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IntersectionA Sunday Morning Community at The Church of
the Good Shepherd
March 23, 2014
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Things to know . . .www.cgsonline.org
Seeking shepherding group leaders and potential
shepherding group leaders – “spring training” series
Today is the deadline for officer nominations. Find
the form online at cgsonline.org
Teacher wish-list drop-off outside
sanctuary through 3/30.
Dinnersectionsupdate
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Pray for our people
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Last week in Intersection ...
• Culture broadly defined• Our potentially negative responses to culture
• Condemn• Critique• Consume• Copy
• Some more productive responses:• Cultivate & Create
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Today: Influencing and redeeming our culture
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First, let’s tackle a potential critique . . .
It seems the unique vision that God’s given so many church planters is almost identical. Phrases like “gospel-centered”, “missional”, and “cultural renewal” are littered throughout their proposals. It seems that the phrase “In the City. For the City.” or some variation of such has become church planting boilerplate.
Not only is the language the same, but so is the target group. It’s amazing how many young pastors feel that they are distinctly called to reach the upwardly-mobile, young, culture-shaping professionals and artists.
I have yet to assess a church planter who wants to move to a declining, smaller city and reach out to blue collar factory workers, mechanics, or construction crews. Not one with an evangelsitic strategy to go after the 50-something who’s been working at the same low-paying insurance firm for three decades now.
-Bill Streger, Uncool People Need Jesus Too
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What is the doctrine of “total depravity”?
Why then, have people (apparently untouched by the redemptive influence of the gospel) contributed so
much to human civilization?
Some theology
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Our responsibility within God’s creation
26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”27 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
Genesis Chapter 2
According to this passage, what role did God ordain for man within creation?
God hands Adam the responsibility to pick up where he has left off. We are called to reflect God’s image and to have dominion over all
things. To steward God’s good creation and all of its resources in the service of God and man.
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The doctrine of common grace
The grace of God by which he gives people innumerable blessings that
are not part of salvation.
God’s common grace prevents fallen human beings from doing all the wrong they could do. God also
restraints his wrath against sinful mankind.
Abraham Kuyper
This isn’t “saving grace” that changes our unregenerate nature, but this is the explanation of the presence of goodness in a fallen
world
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Back to culture-making, redeeming culture, etc.
• We can not live and work self-sufficiently within a sub-culture of other believers
• We need to appreciate God’s truth and wisdom wherever we find it and that studying different cultures, languages, artwork, and music expands not only our appreciation of the created world but also the God who made it.
• Common grace is therefore a thread that binds us together in our common humanity, as well as a powerful tool in evangelism. If the glory of God is indeed in all the earth as Scripture testifies, the mission of the people of God is to “name the glory”; to name the unknown-known god (Acts 17:23); to speak of the glory that has come down in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
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My volitional problem
30 He must become greater; I must become less.(John 3:30)
We need to accept the counterintuitive call to die to ourselves. We can only detach from the fruitless anxiety of our inner lives through the cross – the only way to find our life is to lose it.
“We find ourselves citizens of two kingdoms, the one earthly and the one heavenly. And each citizenship lays upon us duties which we are not at liberty to evade.
- John Stott (Basic Christianity)
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How do we cultivate and influence culture?
Church is one of the most unique channels of cultural influence. Few other institutions convene participants from some many areas of society. Although the work of culture creation may take place outside the physical walls of a church building, the local church creates a natural space where social networks of leaders, within alkl seven channels of culture, can work together toward a common goal. Nowhere else does this potential for synergy exist. Unlike other channels, the church is a living organism where God’s spirit constantly moves and seeks to expres Himself through a willing body. The call of the church and to all Christians of our time is to rediscover the cultural mandate, embracing the opportunity to influence culture.
We must become an integral piece of the local culture that serves the common good.
- Gabe Lyons
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If CGS were removed from the community today, would anyone notice?
Why or why not?
Some practical questions?
How does cultural influence actually happen? Is it “trickle-down culture” (impact key influencers and/or become an influencer)
grass-roots engagement, something else?
Where do you see common grace at work in our community?
