CREATING CULTURE

Creating culture is what human beings do. Cultivation is what we have been called to do since the beginning: "The LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it" (Genesis 2:15, NASB). The Church of Christ cannot not be confined by the deforming norms of worldly culture. As a community of committed Christians each becoming conformed to the character of Christ Jesus by the renewal of the Holy Spirit, we can create culture anew through our loving fellowship with one another and our reasonable worship of God that motivates us to move beyond the cultural boundaries of Christian community and become witnesses of God's glory in the chaotic cultures of the world at large. Apologetics is the way we witness to how Logos overcomes Chaos, the Lordship of Jesus Christ wisely dominating the weakness of the flesh.

Let our Church be like the Garden of Eden where we can cultivate what God has planted there and graciously grows for our good (Amen to Pastor Nestor's comment regarding how not to "grow the church" through our own efforts). Let the Tree of Life sustain us in the Body and Blood of the One crucified on another tree. Let our knowledge of Good and Evil come from our wise obedience to the Desire of all cultures (Hosea 2:7) rather than be a consequence of desiring the wicked wisdom proposed in the deceitful scheming of the Ancient Enemy of God's people, "the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan." Let the culture of our community be good, pleasing and perfectly conformed to the will of God. Let us live in true hope that through the Spirit of Christ, we really can change the culture in which we live as we await the soon coming of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.