Finished a "fun" book of light reading Sunday, so I thought it was time to get into something a bit meatier.

I've had "The Church in Emerging Culture" for some time and haven't dug in yet.

There are 5 authors: Leonard Sweet, Andy Crouch, Michael Horton, Frederica Mathewes-Green, Brian McLaren, and Erwin Raphael McManus.

The book begins with Leonard Sweet, who happens to blow my mind. When he was in Fresno for the ZOE Conference, I would listen, and then have to stop and think about what he just said, which made me sometimes miss what he was saying next. He has a sarcastic tone, but generally, his thoughts are brilliant...in my opinion.

His chapter begins:

"It has been more than fifty years since the publication of H.Richard Niebur's classic text Christ and Culture (1951), which asked the question, What kinds of relationships does the church want with the culture?"

Sweet goes on to say that Niebur's book was "one of the most influential Christian books of the past century." He then says, "Niebuhr's words aren't the last on the subject. Five decades after Christ and Culture, we're still asking: Is the 'lived culture' of Christian faith shaped by criteria intrinsic to itself or in mutual exchange with the culture?"

So, fifty years ago the questions were the same as today. And, in the first century, the question was how to relate to the culture. Sweet goes on to say that the Christ of the Bible is the Christ of a culture. The ultimate act of communication in history, the Incarnation, means that Christ became a part of a culture and can't be understood apart from culture. You can't live in God without living in the world.

So, my question of the day is this...

How do you personally relate to the world? What tools do you have that catches the worlds attention? How do you, Christian people, develop healthy relationship with the world?

I have an answer for myself...but you'll have to tune in next time the read it. For now, I'm interested in your comments regarding your own life.

Blessings...