Culture Shock

"Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ."
Acts 5:42

I've been thinking about our culture lately. The word 'culture' means: "A particular form or stage of civilization."* Here in the United States, we live in the modern American culture. We have grown accustomed to this culture. It is our way of life. With it, comes good and bad. We enjoy the freedom that our forefathers fought for and won. We enjoy living in one of the richest and most powerful nations in the world. Our culture has changed as it is defined more and more by corporate influences.
    I would like to propose an idea: What if we, the church, set out to change our culture? Let me give you two examples of organizations that have affected change in the American culture. The Disney conglomerate changed our culture in many ways. There are few little girls who don't have the desire to be a princess after the likes of Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Belle, or Rapunzel. Virtually every preteen in America knows about and has seen Hannah Montana. Disney literally changed the face of our culture, particularly for our youth. ESPN accomplished the same thing within the culture of sports. Sporting events that were never seen before, are now huge media events as ESPN and other sports networks have begun to cover them. ESPN affects change in virtually all facets of sports because of their in-depth reporting and analysis. What if the church caught the vision to do the same things?
    It seems to me that we have become comfortable coexisting with the world culture. Often , the church teaches us to coexist, rather than bring real change to our world. Many Christians have the mentality that we attend church in order to get fueled up to exist in a hostile world for the rest of our week. Some of us live defeated lives because of this idea. Cultural change is affected when revolution occurs. the United States was birthed out of such a revolution.Could the world culture really change if we, the empowered church, reached out and touched it?
    Let's become revolutionary. Rather than living underground Christian lives in a perceived hostile culture, let's bring change. Let the church rise up and become a culture changing influence rather than living within the godless culture of the world. The Book of Acts church did it. The known world was changed as 120 original church members were empowered by the Holy Spirit. Rather than being influenced by the world, let's influence the world! Jesus said that the world would know we are his disciples by our love for one another. The culture change we desire will not come with war, it will happen through the love of God being reflected by us. Let's take the challenge, let's change the world.

*Dictionary.com