) building relationships and developing a deeper understanding of their lives.

 2. Be present at the draft and other activities that involve your league.

Don’t be the guy who allows the computer to draft the team. Show up at the draft party and spend time beyond picking a team to really get to know the members of your league. If you are new to these people find out a little bit more about them such as their vocation, family status, where they live, and other important relational information. Do everything you can to be friendly and interested in their lives. Show up early for the party and stay late.

One of the ways that Christians demonstrate the goodness of the gospel is by being present in the lives of unbelievers. We show them the God who “dwells with us” (John 1:14) by being with them in the ordinary activities of their lives. Offer to meet with the other league members on Sunday afternoons or for Monday Night Football to watch the game and share life with the other members of your league. Find ways to get to know them better so you can naturally share the gospel with them.

3. Host the draft party or game party yourself.

One of the clear marks of the gospel’s impact in the life of a believer is the demonstration of hospitality (Hebrews 13:2). Instead of having the draft at a local restaurant or sports bar, invite the members of your league over and throw the party at your home. Provide plenty of food, drinks, and comfortable places for the members of your league to enjoy one another and the process of drafting a team.

As a way of showing the gospel, don’t go cheap on the food and drinks, either. Provide the best. Invite your community group to throw an amazing draft party for the members of your league, and involve your Christian community with the overall activity of the league itself.  These acts of kindness will only further adorn the gospel of grace (2 Peter 2:12). Additionally, invite members of the league over to your home to watch the games and participate in the weekly rhythms of the football season.

The more hospitality and generosity we show toward unbelievers the more we receive opportunities to share the hope that we have in Jesus. As you establish these rhythms and patterns, invite league participants into your regular community group to see Christian community lived out.

4. Don’t cheat or be dishonest with league members.

Nothing hinders the display of the gospel more than someone who isn’t trustworthy and honest. Proverbs 12:26 tells us that “one who is righteous is a guide to his neighbor but the way of the wicked leads them astray.” Jesus himself is “full of grace and truth.”

One of the temptations in fantasy sports is to manipulate and/or cheat fellow owners through transactions and trade offers that are one-sided and sneaky. Like anything remotely competitive, the desire to win is a strong impulse, but this impulse does not give us permission to be dishonest or underhanded with fellow league members.

Make trades that are fair to both sides. Don’t withhold information (such as player injuries) that would get you ahead in a trade or transaction but would leave your fellow league members in worse shape. Use every opportunity to be honest, fair and respectable towards the members of your league. This includes being an active participant the entire season, even if you haven’t won a game and have no hope of making the playoffs. An active, honest, fair, competitive league member will be one that gains respect among the league and opens doors for the gospel to be shared (Titus 2:10).

5. Pray for the members of your league.

While fantasy football in and of itself is enjoyable, it is not an ultimate thing. Winning the league championship or making a deep run in the playoffs certainly makes it more fun, but our goal isn’t to ultimately be kings of the fantasy sports world. Our goal is to build relationships in which we can live with gospel-intentionality.

Furthermore, the reception and transformation that the gospel brings is something we cannot do through physical means. Gospel transformed lives are the result of the work of the Holy Spirit in an individual’s life. To this end, we should pray for the unbelievers we are in relationship with. Paul urged Timothy to pray for people so that the gospel would advance (2 Timothy 2:1-3).

I know it is not the most natural thing in the world to pray for our opponents in fantasy sports, but if we look at fantasy football as the entry point in which we gain access to the lives of unbelievers for the sake of the gospel, we can see that it would be foolish not to pray for them.

6. Clearly, boldly talk about the gospel with the members of your league.

I’m not talking about some sort of cheesy or unnatural talk that sounds like, “My QB scored a touchdown and saved my season, but he’s nothing compared to Jesus who died and saved my life.” I’m talking about moving beyond the sport and talking with your league members about what really matters.

Take a member out to lunch or invite them over to dinner. Spend some serious time with them and lay out your life before them. Let them know that you gather with others on Sunday mornings to worship Jesus and then hang out with friends (like them) to share life and the gospel of Jesus. Invest in their lives beyond fantasy sports and look for ways to meet needs, share life, and live the gospel before them as well as clearly speaking the gospel to them.

If we focus on being intentional with the gospel, we can use leisurely and fun things like fantasy football - which the world idolizes - to be missional tools for us in building relationships for advancing the gospel. My hope is this season that fantasy football won’t be a consuming time idol of sports but a means by which Jesus is introduced into the lives of many who don’t know him.

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Jeremy Writebol is a Christian who has played fantasy football for almost 20 years. He is the husband of Stephanie, daddy of Allison and Ethan, and lives and works in Wichita, KS as the Community Pastor at Journey the Way. He is the director of Porterbrook Kansas and writes at jwritebol.net.

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For more resources on how to share the gospel authentically, check out Unbelievable Gospel by Jonathan Dodson.

For more free articles on making the gospel part of your everyday life, read: The Neighborhood Missions Startup by Seth McBee, Messy Discipleship by Jake Chambers, and Plant the Gospel, Plant Churches by Tony Merida.

Gospel Love & Arranged Marriage

Before we moved to Dubai four years ago to plant a church the only information I had about arranged marriages was what I saw in movies. As I’ve come to minister alongside and disciple some wonderful, Spirit-filled women in arranged marriages, the gospel has shaped my ministry in this context.

Obstacles & Opportunities

While marriages that are arranged present some unique obstacles, unique opportunities have also surfaced. Said another way, the gospel is for everyone, and followers of Christ are called to set aside cultural presuppositions as we make disciples. Examples of this abound in the Book of Acts and in Paul's letters. Our calling is no different now.

It is my hope that in sharing the lessons I've learned about discipleship and arranged marriages that some principles and examples of grace will speak to the ability of the gospel to transcend geo-political and cultural boundaries with the message of hope and renewal and salvation found only in Christ Jesus.

Gospel Hope for Arranged Marriages

I know we may be tempted to think that perhaps some relationships are outside the realm of gospel application. Some issues and situations are just too different, we reason. But the gospel is thoroughly relevant to any and all relationships. God, in his all-powerful sovereignty, governs our relationships—even the relationships that seem from the outset to be entirely orchestrated by us.

The gospel even informs and shapes arranged marriages.

There are many varieties of arranged marriages, but not a single one of them is planned outside of the providential will of our sovereign God.

Some arranged marriages are brilliant testimonies to God’s manifold wisdom as thoughtful parents and young adults are guided by the Holy Spirit. Some arranged marriages speak of God’s common grace and his merciful redemption in spite of our faithlessness and reckless planning. And sadly, some arranged marriages are cause for mourning as families and couples’ lives intersect with each other in the midst unrighteous deeds that will bring God’s judgment if they don’t escape through trusting the Son. One such example of this would be the arranged marriages of “child brides,” in which case legal authorities ought to intervene to protect the rights of children to not be given in marriage.

It goes to follow that some “love marriages” (as they are commonly called) are testimonies to God’s manifold wisdom. Some are beautiful pictures of his redeeming love despite our failures. And some desperately need to be introduced to Christ Jesus, the one who epitomizes, initiates, and sustains love.

In our consideration of how the gospel is thoroughly relevant to arranged marriages, it is evident that arranged marriages are not dissimilar to love marriages in their dependence on Jesus Christ for all things pertaining to life and godliness.

The Opportunities of Differences - Vested Interest

As similar as arranged marriages and love marriages are in their dependence on the gospel, there are some practical differences to note. I’ll mention two of these unique qualities of arranged marriages and their relationship to gospel-centered discipleship.

A first note of difference is that in an arranged marriage the community and family have a greater degree of collective input in match-making and the perseverance of the marriage. This vested interest in a marriage often results in a greater degree of accountability for the new couple. The new couple is expected to fall in line with the expectations of the community and family in almost every arena of married life. This vested interest on the part of the community can mean increased support for the new couple. For the sake of the community, families and neighbors are more likely to come alongside new couples with practical helps and counsel.

The gospel sustains arranged marriages in communities that are reborn through imperishable seed. The gospel is also thoroughly relevant to arranged marriages in non-Christian contexts as well. In these cases, the couples must remain intentionally and deeply committed to fellowship in their local church where gospel-centered discipleship can happen. As the couple receives encouragement and edification from the gospel-centered community, they shine as lights in a dark world.

The Opportunities of Differences - Working Knowledge

A second note of difference is that in many arranged marriages the new couple does not enter marriage with a “working knowledge” of their spouse. Their families may have been friends since they were children, but often in cultures that practice arranged marriages the young men and young women do not socially intermix. In these cases, the practical discussions that occur in premarital counseling are territory that is likely covered after the covenant of marriage has already been made.

In this instance the foundation of the gospel is even more obvious. When encouraging a friend to stay faithful to their arranged marriage you do not have the surface-level motive of “Remember why you got married” as a motivator from which to draw. “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19) becomes manifestly important! We must choose to love one another with the strength that Christ provides to the praise of God the Father. This strength comes from being rooted and grounded in the love of Christ as it is displayed in the gospel of grace.

Don’t be reluctant to counsel your friend in an arranged marriage toward their dependence on Jesus Christ as the author of their faith. The trunk of their family tree may look different, but the roots of the gospel are the same and the fruits of the Spirit are universally sweet.

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Gloria Furman is a member of Redeemer Church of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates where her husband Dave is the pastor. They have three children - Aliza, Norah, and Judson. Gloria blogs regularly at Domestic Kingdom.

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For more on living the mission of Christ, check-out Winfield's book Grow: Reproducing Through Organic Discipleship.

For more free mission resources, see: A Gospel for the Muslim by JD Greear, Raising Gospel Centered Children by Luma Simms, and Discipleship 101: How to Disciple a New Believer by Justin Buzzard.

A Gospel for the Muslim

We desperately need a “gospel for the Muslim.” Now, to be clear, to say that we seek a “gospel for the Muslim” does not mean that there are a variety of gospels. But just as Paul talked about Peter’s commission of the “gospel for the Jew” and his own commission of the “gospel for the Gentile” (Gal 2:7), so also do we need a gospel presentation that is tailored to the questions Muslims are asking. There is one gospel by which both Muslim and non-Muslim must be saved, but it must at times be expressed differently so that each can more readily grasp it. Three words describe the current Western approach to the gospel: formula, forgiveness, and death. We present the gospel as a formula, a series of propositions about God, which addresses our need for forgiveness from guilt, and which summarizes the means of attaining that forgiveness, the death of Jesus.

While such a presentation accurately reflects aspects of the gospel, a more effective strategy among Muslims might focus on three “new words:” story, cleansing, and victory.

Instead of presenting the truth of the gospel propositionally as a formula, we ought simply to let the story of Scripture unfold. Muslims rarely come to faith in Christ through apologetic arguments and dogmatic proof-texting, but they often come to faith in Christ by studying the major stories of the Bible and encountering the gospel there.

Instead of presenting the work of Christ in terms of forgiveness, we can emphasize the cleansing power of the gospel. Muslims understand the need for purification; they undergo a process of ritual cleansing, called wudu, every time they pray. Such a cleansing is only external, but Christ offers wudu for the soul.

Instead of presenting the death of Christ merely as a point of weakness, we should point to the victory inherent in Christ’s work on the cross. Every time Muslims pray, they say that God is the “most powerful” and the “most merciful.” Is not the cross the greatest demonstration of those two attributes? What greater demonstration of power is there than a God who overcame sin and death? God’s greatness is actually shown in His humility. As Gregory of Nazianzus said, “The strength of a flame is shown by its ability to burn downward.” And what greater demonstration of mercy is there than in Christ’s death and resurrection? The God of the universe conquered sin and death in order to redeem us for Himself, through no merit of our own.

The Bible, from cover to cover, is the story of a victorious God who cleanses us so that we might live with Him.

Muslims Misconceptions about Christians:

Many obstacles stand in the way of Muslims coming to faith in Jesus—theological differences, the danger of conversion, and the sheer fact that most Muslims have simply never heard the gospel. Some of the more surprising obstacles, however, arise in the misconceptions that Muslims have about Christians. During the two years I spent serving in a conservative Muslim country, I repeatedly encountered variations of two common misconceptions: 1. Christianity is morally corrupt. 2. “The West” and “The Church” are synonymous. Being familiar with these two misconceptions can help as we engage Muslims for the gospel.

1. Christianity is morally corrupt.

MTV was huge in the part of the world I lived. Western music videos frequently featured rap stars or scantily clad women wearing crosses. My Muslim friends assumed, naturally enough, that these were Christians and that their behavior was typical of Christians. Upon telling people I was a Christian, I often received the response, “Oh, you are a Christian—like Bill Clinton!” This was during the peak of Clinton’s impeachment, so the comparison was meant to conjure up images of either adultery or perjury . . . or both. Not a savory comparison.

I was once even asked by one of my friends, a Muslim college student, if I would throw her a “Christian” birthday party. When I asked what she meant, she replied that she wanted a party with a lot of booze and racy dancing, just like she had seen on television. Misunderstandings like hers, sadly, are the norm and not the exception.

While this misconception continues to irk me, I find it helpful to know that it exists. Most Muslims assume that Christians are unabashedly immoral. Of course, we can—and should—respond to this misconception by allowing our lives to refute it, by showing that Christians do not encourage flagrant debauchery. In the end, though, it is beneficial simply to keep this misconception in mind as we minister among Muslims.

2. “The West” and “The Church” are synonymous.

Most Westerners have grown up with a notion of the “separation of church and state,” and it is jarring for us to learn that Muslims rarely make such a distinction. Islam is, in its very nature, a political entity as well as a religious one, complete with its own social law codes. There is no parallel Muslim concept of the “separation of mosque and state.” So when Muslims look at Western nations like the USA, Germany, France, or the UK, they see “Christian countries.” Our presidents are assumed to be Christian leaders, and our political policies are assumed to be reflective of church policy. What the US does, the Church does. I was once asked, for instance, why “the Church” bombed Iraq.

This may be difficult for many of us, but we need to learn to put our patriotism aside. We only have enough bandwidth to represent a certain number of issues, and it is simply not worth it to sacrifice a gospel platform for the sake of defending American political decisions. I was recently told by a Turkish Muslim that “all of the problems in the world are caused by America.” Do I agree with him? No. But is this where I want to stand my ground? No. For the sake of the gospel, our patriotism must die when we serve in Muslim countries.

How Muslims Come to Faith in Christ

Muslims worldwide who come to faith in Christ consistently identify one of three factors leading to their conversion (or a combination of these three).

1. A copy of the Bible is placed in their hands.

When I first arrived in Southeast Asia, a “win” for me was a Muslim converting to Christianity. This got to be a little disheartening after a while, and wasn’t providing me with as many “W”s as I would have liked. So I down-graded, and sharing the Four Spiritual Laws became my new “W.” Defining things this way helped me feel more successful, but it did not lead to greater fruitfulness.

Rather than defining your “W” as conversion or sharing the message, make your “W” getting Muslims to study the Bible with you.

A friend of mine, “Danny,” found this out after spending nearly two years debating with a Muslim friend, “Solomon.” Through the course of their friendship, Solomon told Danny that his arguments had not convinced him to be a Christian, but to be a better Muslim! Exasperated, Danny asked Solomon to read through the book of John, and Solomon obliged.

As Solomon read through the gospel, the words pierced his heart in a way that none of Danny’s arguments had. He read and re-read the Gospel of John, and soon came to faith in Jesus. What inspired this change was his exposure to the Word of God.

The Word of God is powerful. Let the Holy Spirit use the Bible to do the work of winning hearts to Christ. As Charles Spurgeon said, the Bible is like a caged lion. We do not need to defend it; we simply need to let its power loose.

2. They see the love in a Christian community.

The Muslim community, or ummah, is close-knit, but it is built on shame and reciprocity. Those who leave the ummah face ostracism, persecution, or even death. Christians can offer an alternative community, one founded on grace, acceptance, and forgiveness. Most Muslims have never seen this, even in their own families.

It saddens me to think of the thousands of Muslims who come to the United States for university education. Most of these Muslim students will never step foot in an American home. They would go if invited, but few ever receive an invitation. This is a tragedy.

I recently had a debate with a Muslim scholar, and afterwards he was telling me about another debate he had recently with a religion professor from Duke. “I do not like the guy from Duke,” he said. When I asked why, he answered:

“I am more of a ‘Christian’ than he is. I believe more of the Bible than he does. Every time something was brought up from the Bible, he would apologetically explain it away. Your Christian world has two choices: the Duke professor, who doesn’t believe but is charitable, or the angry, hateful conservative. Many Christians won’t go toward liberalism, so they feel they have no choice but hatefulness. What they need is you. You believe every word of the Bible, but you have a generous spirit toward Muslims.”

3. They are visited with a supernatural dream or vision.

I am naturally skeptical of supernatural dreams and visions. But I have seen too many Muslims come to faith as a result of dreams and visions to deny that it is a work of God. For whatever reason, God often uses supernatural dreams to push Muslims to investigate Jesus, to find a Christian, or to read the Bible.

This should humble us and remind us that the power for salvation comes from God alone. When we do not know what else to do, we ought to pray. Pray for your Muslim friends. Pray with them as well. Then stand back and give God a chance to work.

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J.D. Greear and his beautiful wife Veronica live in Raleigh and are raising four ridiculously cute kids: Kharis, Alethia, Ryah and Adon. He is the lead pastor of the Summit Church and author of Breaking the Islam Code and  Gospel: Recovering the Power that Made Christianity Revolutionary. Twitter: @jdgreear

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For more resources on teaching and preaching the gospel, check-out Tony Merida's new book Proclaiming Jesus.

Bradbury's Dystopia and the Biblical Future

In the world of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, firemen start fires not stop them. They burn books and houses that contain books. Bradbury writes:

It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed. With the brass nozzle in his fists, with this great python spitting its venomous kerosene upon the world, the blood pounded in his head, and his hands were the hands of some amazing conductor playing all the symphonies of blazing and burning to bring down the tatters and charcoal ruins of history…while the flapping pigeon-winged books died on the porch and lawn of the house.

The blazing glory of burning books. This is what the book's hero, Montag, lives for. But more than books are consumed in the dystopian future of Fahrenheit 451. Montag's country is physically intact, despite the fact that it survived two atomic wars. Culturally, however, his world is crackling in flames. The reading of books is no longer permitted. Deep thought is discouraged. Instead, everyone watches TVs the size of their living room wall. In the words of Neil Postman, they have “entertained themselves to death.” The world is in gross cultural decline and, as a result, people are in decline. People no longer know how to have meaningful conversation. Everything is superficial. People don’t ask questions of one another; they just talk at one another. Humanity has become a shell of life, a corpse of entertainment, with very little truth, beauty, or virtue left. This is the future of Fahrenheit 451.

What is the Biblical Future?

The world of Fahrenheit 451 is physically, culturally, and humanly broken. Creation, culture, and humanity are in need of renewal. This dystopian vision is the opposite of the biblical vision of the future. In Revelation 21-22 we see a very different world:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth…the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

The biblical view is a new heaven and a new earth, devoid of destruction, corruption, darkness, and decline. It is a place of remarkable beauty, crystal-bright rivers, and trees of life. A place of physical renewal. It is also a place of personal healing - by the very leaves of the tree of life - a metaphor for the power of the new environment. It is also a place of personal renewal. As the rest of Revelation and Isaiah the prophet describe, the new creation is a place of human flourishing, of great creative output where the finest of human culture is joyfully produced in worship of our great God and King (Rev 21:22-27). Even cultural renewal exists. The biblical vision of New Creation is altogether different from the future of Fahrenheit 451. New Creation is physical, cultural, and personal renewal not decline!

Now, perhaps you are thinking to yourself: "Wait a minute, where’s the doom and gloom of the apocalypse? What about Left Behind? I thought the Christian vision was a vision of destruction and the annihilation of the world." Turn or burn, right?

While Revelation and 2 Peter do depict a kind of purification of the present world, they do not present total annihilation. We are told that “heaven and earth pass away” and a new heaven and earth will appear, but this language does not imply complete consumption. In the Greek, the word "pass away" simply means to leave or depart, to remove from present existence. The word is used of Jesus leaving the presence of the Pharisees. When Jesus left, he didn’t dissolve; he just left. You might say that the current form of creation leaves the building…but it comes back for an encore with a new outfit. The word “new” used in Revelation means new in “nature or quality.” John does not select the word that means new in “origin or time.”

Biblical vision of the future is a renewed world not a consumed world. Creation is restored not replaced.

It is not like the world of The Matrix, an artificial replacement of a scorched heavens and earth. God doesn’t promise a reboot, to plug us into a fantasy after we die. It’s not even a changing of the light bulb of the universe. That's replacement. Rather, the Creator is wholly committed to a renewed heavens and earth! After all, it is the world he created and called good. It was made in, through, and for him. He delights in it. He loves his creation, so much that he is willing to die to rescue it. The biblical future is New Creation, and New Creation is physical, cultural, and personal renewal.

Why Do We Need New Creation?

So how do we fit in? Why should we want New Creation? What kind of world, what kind of future would you create if you could? A place of physical  beauty, cultural splendor, and human flourishing? A place of justice, peace, and joy, where there is no sorrow or suffering, where there is equal distribution of wealth, a clean environment, never-ending joy? The world God has prepared is the world we all really want, the world that, deep down, we really long for.

How do we get in on this renewal? It starts with being honest about our age, squaring up with how old we are. We’re a lot older than we want to admit, and by old I'm not referring to age per se but to state. We’re in slower, crankier, meaner, and much less attractive state than we'd like to admit. We’ve got to stop airbrushing ourselves. Living to impress others, trying to trick others that we’re actually not that old, we’re not that mean, we’re not that broken. Deep down we know we’re bent, but we’ve been trying to cover it up. We act like we’re young, not old, like we are full of innocence and life, not guilt and death. We’re quick to defend ourselves.

Last night I was merging onto the highway where two roads converged. Little did I know that there was a car speeding up behind me to try to get ahead. She comes flying up right next to me, trying to force me out, an inch at a time. Stop start, stop start. Finally, I looked over at her with disdain, an imploring kind of look like, “Come on, are you kidding me?”

She started motioning angrily, and I kind of just laughed and let her go ahead. I wanted to make excuses for laughing at her. I wanted to defend the pride and anger that swelled up in my heart, but were pushed down by superficial laughter. I wanted to act like I was innocent, had it together, unflappable, virtuous, “Christian.” I wanted to act as if I was new, renewed, full of love and kindness but I wasn’t. I was actually quite old on the inside, easily bothered, cranky, selfish, and mean. Certainly much less attractive than I’d like to admit. The string of excuses that came to mind were my airbrush. I was ready to put the best foot forward, while hiding the ugly one behind my back. See, there’s a part of us, no matter what our age, that is very, very old. Very grumpy. Very mean-spirited. Very selfish. Very, well, sinful. We are out of sorts with who God wants us to be. The problem is that many of us try to close the gap by airbrush, by make-up, by working out. We try so desperately to impress God and others, but he sees right through us. He knows how old and broken we are, and how desperately we need to be renewed, forgiven, transformed.

Why do we need New Creation? Because we are old creation, old men and women living out our sinful oldness. In theological terms, we are fallen, with Adam and Eve and the whole human race, with human culture and all creation. Our world is shot through with its age, with the Fall. We are broken people living in a broken world. The earth groans under the weight of pollution, global warming and natural disaster. Two-thirds of the world lives on less than a dollar a day. Burma, North Africa, Afghanistan ravaged by war. Thousands live below the poverty line in our very own city. Culturally, we celebrate what is evil, false, and ugly instead of celebrating what is good, true and beautiful. Not always but often. The Cannes Film Festival praised The Anti-Christ, a film about rape; doctors perform millions of abortions a year; the government imprisoned innocent people at Guantanamo, and the list goes on.

But the evil, my friends, is not just “out there.” It is in here. In us.

We are more broken and bent that we dare admit, more sinful and at odds with our good Creator than we can imagine. We have trivialized him and his goodness, truth, and beauty. And because of this, we are under his judgment. We are in desperate need of his saving, renewing power. We all need forgiveness before a holy God. We cannot - no matter how many good deeds - make ourselves new. We are better off being honest about our old, decrepit, sinful nature.

Is the Biblical Future Just Another Utopia?

The biblical vision of the future is compelling, but how is it any different that a utopian novel? Isn't is just a positive reading of the future? Well, one of the unique things about the biblical vision is that it contains both dystopian and utopian visions in the same future. Dystopian novels and films point to a judgment at the end of time, an apocalyptic fall out—Terminator, The Road, Oryx and Crake, Fahrenheit 451, and Revelation 20.

The dystopian judgments occur at the end of history. The utopian paradise is also at the end of history—THX 1138, Brave New World, The Island, and Revelation. Judgment and salvation, dystopia and utopia happen at the end of history, the end of time. But when it comes to the Bible, there's a twist on the timing of dystopia and utopia. Unlike any other worldview, film or novel, the biblical dystopia and utopia converge in the present, not just in the future. How? In Christianity, Judgment Day is rolled back into history at the Cross, where a terrible, future judgment falls in the present--the suffering and death of God. Unexpectedly, the judgment falls on the undeserving God, not on deserving sinners. Jesus Christ enters the middle of history and dies our death, bears our sin, endures our punishment, and receives our judgment.

The gospels tell us that when God’s judgment fell on Jesus, the earth shook, the sky grew black, and rocks split open, the temple curtain was ripped, and Jesus died, crucified for us. When does judgment happen in the biblical story? For those who cling to Christ by faith, it happens in the middle of history, it happens to Jesus not us so that we can be set free. What about new creation? When does that happen? Contrary to the utopias, in Christianity, not only is Judgment Day rolled back to the present but Resurrection Day is rolled back into the middle of history, at the empty tomb. Jesus arises from the grave defeating sin, death and evil in order to make all things new. New Creation of the future breaks into the present, not to deserving but to the undeserving. Those who believe the future now become new creation in Christ, a new humanity.

The authors of the New Testament repeatedly tell us that Jesus is the firstborn from the dead (Col 1:18; Rev 1:5) and that those who confess their sin, are honest about their age, and trust Jesus for their salvation are spiritually raised from the dead. In Christ, New Creation is now. How do we get it? Jesus said:

I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. 

Do you believe this? Resurrection is now and not yet by faith in Christ. Paul writes:

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

In the gospel, dystopia and utopia converge in the middle of history on Jesus, who dies our death and gives us his life. The guilty are forgiven. The old become new. At the end of Fahrenheit 451, the city is bombed into oblivion. Montag, a former book-burning fireman, has joined a clan of book-reading rebels. They are silent because there is everything to think about and much to remember. Montag begins to search his mind for a word of hope gathered from his newfound reading. He lands on this: “on either side of the river there was a tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, yielded her fruit every month; And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” He hopes in New Creation.

The grand news of the gospel, of New Creation, is that we don’t have to wait until the end of history. By faith in Jesus, the endtime Judgment and Resurrection are rolled back to the middle of history and fall on Jesus so that we do not have to die his death but get to live his life. The healing of the nations is now for those who hope in Jesus.

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Jonathan Dodson (M.Div, Th.M) is happy husband to Robie, and proud father to Owen, Ellie & Rosamund. He is also the lead pastor of Austin City Life church and directional leader for PlantR and Gospel Centered Discipleship.com. Jonathan is also the author of Gospel-Centered Discipleship (Crossway, 2012). He blogs at jonathandodson.org, enjoys listening to M. Ward, watching sci-fi, and following Jesus. Twitter @Jonathan_Dodson

How to Respond to Religious Pluralism

Is Jesus the only way to God? I'm often asked this question. If the answer is, “Yes, Jesus is the only way to God,” a line is drawn where we would sometimes rather things remain fuzzy. Why would we prefer this particular claim to remain fuzzy? In many cities there are arrays of religious beliefs: Mysticism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Christianity, to name a few. The presence of so many different religions in cities leads people (Christians included) to conclude that all religious paths lead to God. Why does this happen in cities? In urban areas, we are more likely to develop relationships with people from various religions. When we realize that they are kind and sincere because of their religious beliefs, it seems arrogant to insist their beliefs are wrong. After all, their religion appears to have made them very likable, respectable people. I have met secularists and Buddhists who are more generous and sacrificial than many Christians I know. How, then, should we respond to this array of religions with the claim that Jesus offers the one, true way to God?

Answering the Question Socially

When people of other faiths rival Christian character, we face a tendency to affirm all religions as valid ways to God. We make a theological decision based on social experience. Rather than investigate the answer to one of the most important questions, we prefer to glaze the question with inch-deep reflections upon the character of people we meet. Understandable but not wise.

What if we became known for not only posing great questions but also grappling deeply and sincerely with great answers? Many Christians claim that belief in Jesus is the only way to God. Others insist there are many ways to God, a view popularly called religious pluralism (academic religious pluralism advocates inter religious dialog not that all religions lead to the same God. Here we will deal with religious pluralism in its popular form). Let’s examine the claims of religious pluralism.

Over the past five years in Austin, Texas (a case study city for Harvard’s Pluralism Project), I have had the opportunity to meet, know, and talk with both Christian and non-Christian pluralists. As I have reflected on these conversations, it seems that there are at least three reasons people embrace religious pluralism. They believe it to be more enlightened, humble, and tolerant. Let’s examine each of these reasons more closely.

Is Religious Pluralism Enlightened?

Is the belief that all religious paths lead to the same God more enlightened or educated? Comparatively, each religion teaches very different things about who God is and how humans reach the divine. In fact, there is a lot of disagreement between the religions regarding the nature of God. Buddhism, for example, doesn’t believe in God. Islam teaches an impersonal monotheism, Allah. The Koran states that God reveals His will, but not His person. Christianity teaches a personal trinitarianism, where God is three persons in relationship, Father-Son-Spirit that can be known and enjoyed. Hinduism varies on this question, ranging from polytheism to atheism. This is due to the absence of definitive revelation to clarify Hindu “theology.” Instead, Hinduism has multiple sources of revelation (Upanishads, Vedas, etc.)  Contrary to Islam, Hinduism has no presuppositions about the nature of God. In short, religious views of God differ. If so, it would seem far from “enlightened” to claim that all religions lead to the same God, when their views of God are, in fact, radically different. This claim of religious pluralism contradicts the tenants of the religions themselves.

Religions not only teach different things about who God is but also how we “reach him.” Buddhism suggests the 8-fold Noble Path, Islam the 5 Pillars (Shahadah, Prayer, Fasting, Charity, Pilgrimage) and Christianity the gospel of Jesus. Therefore, to say that all religions lead to God is not only unenlightened it is inaccurate. This is the thesis of Stephen Prothero, Boston College professor, in his book God is not One. He writes:

And it is comforting to pretend that the great religions make up one big, happy family. But this sentiment, however well-intentioned, is neither accurate nor ethically responsible. God is not one.

Prothero goes on to point out that just as God is not one, so also all religions are not one. They are distinct and make very different claims about God and how to reach him. In light of what we have observed regarding what religions teach about the nature of God and how to reach him, religious pluralism must be reconsidered. Subscribing to religious pluralism because it is more enlightened or a more “educated” view of world religions is not only unenlightened but also inaccurate.

Is Religious Pluralism More Humble?

Despite very clear differences on the nature of God and human access to the divine, religious pluralists continue to insist that there are many ways to God. Why would educated people persist in an inaccurate view of other religions? One major reason is because they believe it to be an act of humility and love. Very often I hear people say: “Who am I to judge someone else’s religion, to tell them that they are wrong?” This implies, of course, that maintaining Jesus is the only way to God is arrogant. I’ll be the first to admit there are arrogant Christians who rudely insist that Jesus is the only way to God. I’d like to apologize for those kinds of Christians. Arrogant insistence on your beliefs actually runs counter to the life and teachings of Jesus. However, just because someone is arrogant doesn’t make him or her wrong.

People are arrogantly right about all kinds of things—Math, Science, Religion. You probably work with someone like this. (Dwight Schrute?) The arrogantly right person always talk down to others with an air of arrogance because they have the right answer. It might not be nice, but it doesn’t mean they are wrong.

For all the Christians who are arrogant about Jesus’ exclusive claims, there are many more who have ardently searched religions, compared their claims, and humbly come the conclusion that Jesus was telling the truth, that personal faith in the Messiah is the only way to God. This doesn’t make them arrogant; it makes them authentic. They are willing to stand by what they discovered to be true. Insisting on what is true doesn’t automatically make you arrogant. There are both humble and arrogant ways to insist on Jesus’ claim that he is the only way to God. After all, it is Jesus who said it, and Jesus was quintessentially humble, especially if he is who he said he was. By contrast, religious pluralism exclusively insists that its view—all ways lead to God—is true while all other religions are false in their exclusive teachings.

When religious pluralism claims that there are many ways to God, it is not humble. It actually carries an air of arrogance about it. How? Religious pluralism insists that its view—all ways lead to God—is true while all other religions are false in their exclusive teachings. Religious pluralism dogmatically insists on its exclusive claim, namely that all roads lead to God. The problem, as we have seen, is that this claim directly contradicts many religions like Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, and Christianity. The claim of the religious pluralist is arrogant because it enforces its own belief on others. It says to other religions: “You must believe what I believe, not what you believe. Your way isn’t right, in fact all of your ways are wrong and my way is right. There isn’t just one way to God (insert your religion); there are many ways. You are wrong and I am right.” This can be incredibly arrogant, particularly if the person saying this hasn’t studied all the world religions in depth and makes a blind assertion. Upon what basis can the religious pluralist make this exclusive claim? Where is the proof that this is true? To what ancient Scriptures, traditions, and careful reasoning can they point? The lack of historical and rational support for religious pluralism makes it a highly untenable view of the world and its religions.

Is Religious Pluralism Truly Tolerant?

Very often people hold to religious pluralism because they think it is more tolerant than Christianity. I’ll be the first to say that we need tolerance, but what does it mean to be tolerant? To be tolerant is to accommodate differences, which can be very noble. I believe that Christians should be some of the most accommodating kinds of people, giving everyone the dignity to believe whatever they want and not enforcing their beliefs on others. We should winsomely tolerate different beliefs. Interestingly, religious pluralism doesn’t really allow for this kind of tolerance. Instead of accommodating spiritual differences, religious pluralism blunts them. Let me explain.

The claim that all paths lead to the same God actually minimizes other religions by asserting a new religious claim. When someone says all paths lead to the same God, they blunt the distinctions between religions, throwing them all in one pot, saying: “See, they all get us to God so the differences don’t really matter.” This isn’t tolerance; it’s a power play. When asserting all religions lead to God, the distinctive and very different views of God and how to reach the divine in Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam are brushed aside in one powerful swoop. The Eightfold Noble Path, the 5 Pillars of Islam, and the Gospel of Christ are not tolerated but told they must submit to a new religious claim–religious pluralism–despite the fact that this isn’t what those religions teach. When it does this, religious pluralism places itself on top of all other religions.

The Religion of Religious Pluralism

People spend years studying and practicing their religious distinctions. To say they don’t really matter is highly intolerant! The very notion of religious tolerance assumes there are differences to tolerate, but pluralism is intolerant of those very differences! In this sense, religious pluralism is a religion of its own. It has its own religious absolute—all paths lead to the same God—and requires people of other faiths to embrace this absolute, without any religious backing at all. This is highly evangelistic. Religious pluralism  is preachy but under the guise of tolerance. In the end, it is a step of faith to say there are many paths to God. Says who? The idea that all paths lead to the same God is not a self-evident fact; it is a leap of faith. It isn’t even an educated leap, nor is it as humble and tolerant as it might appear.

Here is Stephen Prothero’s response to this tenant of religious pluralism:

Faith in the unity of religions is just that—faith (perhaps even a kind of fundamentalism). And the leap that gets us there is an act of the hyperactive imagination.

As it turns out, each of the reasons for subscribing to religious pluralism—enlightenment, humility, and tolerance—all backfire. They don’t carry through. Religious pluralism isn’t enlightened, it’s inaccurate; it isn’t humble, it’s fiercely dogmatic; and it isn’t really all that tolerant because it intolerantly blunts religious distinctions. In the end, religious pluralism is a religion, a leap of faith, based on contradiction and is highly untenable. Christianity, on the other hand, respects and honors the various distinctions of other religions, comparing them, and honoring their differing principles–Karma (Hinduism), Enlightenment (Buddhism), Submission (Islam), and Grace (Christianity). As we conclude, let’s explore Jesus’ exclusive claim that he is the Way, the Truth, and the Life as well as the charge that his teachings in Christianity are arrogant, unenlightened, and intolerant. In particular, we will examine the unique principle of grace.

Christ Teaches Us Humility

First, Jesus is the Way. What does this mean? Does it mean that Jesus is our trailblazer, clearing the other religious options aside so we can hike our way to heaven through spiritual or moral improvement. If I keep the Ten Commandments, if I serve the poor and love my neighbor, if I pray and read the Bible enough, then God will accept me. No. As the way, Jesus doesn’t create a path for us to hike. We can never make it—do enough spiritual, moral, or social good to impress God. Much less love him with all our soul, mind, and strength. We can’t make it up the path. We all fail to love and serve the infinitely admirable and lovable God. In fact, we love other things more, that’s a crime of infinite proportions. It’s against an infinite God. The sentence for our crime must be carried out.

When Jesus takes the arduous hike for us he goes down into the valley where the criminals die. He hikes down into our sin, our rebellion, our failures and he heaps them all on his back and climbs on a cross, where he is punished for our crime, a bloody gruesome death. The innocent punished for the guilty. If he doesn’t take our punishment, then we must endure it—forever separation from God. If you reject Jesus, then you will pay the infinite consequences. However, if you embrace Jesus in his sin-absorbing death you get forgiveness, and Jesus hikes not only through the valley but up the mountain to carry your forgiveness to God, where he pleads our innocence (Hebrews 10). This is what it means for Jesus to be the way. He hikes into the valley of our just punishment and up the mountain for our forgiveness. He is the redemptive way. He takes our place. This understanding of Jesus as the way should make us incredibly humble not arrogant. We realize how undeserving we are and how much mercy we have been shown.

Christ Enlightens Us

Jesus is also the Truth. What does that mean? In John chapter 1, we are told that God became flesh and was full of grace and truth in Jesus. The truth is that God is Jesus. Christianity is the only religion where God is born as a man, becomes fully human. This is the height of enlightenment. All other religions teach that humans must work their way toward divinity. The truth is Jesus. The truth is a person who dies in our place, for our crimes, and in turn gives us his life. The truth is that God works his way down to humanity and dies for us. That’s grace. See, the truth isn’t a special prayer or code word we say at the pearly gates. In Christianity, the truth is essentially revealed in a Person, Jesus, full of grace and humility. All other religions God is impersonal, but in Christianity we meet God in Jesus. The truth is a Person who dies for us. Wonderfully enlightened, moving.

Christ Guides Us to Persuasive Tolerance

Finally, Jesus is the Life. As if it wasn’t enough to be our way, incredibly humbling, and the truth, truly enlightening, Jesus caps it off by offering us not just his death but his life. What life? Later on in John, Jesus says he is the resurrection and the life, and that whoever believes in him, though he die yet he will live (11:25). He goes down into the valley to take our death, and rises up from the dead to up the other side of the valley where he prepares a new place for us to enjoy life with him forever. The hope of Christ’s life should break into the lives of Christians today, making us persuasively tolerant. We tolerantly extend people the dignity of their own beliefs. We don’t minimize the differences between religions. We honor them. The life of Christ produces in us true humility. But it also produces in us true enlightenment. We’ve come to grasp grace, that God works his way down to us, dies for our moral and religious failures, and offers us life. If this is true, we must lovingly, humbly try to persuade others to believe in Jesus—who alone offers the wonderful promise of the way to God, the truth of God, and life of God.

In the end, it doesn’t matter how nice or moral a person is because there is not enough niceness or morality to pay for our rejection of God. Either we must be rejected or we turn to Jesus who was rejected for us. This is the heart of the gospel. Jesus lays down his own life for those who reject him, for his enemies, for those who don’t believe in him, and offers them forgiveness. Why would we reject such a man?—such a God? Jesus’ claims are better than the claims of religious pluralism. Christianity delivers where pluralism cannot. Instead of being unenlightened, Jesus is truly enlightening. He is God—full of grace and truth. Instead of being arrogant, Jesus should make us incredibly humble. He created the way to God for us at the expense of his own death. Finally, instead of being intolerant, Jesus should make us persuasively tolerant, granting people the dignity of unbelief but pleading with them to accept true life!

We all have a choice—where to place our faith. Will we place it in unenlightened, dogmatic, and intolerant pluralism? Or will we place it in Jesus, who is the incredibly humbling way, the enlightening truth, and the persuasively tolerant life? Both require faith. In The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, Leslie Newbigin wrote: “Doubt is not autonomous.” We can’t rely on doubt alone. We can’t doubt one thing without placing our faith in another. We can doubt Jesus and trust pluralism, or we can trust Jesus and doubt pluralism. We cannot say, “I believe Jesus is the only way,” and also say, “I believe all religions lead to God.” Ask yourself, will you place faith in Jesus who is the way, truth, and life? Or, will you place your faith in religious pluralism?

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Jonathan Dodson (M.Div, Th.M) is happy husband to Robie, and proud father to Owen, Ellie & Rosamund. He is also the lead pastor of Austin City Life church and directional leader for PlantR and Gospel Centered Discipleship.com. Jonathan is also the author of Gospel-Centered Discipleship (Crossway, 2012). He blogs at jonathandodson.org, enjoys listening to M. Ward, watching sci-fi, and following Jesus. You can find him on Twitter @Jonathan_Dodson.

Messy Discipleship

In our house, we used to have a beautiful set of drinking glasses that were made of translucent artsy green glass. Notice I said we “used to"... A few weeks ago our house was full of the life, laughter, and mess of sharing our home and table with our community; after everyone left and my wife and I were cleaning up, we noticed one of our beautiful green glasses had a huge chip off the top. We now officially have only three of these nice glasses. They've moved from the threatened dishes list to the full-fledged endangered dishes list. I don’t have much hope for their survival either as they have yet to breed.

Just the other day a neighbor broke another one of our glasses, and as I was cleaning up the glittery shards, it hit me - if you have a complete set of dishes you just might not be on mission.

God’s mission is messy and costly. Think about it. In order for us to be a part of God’s family, to be his disciples, to get to live in eternity with him in his home, it cost him his comfort to the point of a dirty, torturous execution on a cross. Yet I often want to be his follower and have a life of comfort.

I want to do hospitality my way, on my time, around my schedule, with the people that are easy for me to be around, and I want to have a complete set of dishes when I am done. But this just isn’t the life God has called us to. God calls us to not just have hospitable events but to have an open door and hospitable life. Jesus was available for the sick. He fed the hungry crowds when it was inconvenient. He hung out with the drunks, tax collectors, lepers, and sinners. His way of discipleship was dirty and probably smelly.

I have a friend that has modeled this hospitality well and as a result often has men in his home that are so drunk and out of it they sometimes foul their pants. He and his wife have literally cleaned man-poop off their floor. This grosses me out and makes me want to think twice about the people I let into my house, but oddly enough it also inspires me. It looks so much like Jesus. A couple of weeks ago my neighbor’s daughter had a little present slip out of her diaper while they were visiting. We saw the log on the floor, and all of us wondered where it came from. I immediately checked my son's diaper, and people were diaper checking all around until we found the culprit. I instinctively cleaned up the poop, de-sanitized the floor, and went on with what turned out to be a wonderful evening.

Sometimes discipleship means people are going to poop on your floor. If we are servants like Jesus, we get to clean it up. Jesus modeled this when he washed his disciples feet. At the time, everyone traveled on dirty, smelly roads in sandals and often were hopscotching around camel dung. Washing smelly feet was reserved for slaves, yet Jesus, the master, took the lowliest task and washed his disciples' feet.

I like my things to stay nice, and I don’t like doing disgusting jobs. But I do want to follow Jesus, and I do want to be his disciple and make disciples.  To do this all the time means I am going to have to do some things I don’t like and lose some things I do like.

So again, if you have a full set of dishes and nobody has ever pooped on your floor, you might want to stop and examine if you are really on God’s mission.

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Jake Chambers: A member of Jesus’ bride - the church, husband to his beautiful bride Lindsey, and a daddy to his boy Ezra. Jake is passionate about seeing the gospel both transform lives and create communities that love Jesus, the city, and the lost. He currently serves Red Door Church through leading, preaching, equipping, and pastoring. You can read more of his writing at reddoorlife.tv.