Across Church Street
People like us do things like this
Our work is to discover who we are in Christ and to become students of a culture defined by Christ.
Seth Godin is an insightful entrepreneur, marketer, author, and speaker. Seth teaches an approach to marketing that's based on psychographics rather than demographics. To explain this term psychographics, he uses the statement "People like us do things like this."
It's a simple sentence that addresses identity (People like us) and culture (do things like this).
This little statement reminds me that when we come to Christ, we're given a new identity and we're brought into a new culture. Our job, then, is to discover who we are in Christ and to become students of a culture defined by Christ.
Let's read the New Testament with this lens and ask Jesus, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter, Paul, James, and Jude to be our guides. Let them tell us who we are. And let them show us what the Kingdom is like. Then, more and more, our words and our works will show others that people like us do things like this.
Going Native
The four stages of cultural adjustment can apply to the Kingdom too.
“One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.”
There are occasions in life when we move into a new culture. Maybe when we enter a profession or change companies, join the military, or change churches. Missionaries experience this acutely.
Everything is different. Maybe a little different; maybe a lot. Language (or jargon), rules, methods, priorities, attitudes toward time, money, orderliness, and hospitality—all different.
Adapting to a new culture comes in four phases:
Excitement and adventure
Frustration and irritation
Gradual adjustment
Acceptance. Feeling at home.
When we surrender our life to Christ, we are transferred from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of God's Son. The domain of darkness has a culture and Christ's kingdom has a very different culture. How fully will we adapt?
Adapting to a new culture involves observation and study, immersion, imitation, making mistakes, asking for help. It requires effort, determination, persistence, and hope.
But we all know people who never do adapt. They give up somewhere—and cling to their familiar old culture. They never adjust. They never feel quite at home.
- love
- Holy Spirit
- humility
- church
- poverty & mercy
- politics & society
- mission & witness
- holiness
- parable & metaphor
- identity
- eternal life
- doubt & deconstruction
- leadership
- grace
- justice
- scripture
- spiritual life
- advent & christmas
- imagination & creativity
- technology & AI
- knowing God
- human dignity
- faith & trust
- incarnation & cross
- kingdom of God
- community
- reconciliation
- spiritual formation
- epistemology
- prayer
- gratitude
- culture
- creation & nature
- discipleship
I practice the spiritual discipline of rescuing earthworms on paved surfaces. It's a reminder to me that I can pause what I'm doing, get a little dirty, and help. Also, that I've been given the responsibility to care.