This is a post I wrote up months ago to save for a rainy day. It came to mind because I’ve been thinking a lot about culture lately. I hope it encourages you.
Andy Crouch says that the Church has historically taken four negative stances toward culture, and conveniently, they all start with the letter ‘C’:
Condemning Culture
Critiquing Culture
Copying Culture
Consuming Culture
He says that a much better posture is a fifth (which the Church has also historically taken):
Creating Culture
If I’m honest with you, I have to admit I generally have a pretty poor attitude toward things like “Christian movies”, “Christian video games”, and even a good portion of Christian books and music, because they tend to strike me as incredibly corny and poorly put-together. And when I caught wind that a vast array of Christian artists came together in a project to compile a song called “Come Together Now” for the Haiti earthquake (using the same name as a similar project the secular music industry put together for Hurricane Katrina), I’ll admit that I was instantly skeptical.
“Oh great, another Christian culture copy along the lines of iPray and Abreadcrumb & Fish”
But when I watched, I was excited to see the Church setting the bar of excellence. Below you’ll find the two comparable music videos, the first done by artists you’ll find on MTV, and the second you’re more likely to find on GMC (not the car company).
This gives me hope for where the Church is going in its culture-creating capacity.
