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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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The unspoken assumption in nearly every Christian use of that phrase is that our cultural activity will change the world for the better. But why do we asume this? Changing the world sounds grand, until you consider how poorly we do even at changing our own little lives. On a daily basis we break our promises, indulge our addictions and rehearse old fantasies and grudges that even we know we’d be better off without. We have changed less about ourselves than we would like to admit. Who are we to charge off to change the world? …
If our excitement about changing the world leads us into the grand illusion that we stand somehow outside the world, knowing what’s best for it, tools and goodwill and gusto at the ready, we have not yet come to terms with the reality that the world has changed us far more than we will ever change it. Beware of world changers—they have not yet learned the true meaning of sin.
— Andy Crouch, Culture Making, pages 199-200
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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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How should Christians engage or relate to culture? Andy Crouch tackles this question in his book, Culture Making. In Part I, he explores the concept of culture, defining the term and giving some helpful insights on how culture thrives and how Christians have related to culture. You can follow the discussion over at the forum.
Lessons from Part I:
- We have to learn to diagnose culture. Crouch provides a fantastic tool (5 questions) that empowers us to be better thinkers and ‘diagnosers’ of culture. We make far too many assumptions of how the world works and how culture works. These five questions will help us make sense of what culture and it’s implications. The questions are:
- What does this cultural artifact assume about the way the world is?
- What does this cultural artifact assume about the way the world should be?
- What does this cultural artifact make possible?
- What does this cultural artifact make impossible?
- What new forms of culture are created in response to this artifact?
- Christians traditionally mis-engage culture. What I mean here is that Christians tend to not know how to engage with various cultural artifacts. He identifies four ways that Christians can engage culture. First, we can condemn the artifact (remember the protests with the release of the Da Vinci Code?) Second, we can critique the culture. Third, we can copy culture (i.e. Christian music industry). Fourth, we can consume culture. Christians may condemn a cultural artifact which only brings more attention to it and might make Christians look idiotic in the process. Or we’ll create a parallel universe (like the Christian music industry) where we think we are engaging the larger culture, but we’re really not.
- We need to be cultivators and creators of culture. We need to preserve the best of humanity and create (like artists) cultural artifacts that engage the best of humanity.
Crouch writes,
I wonder what we Christians are known for in the world outside our churches. Are we known as critics, consumers, copiers, condemners of culture? I’m afraid so. Why aren’t we known as cultivators–people who tend and nourish what is best in human culture, who do the hard and painstaking work to preserve the best of what people before us have done? Why aren’t we known as creators–people who dare to think and do something that has never been thought or done before, something that makes the world more welcoming and thrilling and beautiful? (97-98)
In essence, Crouch is calling for Christians to be sort of cultural anthropologists with the mission that we challenge and exhort cuture toward the purposes and intentions of God.
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If you want to join in on the discussion of Culture Making, hop on over to the forum or click on “Book Club” above.
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One of the beauties of the Internet (and especially Web 2.0) is that it allows for collaboration and learning apart from physical location. For years, I have been intrigued to initiate (or join an existing) virtual book club. I tried it a few years ago with a friend, but it didn’t catch as much steam as I had hoped for.
In the month of September, I am going to be reading Andy Crouch’s new book, Culture Making. It has garnered great reviews, and Al Hsu (editor at IVP and someone I trust when it comes to book recommendations) has been mentioning it frequently in his posts. In addition to the book, Andy Crouch has also launched a website around this book. |
For the month of September, I would like to invite anyone who is interested to read the book together and talk about what we are learning. If you are interested, let me know via a comment and hop on to Amazon and purchase the book.
Here’s how I’m thinking it will work:
- Part I, Read and comment around September 10
- Part II, Read and comment around September 20
- Part III, Read and comment around September 30
You can follow along in your own blog or we can use my blog as the space to talk about the book. I will be commenting throughout September on what I am learning/gathering from the book.
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