Here\u2019s a song I hate.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I can hear the footsteps of my King Wake up child I can hear a holy rumbling This is the anthem of our generation I am royalty <\/p>\n ~ The Anthem by Jesus Culture.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I hate it because I sang this song and responded at the altar to many songs like it all the way through my youth group years. I hate it because it told me I was going to change the world! (For Jesus of course) The last stanza in the song is what really gets me. (Perhaps It would be acceptable if just the I\u2019s were changed to \u201cwe\u2019s.) It raised in me an expectation of what Christian life and pastoral ministry was all about. Bringing tangible, measurable, and epic changes into our fallen world.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And then I accepted my first youth pastorate. With dreams of youth services with packed out gyms and an entire city of teenagers saved for Jesus Christ I walked in with lofty ambition. Reality sunk in pretty quick. I was an OK youth pastor. Some things I did were maybe pretty good, I guess, but overall I think I was just OK. And nowadays I\u2019m OK with that. I suppose this topic of, what it means to change the world, and should it even be our goal, is especially relevant to my generation (The Millenials), who really do believe they can change the world.[1]<\/a> Considering this context I am coming from, there were a few points that especially stuck out to me from James David Hunter\u2019s book, To Change The World<\/em>.[2]<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n How many times have we heard, \u201cthe government is not going to fix all our problems\u2026\u201d \u201cNew legislation is not going to fix all our problems\u2026\u201d \u201cmore gun laws are not going to fix all our problems\u2026\u201d It seems like after each major national crisis phrases like that are thrown around. Whether its terrorism, gang violence, increase of crime, unbiblical values becoming mainstream, a pastor will remind us on Sunday morning, \u201cit is only Jesus that can change a heart, and its only Jesus that can bring transformation to fix all these problems.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And so with this idealism many churches take a withdrawn stance and back out of the political issues. They do this under the guise of, \u201cJesus is really the only thing which will make a lasting impact anyway.\u201d And to be honest I pretty pretty much agree with these comments. Jesus is the only thing. But maybe, to Hunter\u2019s point, that\u2019s not enough for a church to keep bombarding their values into individuals hoping it turn will eventually turn the tide of the culture war.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Hunter\u2019s claim is that this Idealism is not enough. It\u2019s not enough to just stand there as \u2013 can I say? \u2013 a city on a hill. To see more visible and realistic change the church would need to take more of an active role in the mechanism that slowly shift culture over the decades. From art, legislation, business, there are all major pieces that affect a whole culture, and the church simply trying to show the restored transformed heart has not been incarnational enough.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n But at the same time, Hunter also says that any sort of \u201cLet\u2019s go change the world\u201d language has missed a lot of the point of true Christian Kingdom mentality. Hunter claims that the Kingdom can only extend from God and not our own effort. And therefor our only goal should really just to be to honor him more.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I certainly sense the Anabaptists flavor of theology in this book. To again compare to my tribe, the Pentecostals are a conquest minded, evangelistic bunch. Many pastors give the battle cry, \u201cWe must populate heaven and plunder hell.\u201d Greg Gilbert in a his review of the book paraphrases Hunter, \u201cThat\u2019s because these phrases imply conquest, take-over, and dominion, which, Hunter is right to say, is precisely not what God has called us as Christians to be about.\u201d[3]<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n I do see where Hunter is coming from though. I had never thought about the ambition to \u201cchange the world\u201d like this. But if the goal of Christianity is to bring about more justice or righteousness, then it makes Christianity simply a means to an end. Then Jesus & God is\u00a0the means to end, and the real goal is a better quality of living or a higher GDP. The end should simply be, knowing God and honoring Him.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I don\u2019t think inspiring people to change the world, is the wrong message. Simply we should clarify that \u201cWE\u201d, all of us with God, will be the change agent. And we should also clarify what exact change we are looking for, more honor and worship for God.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n
\nI can hear His heartbeat beckoning
\nIn my darkness He has set me free
\nAnd now I hear the Spirit calling me<\/p>\n
\nIt’s your time to shine
\nYou were born for such a time as this<\/p>\n
\nI’ve begun to preach another King
\nLoosing chains and breaking down the walls
\nI want to hear the Father when He calls<\/p>\n
\nHere we are God, shake our nation
\nAll we need is Your love
\nYou captivate me<\/p>\n
\nI have destiny
\nI have been set free
\nI’m gonna shape history<\/em><\/p>\n\n
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