I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. (John 17:4)
Christian Roles with Culture
Personal Questions
I was around eleven years old when I first became a Christian. Immediately, I was told by the pastor and friends at church that my primary duty from then on was to share the good news to as many people as I could so other people could get their salvation in Jesus too. This instruction was also in line with my deep desire. So I shared the gospel with anybody I met freely without reservations. It happened automatically and naturally.
Then when I was in college, I learned that God has a purpose for my education. He invested high education in me so I can use it for His good works on earth, redeem and infuse the world with values in line with God’s kingdom values. We are to fix the broken systems of the world, neutralize evil, impede corruption and redeem the dignity of the poor and the oppressed.
After I graduated from college, I was consumed by motherhood duties, and the vision of changing the world was losing to the vivid picture of babies-and-toddlers reality. During those years, I still sometimes pondered upon God’s original plan for me and wondered if I had somehow ‘missed the train.’ I know motherhood was God’s assigned role for me that season, and I gladly accepted it. Yet, God has created me with unique attributes and longings. Do these amount to anything?
How would God want me to color the world with my uniqueness? The bigger question is, does it really matter since I am so temporal and the world is so broken anyway? Does my contribution to this broken-beyond-repair world matter at all? Why would I even bother now because the whole world will eventually be redeemed in its finality when Jesus comes again for the second time? Is God currently still waiting for the return of investments from the talents and gifts He has given me? What am I supposed to do from now until my time is up, besides telling others about God, that would take advantage of my unique giftedness? I could not put these questions out of my mind.
Church Engagement with Culture
Recently, I listened to a recorded sermon by Tim Keller about culture. He said that most churches belong to one of these three groups. The first group is churches that focus on doctrines, biblical worldview, bible knowledge, and they are very worried about right and wrong, false prophets and heresies. The second group is churches that focus on social issues such as justice, poverty, equality. They engage with the world but are not as much concerned with the integrity of the doctrines as the first group. The third group is churches that focus inwardly; everything is about building up the church, but less engage or resigning from the world. Of course, the ideal church is the one that can perfectly balance the three aspects and restrain from the tendency to lean in one particular direction.
The church’s relationship with culture has been marked with weariness and cautiousness. Christians are fully aware that although we are in this world, we are not of this world. Satan, our enemy, is the prince of this world (John 12:31), the god of this age (2 Corinthians 4:4), the elemental spiritual forces of the world (Galatians 4:3), and he temporarily rules this world.
Our true citizenship lies somewhere else, in the heavenly country (Philippians 3:20), yet we are still stuck in this foreign land with rules and laws that are hostile to our homeland. A careful and cautious Christian would do well to avoid polluting oneself with this world as much as possible.
So what should be the forms of Christian engagement with the world? Should we keep engagement with the world minimal and only to what is necessary? Is it merely just to seek the lost, rescue them and bring them to the safety of the church as soon as possible? When God creates humans as His image-bearers, are there other inherent designs and purposes of engagement that God has in mind (Genesis 1:27)?
Cultural Mandate
I have heard many times about the Cultural Mandate in Genesis 1:28: Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground and from Genesis 2:15: The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. Genesis 1 reveals our role as ruler of the earth, while Genesis 2 gives our concrete call to create and cultivate culture.
Culture is both abstract and concrete. Culture is thoughts, ideas, imaginations, goods, artifacts, environments, customs, civilizations, habits.
Mandate means the instruction to represent.
Cultural mandate asks us to steward or manage the earth as God’s representative, to create and cultivate culture.
Yet, this mandate seems to be put in the peripheral of our Christian duties for most of my Christian life and has never really been explained clearly and comprehensively. It seems we are supposed to figure out on our own how to “rule the earth” and whatever that entails.
Does this cultural mandate still valid? If yes, to what extent and scope should we view this? Andry Crouch’s book Culture Making and a worship class I took two years ago help clarify our roles on earth and God’s original plan for humankind from the beginning until eternity. God designs how society functions, and all things that make up human civilizations are part of His plan.
Knowledge of God comes through His creations and orders (Psalms 19:1-6). When we create and cultivate things that reflect God intentionally, although not explicitly in our creations, essays, art or ventures, we are bringing the knowledge of God and His personalities into the world (2 Corinthians 2:14).
For that to happen, we ourselves must have an intimate relationship with God so we truly know and understand His heart, His ways, His plans for the world. Everything we do should be fueled and overflowed from love for God and His truths, not from some humanistic ideas or the world’s interpretations of good and just.
We want people to know and have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Thus, all our good works in the Culture Mandate create the structures and frameworks for the Great Commission to take place.
The Cultural Mandate is our full-time calling, along with the Great Commission. Our answering both callings should be motivated and driven by love for God and others. Both callings are fulfillments of the Great Commandment.
Understanding the biblical term and sharing it with other believers matter because if we don’t even have the vocabulary, we will eliminate the possibility of that calling in our lives. But, on the other hand, if we can verbalize and explain the term, we start to internalize the meaning and apply the relevancy in our lives within family, community, church, marketplace, and the world (Ephesians 4:1).
This is a huge topic. The more I learn, the more aware I am of my limitations to comprehend. I try to present my understandings in the easiest flow to follow logically. I hope this article will clarify more and distill the meaning and the implications of cultural mandate in our lives.
Imago Dei
We, humans, are created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27), which means we reflect His characters and His attributes. In Genesis, we see God’s extraordinary creativity. Crouch said in Genesis 1 we could see a purposeful, engaged, creative intelligence at work (p. 21). There is a sequence act of ordering and structuring creations. Genesis presents God as both Creator and Ruler of the universe. Creators are those who make something new; rulers are those who maintain order and separation. There are orders that accompany creativity.
Just like our Creator, we create and cultivate, not just for the sake of our survival, but we find meaning in those activities. When we create and cultivate, we reflect the image and attributes of our Creator more fully, and when God is reflected, He is glorified. This is what we were made for. The call to create and cultivate is resonant to many of us. It is a commonly affirmed reality of human existence.
Creating and cultivating is our intrinsic purpose that we need to manifest if we are to truly flourish. That is why when we operate out of our giftedness, we get glimpses of what it means to be fully alive.
Man Fully Alive is the Glory of God –Irenaeus
Each of our creation and cultivation will affect other fellow human beings, for good or bad, in different spheres and at different scales. All our work may be used by God to bless others in ways we cannot predict.
God is very able to divinely multiply our seemingly immaterial service and contributions. The impacts of our effort might be beyond anything we could ever imagine. I find this quote from T.S. Eliot reassuring. He said, “Take no thought of the harvest, but only of proper sowing.”
A Priest and a King
Jesus’ life on earth is marked by his primary purpose, to reconcile sinners to God, take the blame upon Himself and pay the penalty of death on behalf of us.
After Jesus finished his task and went back to heaven, the Scripture tells us that from then on, Jesus intercedes for us, He pleads for us and becomes the mediator between Christians and God the Father (Hebrews 7:25, 1 John 2:1, 1 Timothy 2:5). Hebrews 4:14 said Jesus is our great high priest.
A priest is a mediatory agent between humans and God. As followers of Jesus, we are also anointed with the roles of a priest (1 Peter 2:5, Exodus 19:6, Isaiah 61:6). We are part of the royal priesthood, and we need to facilitate people to reconcile to God. Apostle Peter put it beautifully in 1 Peter 2:9:
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
I think this calling to the priesthood aligns with the Great Commission, which is making disciples of all people and teaching them to obey everything God has commanded us (Matthew 28:18-20). Considering the eternal consequences for the people, either heaven or hell, eternal justification or eternal condemnation, this calling bears utmost importance and urgency.
Jesus was the creator and the ruler of the universe. He came down on earth as part of His rescue plan, saving humans from eternal death. After He finished His work on earth, Jesus ascended to heaven and seated at the right hand of God the Father (Hebrews 1:3, 4:14, Romans 8:34, Colossians 3:1).
Jesus then continued His eternal role as Lord of Lords and King of Kings of the universe. When Jesus comes again for the second time, His authority over everything will be complete (Ephesians 1:10, 21-23, Colossians 1:16, 18). Jesus is the ultimate ruler and king.
So Jesus is both our priest and king. The calling of priesthood became necessary due to human’s fall into sins. In the original plan, humans were created to rule together in partnership with God (Genesis 2:19).
Then we fell into sins, but it still didn’t cancel, put on hold or invalidate our original purpose. Later in heaven, co-ruling God’s kingdom together with Jesus would be our eternal work (Revelations 3:21, Revelations 5:10, 2 Timothy 2:11-12a).
The priestly roles are needed because humans fell into sins and became enemies with God. Humans need to be rescued and reconciled back with God. Our duty as priests is to proclaim God’s word and make disciples. Yet later, when Jesus comes back again, we won’t do these priestly roles anymore. We also won’t need temples anymore because God will live amongst us.
The kingly roles are God’s ultimate purpose for humans even before we fell into sins, which is to administer the creations together with Him. This role does not go away because of sins, even though the executions of this role are marred by sins. The kingly role is God’s original design for humans as we are created in His image. We will continue to do this kingly role together with Jesus for eternity.
Each believer should fulfill both their priestly and kingly roles. Both roles further establish God’s kingdom dominion and bring about His purposes (Revelations 1:6, 5:10, 20:6).
The Sphere of the Kingdom
The concept of kingdom is actually very important and prevalent in the Bible. The fact that Jesus used the word ‘authority’ in the Great Commission signifies order and some form of government (Isaiah 9:6-7).
Jordan Raynor, the author of Called to Create and Master of One, said that in the gospel, the word “save/salvation” in a personal context is only mentioned less than 10 times, while the word “Kingdom” is mentioned 162 times. God has created us to be kingdom-oriented people (Luke 12:31-32).
People’s salvation is undoubtedly a big part of the Kingdom agenda, but it is still a part of the greater plan. God’s greater plan is establishing His whole kingdom by bringing all creations and spheres subject to Him (1 Corinthians 15:24-28, Ephesians 1:10, 22-23, Colossians 1:16, 18).
Abraham Kuyper, a Calvinist theologian, who was also the Prime Minister of Netherlands, gave his famous call to Christian cultural responsibility: In the total expanse of human life, there is not a single square inch of which the Christ, who alone is sovereign, does not declare: ‘That is mine.’
When God creates us, He wants us to partner and rule together with Him in His kingdom. But sin entered into mankind, and the plan got ‘sidetracked.’ Humans have been exercising their dominion in very sinful ways ever since, filled with corruption, selfishness, greed and all kinds of lust causing suffering and perversion all around.
Still, every sphere of human life belongs to God; there’s no distinction between secular and sacred. All areas should be consecrated to God.
Later on, as these list of Scriptures show, we will share the kingly office, co-heir and co-rule together with God the Son eternally (Revelations 1:6, 2:26-27, 3:21, 5:10, 11:15, 20:6, 22:5, 2 Timothy 2:11-12a, 1 Corinthians 6:2-3, Luke 22:29-30, Ephesians 2:6, Galatians 3:29, 4:7, 1 Peter 1:3-4, Daniel 7:18, 27).
These passages show that we will rule in some capacity, although they don’t give specific descriptions of our duties. The fact that we will rule together with Jesus for eternity does not mean that we just wait and can’t do anything right now until Jesus comes back. Instead, it implies that our work of ruling here on earth is an important practice and has eternal significance.
We reflect God’s image and fulfill God’s plan for humanity when we “reign” in His ways. When we create, cultivate, and engage in the world around us, we express God’s image in us more fully, His characteristics, plans, values and truth becomes more tangible and real, and thus God is glorified (2 Thessalonians 1:11-12).
We can also make some connections from the verses above that our faithfulness and fruitfulness on earth will determine our rewards in heaven later, in the forms of responsibilities and capacities given to us. So our work here on earth will have eternal consequences.
Each saint will be given work to do in God’s eternal kingdom, to administer together with other saints. According to Matthews 25:21 and 23, if we are faithful, we will be given more responsibilities and in charge of many things. Therefore, there might be some hierarchies of ruling between the saints based on our talents, faithfulness on earth and the rewards given to us.
The Pursue of Cultural Power for Good
It is natural for the church people to condemn or be suspicious of believers who take high or good positions in the world, either in the marketplace or the government, because deep engagement with the world system can be seen as fraternizing with the enemies for selfish benefits.
Although believers who are successful in the world are not necessarily befriending the enemies and conforming to the worldly ways, so we should not be quick to pass judgment. God might intentionally place these believers in the worldly strategic positions for His sovereign plans.
Influencing culture through positions of power is better placed in God’s sovereign plan, not something that we should intentionally pursue even if our intentions are good.
We do not strategize and plot our ways to accumulate power and influence. Our power should come as a gift from God given to His tested and trusted servants.
God knows our capacity of handling the corroding nature of power to the soul better than we do. God knows our hearts and readiness. Let power be a gift that God entrusts to His stewards to represent His interests and execute His purposes, not something that is up for grabs and used by personal discretion.
Besides, the world is so complex and broken that no amount of power we accumulate can fix it. Considering the risks of greed, fear, lust and pride within our sinful hearts and the myriad of uncontrollable factors, better let the intentional pursuit of power or strategic positions be left at God’s hand. We trust God and His wisdom, less on ourselves and our deceitful hearts.
Weariness with the Worldly World
Romans 8:19-22: For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.
It is not surprising why Christians prefer to retreat from the world and congregate among themselves. The world we live in is inundated with all sorts of wickedness and perversion that offend, scare and tempt us.
The space outside our Christian bubble is like a spiritual war zone, a devil’s playground. The typical temptations would be materialism, money, power and all kinds of sensual pleasure.
Yes, the world is deeply broken, but we are also fallen and flawed to the core of our being.
Yes, the world is a dark place, but the darkness within us is more dire and dangerous.
Genesis 6:5: The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.
Sometimes we see the world so inherently broken that we feel there is nothing much we can do, not even a dent of difference. We will always have rampant poverty, injustice and immorality around us. We will never be able to get rid of all systemic evil until Jesus comes back.
The weight of frustrations and futility is so heavy on us. We prefer to be comforted and stay within our’ holy huddle’, keep our purity and away from the polluting world as much as we can, and just wait until Jesus comes again and fixes everything.
Yet even when we keep to ourselves inside our Christian space and community, the evilness will not escape us; they just come in different forms and faces.
Pride comes off as superior self-righteousness, lust for power lurks behind desiring godly influence and greater impact for God, envy is masked in condemnations for other people’s sins. Maybe we feel the sins within spiritual circles are more palatable and not as frontal and offensive as the world’s sins, but in God’s sight, they are still the same old detestable sins.
So going out into the world will offer us more temptations, but retreating from the world will not solve our problems. And we cannot wait until we have the proper pure and holy motivations before we venture out into the world.
Inside of us will always be a mixed bag of good and evil, love and selfishness. Our motivations can’t be totally pure while still living on earth; we need to accept the fact. Still, our motivations can be progressively purified and sanctified with the help of the Christian community and God’s Holy Spirit within us.
In fact, in the midst of temptations, we can become more aware of our weaknesses and depend more on God. Usually, one of the signs that we are growing in the right direction is that we become less focused on ourselves, our successes or failures and more focused on God and His plans.
But if we retreat from the world, we will miss opportunities to partner with God and do the good works He has prepared for us, to be salt and light for the world (2 Corinthians 9:8). We will also not be able to express ourselves more fully the way God creates and intends for us. Our opportunities to bring glory to Him will be limited because our light will only shine the brightest at the darkest place.
Matthew 5:16: In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
Not Withdrawing, but Witnessing Together with the Church
James Hunter, a professor of Religion, Culture, and Social Theory at the University of Virginia, identifies three flawed cultural strategies Christians have tried over the years:
- Be defensive against culture and seek to dominate it.
- Seek purity from culture and withdraw from it entirely.
- Compromise with culture and be assimilated by it.
Hunter suggested that the better alternative is to be present in the culture fully and faithfully, be salt and light, serve and still be true to the Christian faith. Being salt and light is more natural than taking the power approach or the withdrawn approach.
Even though this earth is not our true home and we are living in ‘exile’ right now, God still urges us to put down our roots, use our hands and do good works on this foreign land as His ambassador, His steward, instead of withdrawing from the world and just waiting until our time on earth is up.
There are only patches of places in the world where God’s presence could be felt now, but later everything will be redeemed, restored and renewed in its totality. At the end times, God’s presence will fill everything.
There is a purpose for God to let us stay here for a little more while now. God wants us to bring His presence in this ‘foreign’ land so people will get the chance to know the God who is in heaven and be familiar with His ways through us.
Similar to when the Israelites were exiled in Babylon, God still wanted them to make a long-term commitment to the place by building houses, marrying, planting gardens, seeking the peace and prosperity of Babylon (Jeremiah 29:4-7).
If we still need to make that long term commitment to the world we live in now, Tim Keller in How to Reach the West (p. 48) suggested that believers will need help from the church, not only about private spiritual disciplines but also for thinking and living at every decisive point, in public as well as private life, in life within the workplace as well as within the church.
Keller continued that the church must train and disciple Christians to integrate their faith with their work in the public spheres and think about the implications of their faith to their work. This is an expansive vision for Christian influence in every area of human life. Finally, Keller suggested that clergy and laypeople should sit down as equals, each with some knowledge the other does not have, to plan for Christian witness in public life.
Priest First Then King
We must reconcile with God first and have our identity and purpose sorted out and rooted in Christ (root season) before engaging missionally with the world (fruit season).
When we are reconciled with God and become part of God’s kingdom first, all our kingly work on earth is empowered by God (Galatians 2:20) and comes from the place of love for God and others. We will represent the Kingdom’s interests, not our own. This is how we establish and manifest God’s Kingdom on earth.
If we attach to God, like a branch to the sprouting vine, then we can see reality from God’s view and all the fruits we bear automatically come straight from God’s heart (John 15:4-5).
But if we are not reconciled with God first, not only our fruits of labor are hinged mostly on our humanly effort and performance (Isaiah 64:6), we will also be misguided and assume our worthiness, fulfillment, value and identity from the wrong things. And usually, it will not end well (Psalm 127:1).
Our effectiveness as kings will depend on our effectiveness as priests. Only if we have God’s presence and God’s will in our private life, we can then bring His presence and His will into the public world around us. Only if we have the source of Love in our lives we can then serve and rule with love.
There is no shortcut, the quality of our relationship with God is the basis of everything. Before Adam fell into sin, he ruled the garden of Eden and its inhabitants well. Thus, our relationship with God needs to be restored first before we can rule and manage our responsibilities well because our authority, power and mandate to rule need to come from God.
Kingly Roles in Action
It is ingrained in us that we have to do exceptional things for God— but we do not. We have to be exceptional in the ordinary things of life, and holy on the ordinary streets, among ordinary people— and this is not learned in five minutes. – Oswald Chambers
The kingly roles are God’s original purpose for people even before we fell into sins. We are to administer the creations together in partnership with God. This role does not go away because of sins, even though the executions of these roles are marred by sins. The kingly role is part of God’s design for us as we are created in His image. We will continue to do this kingly role together with Jesus even for eternity.
What are the implications of the Cultural Mandate in our street-level living? We undertake our kingly roles on earth when we bake cakes at home, make paintings, create business opportunities, administer projects, write a book, supervise and manage employees or family members, arrange personal or corporate finances, and plan a weekly menu for the family. The opportunities and possibilities are boundless.
The kingly roles are manifested in an endless list of “ordinary work” that we see day to day in an accountant, a chef, a factory worker, an army officer, a business person, a teacher, a doctor, a hotelier, a fireman, an artist, a wife and a mom, a husband and a father. Jesus himself spent most part of His life on earth as a carpenter; He manifested His divinity in a very ordinary occupation.
Let’s imagine and internalize these facts:
- Our everyday work is part of the bigger narrative of the gospel, which is to bring good news to all aspects of life for God’s kingdom.
- The King of kings wants to co-rule and co-manage the creations in partnership with you. That is His intention when He created you.
- Your current roles are part of the assignments and good works God wants to accomplish through you.
- Someday in the future, in a perfect version of earth, you will be given new assignments to rule together and forever with God.
When we come out to the world, may we be the salt and light to the world in each of our kingly roles. We display truth and infuse ‘godly flavors’ in whatever sphere we are in, preserving it further from decaying. Our creations and cultivations will bring people’s attention to Christ.
I hope this understanding of your kingly roles will motivate you to give your best in your “ordinary” work every day.
Kingly Work in Eternal Perspective
We should not see our kingly work as a distraction from our priestly work. On the contrary, they are two sides of the same coin. Both are rich dimensions of the gospel. Both bring the gospel, Jesus’ presence, redemption and restoration to the world in all aspects of life, physical, emotional and spiritual.
According to Crouch (p. 170-171), it is not true that “souls” are the only eternal things that last into eternity. In God’s original intention and in their redemptive destination, human beings cannot be separated from the cultural goods they create and cultivate at their best.
In fact, our work and cultural goods will also be redeemed, find their way and be showcased in the new Jerusalem. The celestial city will be furnished with the best of every culture has to offer (Isaiah 60 and Revelations 21:24).
Your “ordinary work” is not just a way for you to earn a living or pass the time. Whatever your current responsibilities are, your work is meaningful such that it will echo to the heavenly realms.
The quality of your work will be tested at the end of time, and you will be given new responsibilities later in heaven based on the quality of your work on earth (1 Corinthians 3:12-15).
Doing your work well and wholeheartedly as a sacrifice and service to God and mankind is a form of love. It’s fulfilling the Great Commandment: love God with everything you got and love others as God loves them.
When you work, you fulfill God’s original design for you, you obey His will for you, you reflect His image to the world, you glorify Him; those are forms of loving God. When you work, you give your helpful service to others, you interact and touch other people’s lives in meaningful ways; those are forms of loving people.
I heard a sermon a few years ago in which the preacher gave an interesting illustration of society. He said each person is only like a tiny grain of earth, but when every one of us is present and contributes together, we are like a plot of land that is life-giving for all humankind to be rooted, grow and flourish.
God’s creation starts from the natural world, a garden in Genesis, and ends at the celestial city of new Jerusalem in Revelations. A city is a place where the culmination of culture happens. This time around the world culture will be a redeemed, transformed culture and fulfill all its potential the way God intends to be when He instructed the first man in Eden to create and cultivate.
Our kingly role is our vocation (calling) before the Fall and after the Redemption. This will be our activity for all eternity. Our kingly work will bring delight, glory and praise to our God.
Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain (1 Corinthians 15:58).
Identifying the Work of God in the World
God cares for this broken world and its people. It is His world after all, but God cares mostly for the poor and powerless. He always identifies with them right from His birth and how He spent the majority of His time on earth. Jesus himself was prophesied to be oppressed and afflicted (Isaiah 53:7). God obviously chose a side; He is with the poor and the oppressed (Matthew 25:31-46).
Right after the devil tested Jesus in the wilderness, Jesus then officially launched His ministry on earth. He went to a synagogue, and it is interesting to note the passage He chose to mark the beginning of His ministry is from Isaiah 61:1 (Luke 4:18-19). This showed His heart and priorities
The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
Because he has anointed me
The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
Because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.
This world is essentially many systems that run in active rebellion against God and are oppressive against their fellow mankind. The capitalist system provides the most economic advantages to the people who already have capital, and for those who don’t, their leverage and positioning are unfortunately weakening by the day. The world systems need to be repaired from their brokenness and restored to the original intentions as much as possible.
These types of systems below are not part of God’s activity and work within human culture:
When elites use their privilege to create culture goods that primarily serve other elites, that is nothing but the way of the world, the standard operating procedure of culture. Furthermore, even when the culturally powerful deign to share their blessings with the powerless, but in ways that leave the powerless dependent and needy, this too is simply another marginally kinder version of the way of the world. Likewise, when the powerless cultivate and create culture that simply reinforces their oppression without bringing any real change in the horizons of possibility and impossibility, or when those in desperate circumstances rise up against the powerful, simply creating new structures of power in their place, we rightly recognize what is happening as business as usual (Crouch, p. 209).
Crouch gave clues on how we can identify God’s work in the world:
God’s patterns of activity and work within human culture usually involve the powerful and the powerless working together, alongside one another, not against the other, where the powerful are humble, and the powerless are willing to hear the good news as good for both of them.
According to Crouch, God wants His people both the powerful and the powerless to partner together, join His work and live out their calling where justice is not served, where people are deprived of their full humanity, and where the doors of human hope threaten to slam shut (2 Corinthians 6:1).
Micah 6:8: And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
The way we interact with the poor is not with patronizing kindness but seeing them as equal partners to work together alongside to create new horizons of possibility for both.
Followers of Christ should act based on compassion, not compulsion. Everything we do should be driven by love, not for goody feeling experience.
Unfortunately, it’s not natural for us to love others sacrificially. Even when we do kindness, we are instinctively inward-looking, seeking some personal benefits and gains along the way. We need to experience God’s ongoing supernatural love to enable us to sustainably love others the way God loves them.
Personal Agency
Agency is our capacity to act and make choices. For believers, we acknowledge that our agency is not independent of God. God gives us agency in this world to become salt and light, to live faithfully to God’s mission in whatever roles and capacity entrusted to us in whatever sphere and level of society (Matthew 16:19, John 15:16, 1 Corinthians 7:17).
These are our missions on earth: preventing and restraining evils with the conscience that God has given to all people, transforming culture through our roles, faculties and skills, redeeming people by preaching the good news, restoring people and creations back to the original design and purpose through godly stewardship.
We preach the good news to all people and do good deeds so that Christ, His truth and His ways can be more real to people. This is our commitment to the common good and our part in dispensing God’s common grace to the world. We want all people and creations can be brought closer to Christ and be part of Christ’s redeeming plan.
Each of us is given specific missions based on our personal agency and circumstances. Each of us is to be the salt and light and can rise to the specific needs in our corners of the world.
God has especially carved out our roles and prepared the patch of ground for ours to tend. We should gladly answer that calling of an abundant life in Him.
Any Christian spirit working kindly in its little sphere, whatever it may be, will find its mortal life too short for its vast means of usefulness, and no space of regret can make amends for one life’s opportunity misused! (Charles Dickens, Christmas Carol)
Light Earnestness: Shift Focus to God
To close in a bit of a paradox: Yes, we are given agency by God, it empowers us to do His work (Ephesians 3:20), but we should not think too highly of our personal agency. We need to take our calling for cultivating and creating culture seriously, but we should take that seriousness lightly. Ultimately, everything is about God and His mission, not about us.
It is ultimately about God, His purposes and plans, His sovereignty and His glory. Creating and cultivating culture is not about us, our ambitions, dreams, self-actualizations and accomplishments.
Chesterton said, “A man should take his mission earnestly, but not taking himself too seriously. Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly. It is easy to be heavy, hard to be light. The Devil falls from the force of gravity.” Selfish seriousness versus cheery self-forgetfulness were the terms he used.
Beware of the force of pride that comes in many forms: serious and joyless solemnity, exacting and critical spirit, triumphant or defensive demeanors. The Pharisees fell into this trap by taking themselves too seriously with their love of knowledge and intense nature. As a result, they are easily offended by people who are not following their ways. This kind of pride will be the downward drag for all our endeavors (Proverbs 16:18).
The world teaches us to pursue our dreams, interests and passions. This is like trying to discover the ultimate life’s purpose by looking inwardly towards ourselves. It will end in futility and emptiness because we are not the source of our own agency.
We are made to answer a call from our Creator, not to make that call ourselves. The calling from God is life-giving because He knows us, and He is the one who gives us life.
We realize that all our interests, passions, dreams and talents are clues of our missions, and they are gifts from our Creator, but we are not all about creating our own ventures and enterprises.
When God makes us, He has plans and purposes for us to join His good work on earth (Ephesians 2:10, Acts 17:26). This opportunity is truly a gift and a privilege where we can find fulfillment, liberty and peace.
We should look towards God instead, discover His plans and purposes for the world, identify the work He is currently doing, join God in His work and offer His invitations of grace to the world.
How to do this? At the end of his book, Crouch offers beautiful and practical suggestions on how to utilize our personal agency together within a community of like-minded people to create and cultivate culture for Christ:
Find a community, a small group who can lovingly fuel your dreams and puncture your illusions. Find friends and form a family who are willing to see grace at work in one another’s lives, who can discern together which gifts and which crosses each has been called to bear. Find people who have a holy respect for power and a holy willingness to spend their power alongside the powerless. Find some partners in the wild and wonderful world beyond church doors. And then, together, make something of the world (Crouch, p. 263).
God gives us personal agency, but we need to operate within a community for any of our endeavors to be meaningful and sustainable. Community is our safeguard from our own sinful tendencies. Community is specially designed to spur a better version of ourselves.
Each of us is only a grain of earth, but together we are a plot of land for things to take root, grow strong, thrive and bear fruits. May we glorify God by being how God has made us to be and doing what God has called us to do.
Let your Kingdom come and let your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:10)
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