As part of my work with Herald of Truth, I got to present a “Christ and Culture” seminar this past weekend at the Greenwood Church of Christ in Greenwood, South Carolina. It was only the second time I’ve presented the full seminar, and I’ve tweaked it quite a bit since the first time.
It’s done in four sessions:
- Session 1: “The Fish Doesn’t Know That He’s Wet”—This is a look at culture and worldview and the influence they have on people… people like us.
- Session 2: “Alexander Made Me Do It”—A look at the major forces that shaped Western culture and the effects of those forces.
- Session 3: “Christ and Culture”—A look at traditional responses to culture, focusing on how Christians should view their lives in this world.
- Session 4: “God’s Ambassadors”—A discussion of our mission on behalf of the Kingdom of God, what it means to live in this world as a foreigner on a diplomatic mission.
I’m sure that I’m not through tweaking. I’ve added thoughts from Gabe Lyons’ The Next Christians, which I hadn’t read the first time that I presented this seminar. I’ve also done some reading on modernism and postmodernism, particularly some things that N.T. Wright has written. Between now and the next seminar, I’ll probably find more things to add.
If you were going to participate in a seminar like this, what sort of topics would you like to see discussed?
The basic outline looks good. Do you have more specifics in electronic form. I would enjoy seeing them.
We rarely realize how much influence the modern culture had on the restoration movement and other groups.
Have you read “The Social Sources of Denominationalism” by H. Richard Neibuhr. It rocked my boat the first time I read it. I was glad he wrote the sequel: “The Kingdom of God in America.” In the first book he says he tells why the stream follows the crooked path that it flows down; it the second book he investigates why it flows at all.