Engaging Culture as a Christian.
Hi guys, I’m back again and as you’ve already guessed, it’s our writing week.
Earlier this week, I had a conversation with some of my guys about how we approach certain topics and cultures and how our approach sometimes hinders people from receiving the message of Christ.
Engaging culture has always been a serious issue when it comes to evangelism. I’ve seen people go all the way out on both extremes either refusing to engage culture or engaging it the wrong way while a few remain balanced, holding on to the truth.
The thing with engaging culture is this, we cannot escape it. However, our inability to properly engage culture from a Christian standpoint has dealt severe blows to our attempts at evangelism. Most especially young people.
The way we’ve been taught to look at culture tells us that it is all bad if the person or people are not believers so we approach it with aggression and so much criticism. That is so far from the truth. If we look carefully around us, there are things here and there pointing unbelievers to God in one way or the other. Instead of totally condemning them, wouldn’t it be better if we showed them how much those things prove God’s goodness and salvation to be true?
You would want to say “good people do not make heaven, saved people do.” But isn’t that the more reason why we should consciously encourage that goodness and show them how that goodness is a deposit of God’s likeness in them.
An article I read said this “Instead of totally condemning them, wouldn’t it be better if we showed them how much those things prove God’s goodness and salvation to be true?”
So let’s go to Acts 17, from verse 16 where Paul finds himself in Athens while waiting for Silas and Timothy. Paul comes across these unbelievers who are intellectual and also religious and instead of fighting against that, he uses it as a link to introduce Jesus Christ to them.
We can say Paul understood the assignment. He wasn’t comfortable with the fact that the Athenians worshipped idols, but he also didn’t just come out to say “you’re all worshipping idols, you’ll die and go to hell and that’s it”. No, what did he do?
He engaged their culture, using it to bring the message of Christ. At the end of the day he was able to, by the help of the Holy Spirit, get people saved.
Do not get me wrong, no man can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit but that doesn’t mean Jesus has not called us to engage culture the right way and reconcile men and women to Him.
So how do we engage culture the right way?
I’m learning every day myself but from my meditation and study, I’ve been able to put down a couple of points.
- Be Respectful.
A lot of times, we believers can tend to be very dismissive of unbelievers for no other reason than the fact that they are unbelievers. I can assure you that God does not feel that way about them. Whenever we encounter unbelievers because we feel we know better, we tend to develop some sort of superiority complex and shut down whatever they try to say before the conversation even gets anywhere. We need to understand that some of these cultures are dear to the people we intend to reach out to and being rude and dismissive doesn’t help. I’ve heard people say “niceness is not a fruit of the Spirit” but kindness is. We need to learn to treat people’s beliefs with respect and intentionally find avenues to preach the love of God to them. Our intention must be to enlighten rather than to offend.
2. Build relationships.
Because everyone is busy these days, we tend to want to give drive-through gospels to people. Like, “I’m here right now, I know you’ve never seen me before but just know that Jesus is the way the truth and the life. Amen? Amen. Believe for your good. If you don’t, it’s on you. I’ve done my part”. I’ve realised that the major reason for this is the lack of compassion for people we are reaching out to. We want to do it just so it won’t be said that we did not. But to God, it’s way deeper than that. This is His lost child, He wants them reconciled with Him so we cannot be doing it just to fulfil all righteousness. Be intentional, sit with people, visit them, talk with them, feed them, clothe them, that too is evangelism. It’s easier to receive the gospel from someone who a rapport has already been established with than from a stranger.
3. Make the Message Relatable.
In other words, don’t get lost in the christianese that the people you are sharing the gospel with do not understand a thing you are saying. If you need to learn how to communicate with people, go ahead. Use relatable incidents and example to explain God’s love to them. While making it relatable, do not compromise the gospel sha. A good teacher is one who can pass on knowledge. Pray to God to give you the wisdom to be able to break His word down and make it relatable.
4. Choose Patience.
I noticed that I’d usually get frustrated trying to explain something from the scriptures to someone who wasn’t getting it. Sometimes, I would even get angry like “how can’t you understand this simple thing? The Bible says…” This was simply because I was used to being around Christian circles where I would point to something in the Bible and say “this is what the Bible says” and they would have to agree. After all, we all believed in the Bible. The case is entirely different with unbelievers. They will question some of the things you consider to be most basic for a believer and it can get frustrating trying to explain a “simple” thing over and over again. However, choose patience. It is a virtue, a very important one, especially when it comes to engaging unbelievers.
5. Pursue Understanding: Develop Cultural Literacy.
For some of us, all we know is the Bible and nothing else. While knowing God’s word is important, understanding the world around us is important as well. By understanding the world around us, we are able to seek out opportunities in which we will be able to evangelise to people. No matter the culture we want to engage in, we need to understand where they are coming from and be able to unravel the perversion or point out the missing piece. This will help us effectively teach the Word of God in a way that people can see for themselves how a culture is only complete in Jesus Christ. When you feel a burden in a certain field, read up. Read wide, read healthy. This way you’re prepared to have intelligent conversations whenever the opportunity presents itself and you don’t just blurt out okoto like many do online these days. Be wise, the Holy Spirit uses intellectual conversations too.
Last but definitely not the least is my favourite.
5. The Message is Greater than the Messenger.
I put this here specifically because in engaging culture, you will be tempted to take offence, to be proud, to think you’re always right because you’re a Christian, to be dismissive, to discompassionate, to be impatient, to be careless. But I want to remind you that engaging culture is one of the ways to fulfil God’s mandate, making disciples of all nations (Mathew 28:19–20).
God wants us to be intentional about winning souls. He wants us to take it very seriously and He hasn’t left us without help.
You can begin to take conscious steps today to engage culture in God’s name, teaching men and women God’s way. It can be at your office, your school, in your home, on the bus, with your Bolt driver, anywhere.
Take bold steps.
Learn and grow.
Make plans to evangelise in actions and in words.
Love genuinely.
Yours with Love,
