How Do We Engage With Culture As Christians?
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Main Question:
“Has God called the church to fix the world in order to make the world THE better place–the Kingdom of God?”
Intro Questions:
“What is the main purpose or function of the church?”
“How do we accomplish this purpose or function?”
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As you listen, feel free to pause the recording and try to answer these questions as they come up. What do you think is the main purpose of the church? How would you accomplish this purpose?
Now, critically think back to all the Bible lessons and stories you have heard and ask yourself, “Has God given the church the explicit task of fixing the world in order to bring about His Kingdom?”
Challenge
As you respond to these questions, try and find biblical passages and verses that support your answers. You may or may not find any. That’s OK. The point of these questions is to get us thinking about what specifically the Bible says about what God has called the church to do.
Three traditional views of the Church
Heaven-Centered | Human-Centered | World Centered
Heaven-Centered: This view believes that the church is meant to point to the better place that we cannot yet access. Essentially, Christians are meant to GO to a better place.
Key points
God’s Kingdom is not here and not yet because our future is in heaven.
The church’s primary role is the make sure that the people of the church are found to be acceptable in the final day of the Lord–Judgement day.
Essentially, the church is a “recruiting and holding place” for believers.
Human-Centered: This view believes that humanity makes the world a better place.
Key points
Jesus cast a vision for what the fullness of the Kingdom of God would be like. It is up to us to carry out that vision.
Jesus began making the world a better place and it is up to the church to finish Jesus’ work.
As time goes on, life will gradually improve as humanity itself improves.
World-Centered: This view believes that we must work toward making this world the better place to come.
Key points
This view is most critical of the Heaven-centered view.
This view is more ecologically sensitive in that it seeks to care for the planet.
The church is remaking this world into a better place–Humanity is the agent by which the world will be made completely good.
Finds its support from prophetic texts such as
o Isaiah 2:2-4; 11:1-16; 30:18-26
o Micah 4:1-4
o Ezekiel chapters 40-48
God replaces fallen order |
Christians begin fixing fallen order |
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A Fourth View of the Church
Although these three views have their strengths and weaknesses, none of these options are our best choice. Sure, some may be better than others, however, we don’t want to settle on what is better. We want to find the best option.
There is a fourth option that highlights what Christ has already begun to do in the church.
Here are two fundamental truths about the work of Jesus and the role of the church:
First, Jesus has already made a better place in this world
Second, The role of God’s people is to embrace, display, and proclaim this better place.
The problem for us today is that we often combine these truths with other truths that result in a confused task or purpose of the church. For example, we may combine two truths by saying, “Because Jesus began making a better place in this world, we must join him in seeing it through to completion, until the whole world is better.” Or, “We should certainly embrace and convey the better place that Christ makes possible. And we should also do everything in our power to shape the wider society accordingly.”
These additional truths presuppose that Jesus sowed the seeds of world betterment and then it is our job to water it and help it grow. However, this is a misguided assumption. Dr. John Nugent describes these two roles in another way:
First, since Jesus has already made a better place in this world, it is not our responsibility to do so.
Second, since our job is to embrace, display, and proclaim this better place, it is not our job to engineer or otherwise orchestrate its fulfillment.
Simply put, God’s people are not responsible for making this world a better place. We are called to be the better place that Christ has already made and that the wider world will be until Christ returns.
Copyright © 2016 John Nugent. All rights reserved. All credit for this material belongs to Dr. John Nugent at Great Lakes Christian College in Lansing, Michigan.
Nugent, John C. Endangered Gospel: How Fixing the World is Killing the Church. Eugene, Oregon: Cascade Books, 2016.