Andy Crouch On the Church Creating Culture

At Q, Andy Crouch of The Christian Vision Project discussed the history of how Christians have related to culture over the last century and how the church can better engage culture in the future.

100 Years of Church and Culture

He noted four different postures that Christians have taken with culture over the last 100 years.

1. Fundamentalists
   - Condemn culture
   - Withdraw from culture
   - The first generation after the church lost its cultural palette
2. Neo-Evangelicals
   - Critique culture (not in a negative way but exploratory)
   - Engaging culture through questions
   - Example: Francis Schaeffer 
3. Culture Copiers
   - Copy culture by putting Christian content into pop culture form
   - “If we copy, we are always a little behind.”
   - Served Christians but lacked true evangelism
   - Example: Larry Norman and the Jesus Movement 
4. Culture Consumers
   - Consumes and nothing else

Creating Culture

While there are occasions (gestures) when the church should condemn, critique, copy, or consume culture, Christians should be focused (postured) on cultivating and creating culture.

If you have a good posture, then you are able to gesture appropriately.

We see in Genesis 2 that God put man in a garden which needs cultivated, and He also made space for man by allowing man to become a co-creator and name the animals.

When we create, we are imitating God.

The Community of Culture

Creating culture is a community effort that usually develops as the following:

1. The Core - 2 to 5 people
2. The Committed - 12 people
3. The Community - 120 people

Ask yourself these four questions:

1. What am I cultivating?
2. What am I creating?
3. Who are my co-creators?
4. Where am I called to create?