Culture Making

"It is not enough to condemn culture. Nor is it sufficient merely to critique culture or to copy culture. Most of the time, we just consume culture. But the only way to change culture is to create culture.

Andy Crouch unleashes a stirring manifesto calling Christians to be culture makers. For too long, Christians have had an insufficient view of culture and have waged misguided “culture wars.” But we must reclaim the cultural mandate to be the creative cultivators that God designed us to be. Culture is what we make of the world, both in creating cultural artifacts as well as in making sense of the world around us. By making chairs and omelets, languages and laws, we participate in the good work of culture making.

Crouch unpacks the complexities of how culture works and gives us tools for cultivating and creating culture. He navigates the dynamics of cultural change and probes the role and efficacy of our various cultural gestures and postures. Keen biblical exposition demonstrates that creating culture is central to the whole scriptural narrative, the ministry of Jesus and the call to the church. He guards against naive assumptions about “changing the world,” but points us to hopeful examples from church history and contemporary society of how culture is made and shaped. Ultimately, our culture making is done in partnership with God’s own making and transforming of culture. Read more here"

I'm reading this book over the next two weeks. So far, it has been very interesting. One of the most practical things I have been thinking about so far, is a statement in the book discussing the role of culture making within the family. In so many words, Crouch conveys that for better and worse, the family is a culture making epicenter. In thinking about our lives, and the fact we will be raising "3rd" culture children in a multi-cultural urban setting -- I am challenged to evaluate what are the non-negotiable cultural artifacts for our family. I'm sure I'll have more thoughts later.