Contending for Culture (Intro)
I have been doing an awful lot of thinking lately about the importance of living in the right kind of culture. It has been a “theme” on the desktop of my mind for a little over a year, but over the past few weeks the file has been expanding and the whole issue has become more important to me.
So, what is “culture“? I looked it up, ( I will get into more detail later) and the first thing that stood out to me was that the first definition for “culture” was the word word “cultivate”. In order then to get a better understanding of culture, let’s check out the top two definitions for cultivate from Websters On-line Dictionary:
1 : to prepare or prepare and use for the raising of crops; also : to loosen or break up the soil about (growing plants)
2 a : to foster the growth of
Interesting to say the least. I am a visual thinker, and the picture I get from both of these definitions reminds me of farm life and crops. A farmer who wants to have a successful farm must take time to prepare the fields for fruitfulness. He needs to consider the commitment that it will take to nurture and tend to the crops to bring about the return on his investment. (The SEED)
A farmer cannot simply buy good seed and then throw it to the wind and expect to get the maximum yeild from his field. He must first consider his field, and make preparations for the seed to go into the ground. THE KEY TO MAKING HIS FARM WOR, IS CREATING A CULTURE FOR LONG TERM FRUITFULLNESS. I am not a farmer, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. (Sorry, it’s late and my mind just went there.)
Consider the parable of the sower, or I think a more accurate title, the parable of the soils. (Matt. 13 amongst others) What was the key to determining fruitfulness? There was after all, quite a difference in the amount of fruit. The range was from nothing to 100 times the amount of seed sown. So was the difference in what method was used in sowing the seed. Were there different sowers? Maybe there was something special about the 100 fold seed? It seems from what we read, that difference was in the condition of the soil.
Jesus was talking in this particular passage about the condition of the heart of man, and how there are differences in the way that hearts receive the seed. While my thoughts about the importance of cultivating culture are broader than what was directly talked about in this passage, I think that the truth from this scripture illustrates the importance of having the right kind of conditions for growth.
Let’s jump over to my life in 2007. In the missional community that I am a part of, there is always something going on. And most of the time, I can honestly say that we are seeing lives impacted for Jesus in some way or another. I do not say this to brag in any way, in fact seeing lives impacted does not fulfill the calling on my life, or on the life of the team that I lead. I have spent many years watching God be God. He is amazing and His Gospel is really good seed. I have grown weary of seeing inconsistent results. I am not talking about how big a church grows, I am talking about how deeply a life is transformed.
Our current ministry is aimed at being and doing church for those who won’t go into church. We deal with a lot of “ungodly” people. It is so refreshing to be able to share life with these beautiful people who don’t have a need to impress with religious chat or Bible trivia. They just let all there stuff, for better or worse, hang out. I don’t want to paint a overly dramatic picture, but the truth is: MOST OF THESE PEOPLE ARE MORE DESPERATE FOR THE REAL JESUS THAN AN OVERWHELMING MAJORITY OF BORN AGAIN BELIEVERS. It is not that they get it right away, in fact most of them struggle for some time before giving their heart to the Lord. It is just that they realize their life is not working out so well.
We have been blessed to see many of these people give their heart to Jesus, and as a part of seeing the great commission fulfilled, our community is committed to try to disciple them. Again, we have seen some success on our journey, but when you know that there is 100 fold possibilities, settling for less is disheartening.
So how do we make the jump from tending a average garden, to reaping 100 fold fruit on a consistent basis? It would be very dishonest for me to even pretend to have all of the answer, but my heart has been provoked to cultivate the field.
I am hoping to do a series of posts around this topic. I would like to invite you to get involved in the discussion and consider the cost and benefits of living in a community that is willing to take the time to cultivate a culture that will embrace, foster and advance the move of God. What will it take? How can we get started? There is so much to explore, but I believe the world is waiting to see the manifestation of these types of communities.
Contending for Culture. It won’t be easy. We may have to walk as pioneers to lands where we have never been. We may have to prepare fields for planting that won’t yield fruit for years, but it will be worth it. Last thought. Consider the life of John Chapman (Johnny Appleseed). Here was a simple man who spent a great portion of his life clearing out weeds, preparing soil, and planting seeds that would take years to mature into fruit bearing trees. In many cases, he planted in the “wilderness”, but his planting help prepare for future generations that would come after him. There is no way of accurately knowing how many acres of brush were cleared, or how many seeds were planted. One thing that we do know is that there has been an exponential harvest that continues to this day.
This is all just ramblings in some ways… maybe parts don’t make sense. Maybe it seems incoherent at points. Maybe it’s wrong? … but that’s ok. This isn’t even my blog. Hah Sorry Brad…
It’s interesting that the verses about soil refer to individual lives. I used to think that this verse meant that some people are just predestined to failure because they’re just bad soil. However, from what I’ve seen and know about farming, when soil isn’t so great, or when you need to get rid of weeds and rough places, you could use a Holy rototiller. Sometimes the rough rocky places need to get blown up… good thing the gospel is a power like that of dynamite. Sometimes weeds need the rototiller, and sometimes they just need yanked out. Sometimes people’s lives seem like walking paths in a sense, and they need to be healed. Callouses need ripped off and the ground needs tilled. When the bible says that God wants all to come to repentance, it should be possible right?
The other thing is a difference between the soil in one person’s life vs. the soil in the culture you create. While it is individuals who come together to form a body to worship or hear a message or whatever. There’s something different that happens when we come together and worship as a group or as a family or community (whatever you want to call it). While we have soil in our lives individually, there is also the soil of corporate bodies (churches) that needs to be cultivated at times as well. It’s almost as if there is to be one heartbeat to a body of believers. At times, that body is on life support, or it’s trying to separate, but there’s something important to the fact that the book of Acts says many times that the believers “were all in one accord.” Not only should corporate bodies be whole and in one accord, but the culture of the Kingdom needs to be fostered within the group. When this culture has been cultivated, those who add to that body will have a proper model to run after for their own lives.
Many ministries have a vision for what “their Jerusalem” looks like… what I refer to as “their Jerusalem” is the vision of what they’re striving for. More often than not, no matter how different ministries may be, these visions are very similar from group to group… or at least that’s the way they seem. Oftentimes, it seems as if everyone is after the same thing because all of our visions of Jerusalem includes everyone in a certain city or area saved and following God. These Jerusalems also have God as the man over it all. However, what is rarely talked about and what is rarely identified is the culture in Jerusalem. That is why although many ministries seem to be after the same thing, their ideas of the culture of that shining city on a hill are very different. In my opinion, the culture of a country is something that is very spiritual, though it doesn’t seem like it. Cultures seem to shift and change from coast to coast without any person driving. There’s spiritual things happening and shifting across these bodies of people. If this is true, it makes sense to me that the Kingdom of God would have a certain culture. I can’t imagine a cultureless Kingdom. …but what is the culture of the Kingdom of God that He would have us war for? Maybe there is a heavenly culture. Jesus talks about the Kingdom SO much. I think the culture we are to go for is the culture of heaven. Maybe that’s just another aspect of “on earth as it is in heaven.”