Chris Bean

In an article by Gabe Lyons at www.fermiproject.com, he states the following after an overview of Christianity’s 2000-year history of fulfilling the cultural mandate in Genesis 1:28…

It’s easy to see that when forced to convey the most dramatic parts of the Christian story in a short period of time, parts of the story are easily overlooked. In the process, Christianity was losing its profound and life-giving answers to central questions no longer representing an entire life-system and worldview. It had become relegated to a personal, spiritual decision about where you would spend the afterlife.

This is a theme and over arching question which is driving many Christians to re-think what the “Gospel” is all about.

The title of the article is INFLUENCING CULTURE AN OPPORTUNITY FOR THE CHURCH.

Gabe makes a correlation between the personalization of the Gospel and the influence of Christianity on the broader culture. As the former increases the latter decreases.

He goes on to say,

When Christians dismiss the cultural mandate as an insignificant part of the Christian life, separatism and piety increases and cultural influence fades, But, if Christians learn and embrace the full story gospel and partner with God in restoring and redeeming his creation, their cultural influence will follow and the Good News will spread.

Later he challenges those of us in the church by saying “This vision demands that leaders in the church wrestle with the complexity of embodying the Gospel in culture. As the church rediscovers its unique role in culture, and supports the calling of their cultural influencers, it will be a force for good in our communities, cities and the country.”