Creating Followers

Here’s something I’ve been thinking about for quite sometime. Why does it seem that the Christian community is on the trailing edge of creativity? Or, to put it another way, why is the church taking its cues from popular culture?

It seems that in the desire to be all things to all people, we have stepped back to see what the world will do, then try to emulate the mainstream pop culture in an effort to be relevant. The flaw, in my opinion, is that it belies who we are as christians, who we are in Christ and most importantly, that Christ is in us. Is it not the God of and the Creator of the universe that has taken up residence within us? The Spirit of God who is able to create something from nothing is supposed to be our driving force, is it not? Then, if we agree this is true, why would we wait and see what trends the world will follow, and then follow the world? Shouldn’t following Christ, or if you prefer, being led by the Spirit, lead us to the cutting edge of creativity?

I, for one, thank it should. Especially in the engagement of the culture, whether through the arts, or evangelism or what ever we do, we should be the most creative subculture within our society. I pray you are challenged, as I have been, to lean wholly on the Lord and not on our own understanding when seeking to reach into the mission field that surrounds us.