A lesson from a culture gone wrong …

Why is the church so ineffective in influencing or changing our culture?

That question is the cause for a proliferation of new books by church leaders, and a leading focal point in their blogs and conferences. In spite of the fact many of today’s church leaders seem almost obsessed with the topic of culture, the church has been losing its influence within our culture rather than making significant gains.

Why?

Perhaps we could find some answers in scripture by contrasting our experience with the story of a different culture gone very wrong.

If you think the culture in America is bad, be grateful you don’t live in Ninevah during the days of Jonah. In the short Old Testament book of Jonah, we see a culture in this great city that’s gone so wrong God is preparing to destroy the entire city! But in the final outcome, the city was spared and a culture was dramatically impacted.

Here are three things we can learn from that story of a culture gone wrong:

IT’S PEOPLE, NOT CULTURE …
Some of today’s church leaders have lost sight of what is of primary importance to God: people, not culture. I’m not saying God isn’t concerned with culture. Wasn’t it a failed culture that brought about God’s judgment in Ninevah?

No.

It was the sin of the people.

Certainly, a city full of people steeped in sinful living creates a culture God would abhor. But it’s not the culture that is God’s primary focus; culture is the outcome of how individuals choose to live. God’s primary concern was the people who created the culture:

“The Lord gave this message to Jonah son of Amittai: ‘Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are,'” Jonah 1:1-2.

God didn’t say His judgment was coming because of how wicked the culture was, but how wicked the people were. That’s not an issue of semantics; God understood something today’s church leaders seem to be consistently missing.

A popular Christian writer who is influential within the church on the topic of culture argues that you change culture by creating more culture. By doing that, you’re simply adding to the existing failed culture. You change culture not simply by contributing to it and making more of it, but by changing the people who create the failed culture!

That’s why Jesus called us to make disciples rather than to make culture. Change will come to our culture more dramatically when those who contribute to our culture become disciples of Jesus Christ. Ironically, though, we fail at impacting our culture in this way by putting a focus on changing culture rather than primarily on making disciples.

Being focused on “culture” can cause us to put our primary concern on a nameless, faceless blob of humanity. It makes ministry impersonal specifically because it’s not oriented to the person but, rather, the collective outcome of personal behaviors.

AN UNALIGNED WILL …
God’s desire wasn’t to destroy the city of Ninevah, but to save the people in it by calling them to repentance. To accomplish that, He instructed Jonah to deliver His message to the Ninevites. But Jonah’s will wasn’t aligned with God’s, as is glaringly obvious in his response to God’s commission to him:

“But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the Lord. He went down to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket and went on board, hoping to escape from the Lord by sailing to Tarshish,” Jonah 1:3.

A city full of people stood in peril of perishing by God’s judgment against them because God’s servant wanted to go in a different direction.

Things haven’t changed much!

The Commission Jesus gives us is, “Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you …” Matthew 28:19-20a. Talk about a powerful way to impact culture! But is this Commission our focus? Or are we often going in a different direction?

A JUDGMENTAL HEART …
When Jonah finally got his act together and delivered God’s message to the people of Ninevah, they repented! In Jonah 3:10, we read this statement revealing the grace of God:

“When God saw what they had done and how they had put a stop to their evil ways, he changed his mind and did not carry out the destruction he had threatened.”

What an awesome picture of God’s love! Surely, as children of God, our great desire would be to see the lost repent and know the grace and love of God, right?

It’s wasn’t Jonah’s desire:

“This change of plans greatly upset Jonah, and he became very angry. So he complained to the Lord about it: ‘Didn’t I say before I left home that you would do this, Lord? That is why I ran away to Tarshish! I knew that you are a merciful and compassionate God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. You are eager to turn back from destroying people. Just kill me now, Lord! I’d rather be dead than alive if what I predicted will not happen,'” Jonah 4:1-3.

Jonah didn’t see the people of Ninevah the way God did. He certainly didn’t love them as God did. Instead, his heart was judgmental toward them. Even though the people repented and “… put a stop to their evil ways …” Jonah was angry that God changed His plans of destroying the city!

Things haven’t changed much!

We don’t love the people in our time the way God loves them. If we did, we would align our will to His and place a premium on reaching people rather than being distracted with culture.

Scotty