Join us June 21st through August 30th in our sermon series in the book of Mark titled “Question Marks: How Jesus’ Answers Question Our Culture”

 

Generally speaking, our own culture is something we identify with and identify ourselves by so much that we mostly do not even realize its influence on our lives. We do not think of our own culture as something separate from ourselves because we are born in it, raised in it, and living in it. In many ways, our culture often defines the values and priorities by which we see and interpret the world. Our culture is often the basis on which we answer the questions outsiders confronts us with, as well as the basis on which we question the answers outsiders propose to us. This means that rarely do we see our culture as something that is itself to be questioned, for in many ways to question our own culture is to question our own reality and identity. However, once we become followers of Jesus Christ, we begin to look to him to define what is real (Reality), who we are (Identity), where we belong (Community), how we live (Morality), and where we are going (Destiny). As a result, the answers that we find in Jesus not only define our sense of reality, identity, community, morality, and destiny, but they also question the way our culture defines these things. By implication, one of the fruits of being transformed by Jesus is that we become reformers of culture. Instead of merely being victims or exploiters of culture, Jesus leaves us within culture to make culture more an expression of him living with us than an expression of us living without him. In this series, we will explore how Jesus’ message questions our cultural assumptions and how we can reform our culture to reflect his presence with us.