Wednesday, July 5, 2017

Casual To Captive: Evaluating the Culture

Casual To Captive: Evaluating the Culture

Evaluating the Culture

Culture is like soup, the more stuff you add to it the more difficult it is to name. Chicken Noddle is easy. Culture soup comes with a very complicated recipe. I am participating in a project that seeks to map the "culture" of children and youth in our county. Gaining an accurate picture of this slice of local culture is difficult to paint. Whatever we come up with will be inaccurate, but hopefully enough of a character sketch to catch the perp. 

Jesus raised a few questions about his generation that could serve as a template for us today. I am not sure if Jesus could be described as a social scientist, but He had a pretty good fix on his culture. But, I assure you the questions He raises are not typical of our modern social scientist. See what you think of his list based on Matthew 12:22-45.

1) To what power and authority does the culture ascribe Jesus' work today?
2) Does culture even recognize Jesus at work today?
3) Does our culture recognize the kingdom rule of God on their lives?
4) In our current culture is Jesus able to gain entrance into most houses/homes/hearts so as to bind the strong man?
5) In this culture are most gathering with Jesus or scattering the work of Jesus?
6) What fruit do we see in our culture that indicates whether our tree is good or evil?
7) In this generation, what do we treasure?
8) What words are being spoken in this culture?
9) Does this generation seek more evidence than we have been given to prove Jesus' authenticity?
10) More specifically does the resurrection of Jesus impress and draw people to Jesus?
11) What is the state of our house/heart, i.e. full of demons, unfilled, or filled with good?
12) Do people in our society tend to return to states from which they have been freed?

These questions call for honest soul-searching? Jesus had an answer for each of these questions in his generation. Do we have answers for ours? What evidence would we present to prove our case? Can we also see the evidence in the lives of some who are swimming upstream in this world? Do we live with the contrasts? Are we good at seeing our own lives in relationship to the culture? Being able to warn someone of the dangers of our age demands that we accurately understand the nature of these dangers, be honest about our participation in those things that are anti-Jesus, and, most importantly, offer a Jesus solution for our culture.