Witnesses

What was it like to live through 2020? Someday that question will be asked just like some of us have asked about the Great Wars and the Great Depression. We will have lots of stories to tell. And our lives will tell a story too. We are all being changed by the patterns of this year.

The same is true of our life with God. When Jesus says we will be his witnesses (Acts 1:8), he means people will learn about him through our own story. With our lips, we tell of our relationship with him. And with our life, we show how we are being changed by the patterns of his kingdom.

“When they saw the boldness of Peter and John and found out that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were astonished and took note of the fact that these men had been with Jesus.”

— Acts 4:13

Can you see it?

All those side-by-side pictures on social media. How fast can you find what's different? For us who are "in the world but not of it", difference-seeing is an important skill.

What's of God's kingdom? And what's of the world?

Jesus shows us what God's kingdom is like (Parables, the Sermon on the Mount, the Great Commandment, the Great Commission, his own life). The Apostle Paul does too (1 Corinthians 13 and Galatians 5, for example). They draw the contrast so we will do the same in our own time and place. Can you see it?

Cultural Literacy and Fluency

In our more interconnected world, cultural literacy is a valuable asset. Cultural literacy is an awareness of cultural differences—an awareness that hopefully leads to more understanding, better collaboration, and greater influence. Cultural literacy is essential in areas like healthcare, education, and business.

Since cultural literacy is knowing about other cultures, a person can grow in culturally literacy from outside a culture. But to be fluent in a culture, that person must move inside. Cultural fluency is about becoming part of a culture in such a way that the culture no longer seems foreign or strange. It’s assimilation; adaptation to the deepest levels.

““The measure of Christian discipleship is Kingdom cultural fluency.”

This is a good metaphor for Christian discipleship. When we commit to follow Jesus—to be governed by him—we are transferred from the world’s system into his kingdom. We are adopted into his family. We become participants in a new culture. The measure of Christian discipleship is Kingdom cultural fluency. What is God’s kingdom like? Who am I? How am I supposed to live? How successfully am I living this way? How normal are the ways of the Kingdom becoming to me?

But as Kingdom citizens, we’re also left in the world’s system to represent Kingdom culture here. We’re called ambassadors. And to do that well, we must maintain a cultural literacy of the world’s system. What is the world like? What drives people? What are their (and our) struggles, needs, and passions?

The essential thing for Christians is that we know the difference between literacy and fluency—and that we are firmly convinced of which culture we’re to become fluent and of which one we’re to remain literate.