I enjoyed these challenging thoughts from the 9Marks blog on the Cultural Mandate specifically as they pertain to the Christian’s and the Church’s engagement in culture making/redemption. As a result of The Austin Stone’s Fall 2008 Vision Series, I have been wrestling a lot with these concepts, and have enjoyed learning a variety of different perspectives.
Give it a read:
Thoughts on the Cultural Mandate from 9Marks
On the whole, I think the evangelical “culture” camps tend toward a few different streams of emphasis, all which offer necessary insights:
- Cultural Exegesis – Studying and understanding your culture to effective minister in it. This is what I would consider the hallmark of the Acts 29 types, as well as many people influenced by cross-cultural church planting.
- Individual Cultural Engagement – Participating as believers in culture making areas to provide a common ground and avenue for the Gospel. This seems to be the idea that this particular blog is trying to think through
- Holistic Cultural Renewal – Participating as churches and believers in holistic ministry aimed most often at city renewal. This is expressed in a few different ways through a few different streams of church. I’ve had the most exposure to the “urban ministry” (social justice focus in the city) and more “emerging” (artistic cultural engagement) type churches.
This is far from a comprehensive list, but I am a categorizer and it helps me to think through things. Any other thoughts?
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