How should the church respond to divisive social and cultural challenges?
“A Leaders 4 Tools To Repair Deep Divisions In Their Culture”
There are serious discussions/issues that the church must engage with today! Racial equality, climate change, economic dislocation, deep political divisions etc.. are just some of the pressing issues that have implications for the church today AND for generations to come.
Q: What would Jesus bring to our social landscape IF He lived in times like ours?
A: Jesus did live in times JUST like ours!
In fact, in many ways, the culture and context of the first century was even more charged with the issues that we get so heated over…racism (Jews, Greeks), gender in-equality, social and political control and corruption, (marshal law) Romans occupied Israel via military occupation! Social injustice and economic inequality, etc…
Ecclesiastes 1:9 NIV
What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.
What would Jesus do in the middle of this culture we find ourselves in today?
He would elevate the narrative.
The world is peripheral to the church.
We get stuck among the weeds of lesser things..
There is a higher way, Kingdom Culture supersedes all other sub cultures…
Labor and Liberal is inferior to Kingdom
Catholic and Pentecostal, Anglican or Hillsong all inferior to Kingdom
Race, gender, economics, all inferior
“The more deeply anchored your viewpoint is in timeless truth (Kingdom Culture), the more deeply it will resonate. Mere opinions never carry that kind of weight.”
Jesus spoke about the Kingdom of Heaven 92 times…He did all the heavy lifting, teaching and modelling what the Kingdom of Heaven is like…
The the local church is the foretaste of heaven…it is incumbent upon us to be heavenly, not earthly….we need to be among the culture but always teaching and modelling Kingdom!
He would pray FIRST, speak second.
A lot of what’s being discussed today is emotional.
You see something, read something and feel you have to respond. Your heart starts beating faster. You feel upset, even crushed depending on what happened. And sometimes you get really angry.
When you feel an emotional reaction to something, don’t respond for 24 hours.
Sleep on it. Pray about it.
Even if it’s still something worth speaking about emotionally, you can do it with far more grace, integrity, balance, and dignity.
If Christians prayed as much as they talked, we’d have a different church.
He would change the world from the inside out.
Today we have been tricked to think we can change the world from the outside in….we start our mission as wide, shallow and ineffective as ever (social media) instead of starting deep and strong and influential.
If you want to change the culture you will need a platform, you will need influence, and if you can’t make the right friends and keep them, you really won’t change anything.
Jesus did this with his 12 disciples and other followers - A diverse group, fisherman, businessman, politicians, even women were intentionally included. Jesus strategically chose connections that would change the world…..
Small people have small worlds, and make only small changes. BUT big people, can handle friendships with other influential people, and they can make a much bigger difference.
He would do what matters most.
Ask yourself the Grandparent question…
When you are in your rocking chair with your grandkids and they are asking you about the days of the COIVD-19, the days of lockdowns, the days of discrimination, inequality, protests, rallies and political partisanship….what will your story be….?
What was Jesus’ story? “Hey kids…the Jews were looking for a political leader, a military general and a social liberator…but instead I did what mattered MOST…..they got a teacher, a friend, a miracle worker, who, at the peak of my influence chose surrender and I handed my life over, instead of retaliation and revolution…..
Jesus transformed hearts…and a heart on fire for Jesus, is a heart that will follow in the footsteps of Jesus.
Transformed hearts transform the world.
