Making Sense of Culture

1. Making Sense of Culture

3. Changing Making Sense of Culture

5. 1Understanding Culture: The Starting Point *How God created each person Gen. 1:26-27; Eccl. 3:11; Rom. 2:15 *How God designed mankind Acts 17:24-28

6. 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

7. 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

9. Local Culture Family Relationships Courtship * Authority * Time Social Structure * Commerce Manners * Work Obvious Culture Clothing * Language * Food Celebrations * Stories * Music Art

10. Foundational Culture (worldview) God * Death * Purpose Morality * Nature * History Cosmology

11. 2What is Culture? Obvious Culture Local Culture Foundation Culture (Worldview)

12. 3Why Cultures Change • Time • Internal Reasons • Poverty, prosperity, war • Social/spiritual transformation • External Reasons • Collision with other cultures/ideas

14. 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

15. 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.”

16. 5The Christian Response • Appreciate/Discern your own culture • Appreciate/Discern other cultures • God’s Purpose -> My Purpose • Common Grace • Saving Grace

17. Changing Making Sense of Culture