![\"image\"](\"http:\/\/media.tumblr.com\/56a075ec82c7961138e6a439a418c8b9\/tumblr_inline_mjnx8cQqkM1qz4rgp.jpg\")
<\/p>\nWelcome to the city of brotherly love! These were the first words I heard this past weekend after pulling up to the curb at our Center City Philadelphia hotel.\u00a0 Never have I experienced such service.\u00a0 Being our 16th wedding anniversary, we decided to splurge a little and stay at a hotel which is usually beyond our means of living. After hopping out of the car our setting began to take shape.\u00a0 Within a two block visual we could see amazing architecture sitting beside condemned buildings, profound wealth living among extreme poverty and opulence residing beside those who were homeless.\u00a0 The contrast was striking.\u00a0 For our time in Philadelphia, Naomi and I wanted to celebrate 16 years by getting some well needed rest, taking in some good Philly food “cheese-steaks”, see some historical sights and partake in a faith community named Liberti, which a good friend planted four years ago in the Center City area of Philadelphia.\u00a0 As I stood checking out my surroundings, I quickly realized that the church sitting next to our hotel, was Liberti.\u00a0 In the middle of all which is Philadelphia, the good and the bad, it simply
sat being present.\u00a0 Here is a picture from the spot I was standing.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This past week while reading “To Change The World” by James Davision Hunter I was struck by the three political wine skins which formed intricate models of cultural engagement within modernity.\u00a0 While studying these forms, I to recognize their current widespread use in family, society and the church.\u00a0 It was evident these old wine skins or better yet forms are largely ineffective in reaching a 2013 community with the message of Christ.\u00a0 After having read a portion of the book this past Sunday, my wife an I walked across the street to attend a service at Liberti.\u00a0 As the service began, a Pastor from the leadership team began to express Liberti’s heart for the city, their vision for embodying renewal and restoration to all and the desire to extend this formation to all of life and creation.\u00a0 While participating in the liturgy, my mind began to evaluate the following cultural structures in relationship to what I was experiencing.<\/p>\n
Political Theologies of Cultural Engagement<\/strong><\/p>\n Defensive Against…<\/strong> This theology hits a little close to home.\u00a0 Having been raised in a fundamentalist heritage, the arguments for this position are somewhat cemented into my head.\u00a0 Over the years and through my movement away from fundamentalism I began to think of this model as a “cactus”<\/strong>.\u00a0 Cactus are kind of cool to look at, but every time you go to touch one they strike you.\u00a0 It’s not that they don’t have anything good to say, but due to their defensive nature, it creates an us verses them mentality against culture.\u00a0 Therefore the only reason to have a conversation with someone immersed in culture is to change them.\u00a0 Thus having a motive or agenda.\u00a0 “Defensive against” never sees the image of God in an individual and compassion is usually a foreign term.<\/p>\n Relevance To…<\/strong> A few years back I was able to attend a well know conference focused on the gap between mainstream culture and the church.\u00a0 By the end of the conference many church teams attending concluded that they needed to create environments which modeled exactly what is experienced in mainstream culture.\u00a0 At the center of many conversations was the idea that the church needs to become more like Disney World.\u00a0 Customer service, dimmed lighting, production, smoke machines and louder music were all keys to capturing people outside the church with the message of the gospel.\u00a0 Similar to Walmart, one key leader at the event made the statement, “The customer is always right!”\u00a0 If there is anything I have learned, after 12 years of pastoring and 8 more years of shepherding and teaching college students, thecustomer “parishioner or student” is not always right.\u00a0 In fact, it is our given responsibility at times to tell them they are flat out wrong.<\/p>\n Purity From…<\/strong> Very similar to “defensive against” in the respect that this group is often set apart. However, different in the fact that they believe they are standing for holding onto the purity of Gospel and its truths from 2000 years ago. Just down the road from our house is a significant size church well know in our area here in Central Pa. They are committed to teaching, academics and preserving the truths of Christianity.\u00a0 Those who attend this church are really good at Bible trivia. Seriously, don’t get caught in a game with one of them!\u00a0 They also believe the world is not going to change and that there really is not a whole lot that can be done to change culture, society or others. Though they know great amounts, I never see them engaged with their neighbors, community or city.<\/p>\n The Church as Culture and Community – A New Way<\/strong><\/p>\n Presence Within…<\/strong> As I sat looking around the community worshiping together at Liberti, I noticed all walks of life.\u00a0 Young families with children, business men in suits, homeless people off the street, a massive lineman from the Philadelphia Eagles, people in jeans, beggars in rags and a spirit of love.\u00a0 Throughout the service, people were invited into the sacraments, the liturgy and to simply be present with God. No flash, no lighting, no over the top worship team… just simplicity<\/strong>, presence, community, scripture and communion.\u00a0 The time ended with a statement, Liberti exists for the renewal and restoration of the City to Christ.<\/p>\n What does the balance of living “Presence Within” look like?\u00a0 A few weeks ago I came across a video of Penn from Penn and Teller speaking about a man who gave him a Bible.\u00a0 Now understand, Penn is an atheist and has taken many occasions to speak of the ignorance of many who follow Christ.\u00a0 As you watch, remember the “Defensive Against” would argue with Penn, trying to convince.\u00a0 The “Relevance To” would compliment his show and friend him on Facebook.\u00a0 The “Purity From” would not be at the show or at least would go and then not tell anyone they had been present.\u00a0 But what would “Presence Within”<\/strong> look like?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Which political theology do you live by in your faith?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Welcome to the city of brotherly love! These were the first words I heard this past weekend after pulling up to the curb at our Center City Philadelphia hotel.\u00a0 Never have I experienced such service.\u00a0 Being our 16th wedding anniversary, we decided to splurge a little and stay at a hotel which is usually beyond […]<\/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-919","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\/919","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=919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}