Culture

Leadership Interview with Mark Dever

Evangelical Christians and Modern America

By M. Dever, O. Guinness | 04.08.2010

Os Guinness explores doubt, evil, modernity, the new atheism, evangelical obsession with the present, and more.

Book Review: Family Driven Faith, by Voddie Baucham

Review by Michael Lawrence | 9Marks Journal: Family & Parenting | 04.02.2010

Baucham has done a service to the church by calling us back from a wrong-headed trust in programs and professionals.

Book Review: God’s Potters: Pastoral Leadership and the Shaping of Congregations, by Jackson W. Carroll

Review by Jonathan Leeman | 03.31.2010

How then should we measure excellence in ministers and churches? We should measure them entirely according to whether they are faithful to living by and proclaiming God’s Word.

The Bible promises that God will transform human culture in the end. Doesn’t that mean we should be engaged in that work now?

9Marks

No. Just because God is doing something doesn’t mean we should or are able to do it.

Does the Bible call the local church to the work of cultural transformation?

9Marks

The short answer is no. The slightly longer answer is that the church is called to the work of cultural transformation only insofar as the church is called to help people grow as disciples of Christ in every facet of their lives.

What is the cultural mandate? Who is it given to?

9Marks
The cultural mandate is the command to exercise dominion over the earth, subdue it, and develop its latent potential (Gen. 1:26-28; cf. Gen 2:15). God calls all humans, as those made in his image, to fill the earth with his glory through creating what we commonly call culture. The cultural mandate is given to all people. In Genesis 1:26-28, it’s given to Adam and Eve as the only people and as representatives of all humanity. In Genesis 9:1 it’s given to Noah as the representative of all humanity.

Does the Bible lead us to expect that Christians will be able to transform society?

9Marks

In order to answer that question we need to put a few biblical and theological pieces into their proper place:

What are some key components in a biblical perspective on culture?

9Marks
God is Lord of the entire universe. As Abraham Kuyper put it, “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, ‘Mine!’”* This means that all humans are accountable to God for all of their actions, including the most mundane or seemingly unspiritual.

How should Christians relate to the culture around them?

9Marks
Jesus prayed that his followers would be in the world but not of the world (Jn. 17:11, 14-15). Therefore, all of Christian cultural engagement should be pervaded with a sense that our citizenship is in heaven, our hope is in heaven, and our affections are fixed on heaven (Phil. 3:20-21; Col. 3:1-3). We’re not of the world, so we should not share its values and hopes and goals.

How can local churches work toward racial harmony?

9Marks
Know the history of the problem. In order to understand present racial tensions, one must know something about the history of race relations in one’s context, the history of the church’s involvement in racial oppression, and the particular historical experiences of different minority groups.

Should pastors try to be cool?

9Marks

Many people assume that the best way to reach people is to be like them. So, if pastors want to reach cool people, they should try to be cool. But there are several problems with the idea that pastors should try to be cool:

How important is it for pastors to follow the latest bands and movies in order keep up with culture?

9Marks

Not very.

Book Review: Why Men Hate Going to Church, by David Murrow

Review by Jamie Dunlop | 9Marks Journal: Biblical Theology | 03.06.2010

Churches have shifted toward a style that is comfortable for the stereotypical woman—at the expense of the stereotypical man.

Book Review: Manly Dominion: In a Passive-Purple-Four-Ball World, by Mark Chanski

Review by Owen Strachan | 9Marks Journal: Biblical Theology | 03.06.2010

This book is superb. It will train the godly men of today to raise the godly men of tomorrow.

Book Review: Preaching Parables to Postmoderns, by Brian Stiller

Review by Carl Trueman | 9Marks Journal: Preaching | 03.05.2010

In the end, I was perplexed by the book. There was plenty of thought-provoking material, but there was also a rather contrived view of postmodernism.

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