Making Sense Making Sense of Cultureof Culture

Making Sense Making Sense of Cultureof Culture

Changing

Changing

1Understanding Culture:

The Starting Point*How God created each person

Gen. 1:26-27; Eccl. 3:11; Rom. 2:15

*How God designed mankindActs 17:24-28

1Understanding Culture:

The Starting Point• God created everything and everyone

• All humans have the same ‘father’

• God determines when and where we live

• God’s purpose in His design is that people would seek and hopefully find Him

2What is Culture?• Artifacts, institutions and conventions by which

people define, sustain and enrich their lives

• Our non-biological heritage

• A group’s attempt to provide meaning and structure to living

• The social “soup” we swim in

Local CultureLocal Culture

Family RelationshipsFamily Relationships Courtship * Authority * Time Courtship * Authority * Time Social Structure * CommerceSocial Structure * Commerce

Manners * WorkManners * Work

Obvious Culture

Clothing * Language * Food Celebrations * Stories * Music

Art

Foundational Culture(worldview)

God * Death * Purpose Morality * Nature * History

Cosmology

Obvious Obvious CultureCulture

Local CultureLocal Culture

Foundation Culture Foundation Culture (Worldview)

2What is Culture?

3Why Cultures Change• Time

• Internal Reasons– Poverty, prosperity, war– Social/spiritual transformation

• External Reasons– Collision with other cultures/ideas

4The Christian Perspective• Christ and Culture (Relationship)

– Christ Transcends Culture– Christ Trumps Culture– Christ Transforms Culture

• Christ and Culture (History)– Missions (Acts 14:8-20; 15:1-35)– Bible translation

4The Christian Perspective

• Christ-centered Education

– “. . . must emphasize the cost of discipleship, the absolute claim of God over our entire life, the necessity of a faith that issues forth in obedience, and our belonging to an alternative culture shaped by the kingdom of Jesus.”

5The Christian Response• Appreciate/Discern your own culture

• Appreciate/Discern other cultures

• God’s Purpose -> My Purpose– Common Grace– Saving Grace

Making Sense Making Sense of Cultureof Culture

Changing

Changing