Serving Bread

Summary:

In this final section of his book, Andy Crouch encourages readers to seem themselves as world changers and cultural makers. Crouch approaches the idea of culture shaping with some soberness, recognizing that the vast majority of people who believe they can change the world don’t realize that they may be more bent to change the world for the worse than for the better.

The primary characteristic in a person who can change the world is that they are (what he calls) children of grace. This type of person finds himself or herself thankful to how God has shaped him or her, and that the glory for all things belongs to God.

This type of person will embrace disciplines of choosing community, where the crux of culture making seems to happen. Crouch has a creative idea that we can use our influence in spheres of 3, 12, and 120. Rather than be overwhelmed with the brokenness around us and the need to create culture that engages our fallen world on a macro level, Crouch invites us to consider the ways that a small community of people can look for ways to cultivate and create culture within a particular context. I suppose Crouch is operating with the “Little-Big Principle of faith” as found in Luke 16, where Jesus calls us to be faithful with a little before we’re entrusted to be faithful with much.

A final and important characteristic of someone who wants to change the world is that he or she must know how to handle power. But Crouch doesn’t define power in secular terms, but in classic Christian terms. Servanthood and stewardship are the ultimate values for  power. He contrasts Mother Theresa and Princess Diana, showing how a woman of Mother Theresa’s stature brought so much transformation to the world, yet she did not pursue power by lording it over others.

Lessons from Part III:

• Power is available to all: Both of our presidential candidates believe that they can change the world (and our country) for the better. They desire the office of the presidency, which seems to promise so much power to them to bring the change they want to bring. Yet Jesus and the lives of many saints, including Mother Theresa, challenges me to have dreams as big as Obama and McCain bring positive transformation, yet to bring that change using means other than lording it over others. Power is not just available to the McCains and Obamas of the world, but to all who believe that transformation can come through servanthood and stewardship.
• Make culture locally: The 3, 12, 120 principle is a helpful way to think about how we can go about making culture. Crouch is right to point out that most of us can identify our “three” fairly quickly, and that we should look to begin in that kind of community if we wish to create culture.
• Beware of sin: I once heard a mentor point out that we are so eager to change the world that we forget that we are bent to export more of the sin than the witness. I find myself blind to what I export unto others. I need the three or the 12 to help me see the ways that I am changing the world for the worse.

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Summary:

In this part of his book, Crouch surveys the story of Scripture, focusing on how God (and humanity) created and shaped culture. He looks at the creation story, especially how God was at cultivating and creating culture in the midst of the physical creation we see around us.

Crouch points out how the low point of human culture is exemplified in the plain of Shinar in Genesis 11, as the people of the world tried to create a building toward the heavens.

Crouch goes on to trace the story of the people of Israel, leading the conversation toward Jesus, the supreme culture maker. Jesus was not just a teacher, but one who created a new paradigm and culture for people to embrace. As Crouch writes, “As innovative as his teachings were, his adversaries seem to have been most provoked by his actions… Jesus did not just teach creatively; he lived creatively, and the guardians of the horizons were unsettled by him” (138).

Jesus as culture maker introduced people to the Kingdom of God that was meant to touch every aspect of a believer’s / follower’s life.

Crouch continues the story until the glorious picture in the book of Revelation that paints a picture of perfect redemption. All things that are broken will be redeemed, and the heart of the image is in the city of the New Jerusalem. Culture will be “rescued, redeemed and transformed.” One of the interesting things that Crouch speaks of is what heaven will be like. Not only will it not be boring, it will also not be Sunday Morning lived out for eternity.

Crouch imagines that our eternal life in “God’s recreated world will be the fulfillment of waht God originally asked us to do: cultivating and creating in full and lasting relationship with our Creator.”

Lessons from Part II:

• Christians have transformed Kingdoms. Crouch summarizes the work of Rodney Stark who tried to understand how the early church grew to become a powerful force within three hundred years. One of Stark’s observations was that the early Christians “were not cut off from their neighbors–the culture they created was public and accessible to all.” I once heard a pastor exhort his flock (in a sermon) to create a hedge of protection between them and the non-Christians around them. The church would have never grown had the early believers heeded the teachings of this pastor. Also, Christians were at the forefront in caring for the sick during the various epidemics that hit the Roman empire. Nursing and caring for the needy authenticated their faith and created space for people to see faith at work.
• Embrace the best of the culture around us. Crouch imagines that the best of our culture will be with us for eternity, for the best is a picture of God’s gift to humanity. And we may be surprised that in heaven, we will enjoy the works of many non-believers (whether it be art, food, architecture, etc…) I think Crouch has his fingers on a new way of proclaiming the gospel and doing evangelism—point people to God when we see the best in people. Thank people fo the ways that they have allowed God to do the best in them. How empowering it is for anyone (whether believers or non-believers) to be thanked for the ways that their works point us closer to God!
• God lifts the needy. Many of us will be surprised of the ways that God will lift up the last to be first in the Kingdom. I find myself so caught up in learning from the powerful and wanting to be like the powerful that I forget that God will/does confound the wisdom of the world. I find myself losing sensitivity to how God may be speaking to me through the least around me. During my Sabbatical, I am learning to hear God through my 3-year old and my 8-month old.

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