{"id":916,"date":"2013-03-14T20:24:02","date_gmt":"2013-03-14T20:24:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beta.dminlgp.com\/what-are-you-shooting-at-charlie-brown\/"},"modified":"2013-03-14T20:24:02","modified_gmt":"2013-03-14T20:24:02","slug":"what-are-you-shooting-at-charlie-brown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/what-are-you-shooting-at-charlie-brown\/","title":{"rendered":"What Are You Shooting At, Charlie Brown?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Charlie Brown was shooting his new bow and arrow.\u00a0 Each time\u00a0<\/span>he shot it; he would run to the fence and draw a bull\u2019s eye around the arrow.\u00a0 Lucy saw what he was doing and informed him that he was not doing it correctly.\u00a0 His reply to her was, \u201cIt works.\u00a0 I always hit the target.\u201d \u00a0Too often, this is the story of the church as it attempts to carry out the Great Commission. \u00a0To defend its\u00a0ineffectiveness and inefficiency, she often argues that even if one person is converted, it is worth it. \u00a0The reality is that the\u00a0church has not, is not, and will not have much cultural influence unless it changes its ways. \u00a0This is the thesis of the book\u00a0To Change the World<\/u>\u00a0by James Davison Hunter and to the extent that I understand his thesis I agree. \u00a0He says “<\/span>that the dominant ways of thinking about culture and cultural change are flawed, for they are based on both specious social science and problematic theology. In brief, the model on which various strategies are based not only does not work, but it cannot work. On the basis of this working theory, Christians cannot \u201cchange the world\u201d in a way that they, even in their diversity, desire.” \u00a0Hunter proceeds by pointing out factors that are crucial to impact cultural change and that “Christians will not engage the culture effectively, much less hope to change it, without attention to the factors mentioned … .”<\/div>\n
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Christianity, in the attempt to change culture, has become like the culture it is trying to change. \u00a0This is a dynamic expressed in the book\u00a0Nation of Rebels<\/u>. \u00a0Our language has been co-opted and meaning has been dissolved, rendering an offensive using the weapons of values and beliefs weak at best. \u00a0Focusing only on individual life change apart from the institutions of culture and their leadership has reduced the church’s leverage to the margins of culture where potential change is weakest.<\/div>\n
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Hunter suggests the church must “disentangle the life and identity of the church from the life and identity of American society… . decouple the public from the political.” \u00a0He says the church must recapture its identity as the people of God under the reign of God living out life in community demonstrating Godly living with one another as well as with others. \u00a0<\/div>\n
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What stirred my emotions was the idea that the church cannot expand the Kingdom; that is the work of God. \u00a0The church can be an influence, but not apart from a healthy community. \u00a0If the community (church) is not healthy largely because it is too much like the world how can it have impact on the culture? \u00a0I found myself identifying more with the “pure from the world” position than with the “moving against” or “relevance to” postures that Hunter writes about. \u00a0By-in-large, the North American church is much more organization than organism. \u00a0It has morphed into the very form it rails against and even embraces the functions it despises. \u00a0Having reviewed many board room minutes, the dominating subjects are not spiritually inclined, and even the top down hierarchical administration functions like that of the world (Mk. 10:41ff).<\/div>\n
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I was especially stirred when thinking about the author’s encouragement that the church also be intentional about sending people into specific niches of society where influence has the potential to impact important institutions and leaders. \u00a0I thought it refreshing to read him say that unless the church does send out people into key social arenas it is not truly and completely fulfilling the Great Commission. \u00a0As the church sends people to these arenas they have the opportunity to engage the model he recommends, that of “faithful presence within.” \u00a0I find my self quite in agreement with him that by living a Kingdom life in the context of fallen society where the Christian’s first priority is glorifying and honoring God will have more impact than trying to change society through a utilitarian approach using God to effect the change.<\/div>\n
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I was challenged by this book and will keep it for future reference. \u00a0It encouraged me keep on facilitating a mentoring\/discipling model that is Christ-O-Centric and reproducible and is therefore, given to movement. This, coupled with intentional prayer and focus, could impact key individuals in key institutions. \u00a0Perhaps this is the way the church could begin shooting arrows that hit the mark!<\/div>\n
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Hunter, James Davison (2010-04-14). To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World (p. 92). Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition.\u00a0<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Charlie Brown was shooting his new bow and arrow.\u00a0 Each time\u00a0he shot it; he would run to the fence and draw a bull\u2019s eye around the arrow.\u00a0 Lucy saw what he was doing and informed him that he was not doing it correctly.\u00a0 His reply to her was, \u201cIt works.\u00a0 I always hit the target.\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2,5],"class_list":["post-916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dminlgp","tag-hunter","cohort-lgp3"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}