Final Part - Review of Culture Making by Andy Crouch

(Continued from Review - Part 3)
Crouch's final insight I'll comment on is about finding your calling - where you can have impact on the culture. He recounts Jesus parable of the 30, 60, 100 fold increase. This happens when divine grace is experienced. When you work and move in your calling, God's grace should be evident so you should see remarkable effectiveness. Look for signs of this multiplicative effect among your tasks and interests - your call is likely nearby.

Crouch states your calling is at the intersection of grace and the cross...[More]

Part 3 - Review of Culture Making by Andy Crouch

(Continued from Review - Part 2)
Another of Crouch's insights is the principle of "3-12-120". He argues that power is the ability to introduce a cultural good and that this inevitably starts with a small passionate team, you and a couple others.
Whether it's an entrepreneur with a wife and friend, CEO+CFO+COO, or the President, Chief of Staff, and a couple cabinet members, everything starts on the smallest level. From there a few others are needed to round out an idea or perform key roles - the 12. Then a wider community...[More]

Part 2 - Review of Culture Making by Andy Crouch

(Continued from Review - Part 1) The next section is a biblical survey of these aspects of creating and cultivating. Ending with the scene of the heavenly city in the book of Revelation, Crouch speculates that the city is furnished with human cultural goods - things humans have made. This is an insight I had never considered. The translucent gold "clear as glass" is not natural gold, but the work of a craftsman. The stones adorning the city are not raw minerals, but crafted jewels. The "kings of the earth shall bring their glory into it", which refers to human goods made through the ages. Crouch relates this to Isaiah 60 "the ships of Tarshish bring your children" and "the nations shall bring You their wealth". Crouch wonders if the ships of Tarshish might share the harbor with America's Cup champion yachts. Crouch's personal list of "the glory of the nations" includes music of Bach and Miles Davis, green-tea creme brulee, fish tacos, Homer's Odyssey, the iPod and Mini Cooper automobile.

Perhaps Crouch is right in that some human goods will persevere for eternity. Our works will be tested by fire and those done for God's glory will last, while others will be consumed. It's interesting to consider what may stand the fire as a way to determine what goods are truly helpful and glorious now. The iPod enables me to hear glorious music or biblical texts. But it also cuts me off from sounds in nature and isolates me from my neighbor - who will start a conversation with someone with plugged ears? The Mini Cooper may be a fine car, but do cars themselves glorify God? They enable us to go a long way in a short time - but is that something God wants us to do? Should we be more willing to stay home and stay in our local neighborhood so we know our neighbors? If we stayed on our block more, we'd be forced to know our neighbor, depend on each other, and may even learn to love one another. Isn't this the biblical command?

So I don't doubt that some human goods will persist in the New Jerusalem, but my sense is it will be a fairly small pile. When the angels are crying "Holy, Holy, Holy", will anyone really step away from that to plug their ears with Miles Davis on the iPod? I hope not. But will we and the angels join together in Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus"? I hope so.

to be continued in part 3...

See it at Amazon: Culture Making

Part 1 - Review of Culture Making by Andy Crouch

After hearing an interview with Andy Crouch on Mars Hill Audio, I found the book in our local library. The book is a helpful description of what culture is and how one makes an impact. Many of the ideas in the book come up from time to time on the Mars Hill Audio Journal, so the book did not have the groundbreaking impact on me that it may have on a general audience.

Crouch defines culture as not just pop culture nor the current prevailing mood, but as primarily something we make. It is a collection of human works. Much in the book is helpful but rather than provide a complete synopsis, I'll focus on the several ideas that were new to me....

Interesting study I had not seen before, mentioned in Maggie Jackson's book Distracted

[In a short video] Six people, three in light clothes, three in dark, weave around and pass two basketballs, white clothes to white clothes and dark to dark. In the middle of the video a woman in a gorilla suit walks calmly through the group, stops briefly to pound her chest — although not in a very noticeable way — and then continues walking out of the video frame.

Researchers asked groups of people to watch the short video, 25 seconds of the “opaque gorilla” original, and are told to count the number of times the white team passes the basketball back and forth to one another. Afterward, they are asked if they saw the gorilla. Only 18 percent of the people drinking alcohol noticed the gorilla...But what caught my eye was that only 46 percent of the sober people saw the gorilla.

More on the study here: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/11/science/11side.htm

And here's the video itself: http://viscog.beckman.illinois.edu/flashmovie/15.php

2Corinthians 4:6 For God, who said, "Light shall shine out of darkness," is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

2Timothy 1:9-10 [God] has saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity, but now has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel,

Has God's light shined in your heart? Jonathan Edwards gives the best description I've seen of the effects of that light. Test your heart and see if you are in the faith. I lived many years acknowledging that Jesus was Lord and agreeing with church creeds, but this sense of pleasure and delight in the excellency of God did not occur until much later. This is the heart-sense we need to unveil before our children. And we must pray for God's light, it is a gift we cannot strive toward.

from A Divine and Supernatural Light by Jonathan Edwards

[The] spiritual and divine light ... may be thus described: A true sense of the divine excellency of the things revealed in the word of God, and a conviction of the truth and reality of them thence arising. This spiritual light primarily consists in the former of these, viz. a real sense and apprehension of the divine excellency of things revealed in the word of God. A spiritual and saving conviction of the truth and reality of these things, arises from such a sight of their divine excellency and glory; so that this conviction of their truth is an effect and natural consequence of this sight of their divine glory. There is therefore in the spiritual light,

1. A true sense of the divine and superlative excellency of the things of religion; a real sense of the excellency of God and Jesus Christ, and of the work of redemption, and the ways and works of God revealed in the gospel. There is a divine and superlative glory in these things; an excellency that is of a vastly higher kind, and more sublime nature, than in other things; a glory greatly distinguishing them from all that is earthly and temporal. He that is spiritually enlightened truly apprehends and sees it, or has a sense of it. He does not merely rationally believe that God is glorious, but he has a sense of the gloriousness of God in his heart. There is not only a rational belief that God is holy, and that holiness is a good thing, but there is a sense of the loveliness of God’s holiness. There is not only a speculatively judging that God is gracious, but a sense how amiable God is on account of the beauty of this divine attribute.

There is a twofold knowledge of good of which God has made the mind of man capable. The first, that which is merely notional; as when a person only speculatively judges that any thing is, which, by the agreement of mankind, is called good or excellent, viz. that which is most to general advantage, and between which and a reward there is a suitableness,—and the like. And the other thing is, that which consists in the sense of the heart; as when the heart is sensible of pleasure and delight in the presence of the idea of it. In the former is exercised merely the speculative faculty, or the understanding, in distinction from the will or the disposition of the soul. In the latter, the will, or inclination, or heart are mainly concerned.

Thus there is a difference between having an opinion, that God is holy and gracious, and having a sense of the loveliness and beauty of that holiness and grace. There is a difference between having a rational judgment that honey is sweet, and having a sense of its sweetness. A man may have the former that knows not how honey tastes; but a man cannot have the latter unless he has an idea of the taste of honey in his mind. So there is a difference between believing that a person is beautiful, and having a sense of his beauty. The former may be obtained by hearsay, but the latter only by seeing the countenance. When the heart is sensible of the beauty and amiableness of a thing, it necessarily feels pleasure in the apprehension. It is implied in a person’s being heartily sensible of the loveliness of a thing, that the idea of it is pleasant to his soul; which is a far different thing from having a rational opinion that it is excellent.

G.K. Chesterton says it so well:
"Living in a world that worships swiftness and success no longer means living in a world of new things.  Rather it means living in a world of old things; of things that very swiftly grow old.  The actual sensation of novelty lasts for a much shorter time than it does in a world where there are fewer sensations."  Illustrated London News, August 3, 1935

Evidence of this in our day are the stuffed closets, attics, and garages - overflowing into rental storage units that pervade our cities.  All full of things that were once new and treasured, now broken and abandoned as our cast off surplus.  Too busy to enjoy a few simple necessities, we rush to acquire, clean, preserve, sort and store our vast hoards that we really don't treasure.  For if they were treasure, it would be enough.  We'd stop the rush to acquire, clean, sort, and store.  We would enjoy.  We live among old, broken things that smother our capacity to truly savor authentic, lasting treasure.

Mr. Chesterton said it well, but Christ says it even better:
"Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."
Matthew 6:20-21

Treasure the ancient truth of God, which is new every morning...

I've always appreciated Rick Saenz's perspective. I'm catching up on some of this blog posts and really enjoyed his series "The Lost Tools of Living". This is a clear, thoughtful examination of a "simple" agrarian life. Not an easy life, but life well lived. I recommend this especially to young men pondering their life's calling. Here's a link to the first of the series. At the top of the article, there's a link to the next, with about 5 total in the series:

Lost Tools of Living by Rick Saenz

There are about a dozen verses in the Bible that refer to coming before God in "fear and trembling".  Most seem to refer to a discomfort in God's presence.  We generally categorize "fear" as a negative emotion.  "Trembling" seems to amplify the fear even further.  But then there's this verse... [Read on]

One helpful feature common to websites is the ability to specify one or more topics or categories an items fits in....I struggle to "tag" various items since most seem to fit in a dozen or more categories.  And it's not because the items are very broad in scope.  It's because all of life is connected and all areas touch all other areas.  One could say "every good path" crosses "every other path" to stay with the theme of this site....