Covenant Transformation: Family, Culture, and Community

1. Wednesday March 11, 2015“Redeeming our Cultural Idolatries through the Covenant”

2. We must begin with God, renewing our covenant with Him and embracing His Covenant with us in all its fullness

3. Having loved God, we necessarily (but not automatically) must love/covenant with our neighbor

4. The Covenant transforms us thru love, in every dimension of our being:HeartSoulMind Body

5. Our family is the human model of God’s love/CovenantIn the family we live our lives, and propagate ourselves, inculcating our culture in the next generation

6. Marriage produces children created in God’s image But our children are created also “in OUR image, after OUR likeness” (Gen 5:3 )They carry not only our substance but also our spiritual baggage

7. Also, children are focused observers and inveterate, skillfull emulators: they will replicate the words, postures and gestures and also the attitudes and values manifested by the conduct (not just the words) of their elders

8. Our duty to bring up our children, “in the fear and admonition of the Lord” and to “train them in the way that they should go” begins at birth (not just when they become verbal)

9. Marriage is the most effective model of the CovenantThe family is the best transmitter of cultureMarriage and family are the best conveyers of a Covenant Cultureto the next generations

10. And just as the unrighteous spiritual legacy of the enemies of God is passed on to the next generations, the blessing of the Covenant is also applicable to the generations of the righteous

11. When several families commit to help each other to walk as “covenant families” they can powerfully influence and model it for others, creating a church culture of covenant(Home schooling and Christian school families naturally tend to do this)

12. The church is the site where a new mini-culture of families that walk together and influence their children is established. There it is nurtured and anchored in the Word of God and endorsed authoritatively as Biblically sound.

13. The church, through its multi-dimentional social scope has the capactity to both form the actors of the new culture and to reach the members of the elites who are the ones to whom God gives the mechanisms that influence culture.

14. The family and the church together can exert a powerful influence upon the upbringing and the adult choices of individuals and thus influence whole communities

15. An intentional, strategic focus on reaching leaders offers the best hope for transforming whole communities

16. Those who God has placed in positions of influence (the “elites”) have access to the levers of cultureThey can be used to model and propagate a covenant culture, resulting ultimately in a cultural transformation

17. To achieve cultural transformation:Inspire and equip Christians for positions of influence through service (leadership) Intentionally target leaders and future leaders at universities to disciple them unto Christ

18. Our Latin American hope