Final Part – Review of Culture Making by Andy Crouch
(Continued from Review – Part 3)
Crouch’s final insight I’ll comment on is about finding your calling – where you can have impact on the culture. He recounts Jesus parable of the 30, 60, 100 fold increase. This happens when divine grace is experienced. When you work and move in your calling, God’s grace should be evident so you should see remarkable effectiveness. Look for signs of this multiplicative effect among your tasks and interests – your call is likely nearby.
Crouch states your calling is at the intersection of grace and the cross. The flourishing of God’s grace, at times meeting difficulty and disappointment. In your calling, you will “fail upwards”. The difficulty will not bring utter defeat but a place for your calling to be established.
Concluding thoughts
Culture Making is a helpful book I can recommend. Andy Crouch has good insights into what makes a culture and is a fresh perspective that can shed light beyond the typical “culture war”, “cultural engagement” themes widespread in contemporary Christian writing. His book is popular with many of the “emerging church” community so I offer this recommendation with caution.
We must make culture and make it well, remaining engaged with the wide world in which we live. Crouch’s insights and encouragements are helpful but must be considered within the context of a life faithful to all that Christ commands, namely all of the scripture. The book’s usage of scripture are true and helpful, but not a complete vision for our vocation – how we should live and what we should make. Our creativity and calling are necessarily constrained by biblical order. Some may take Crouch’s encouragment to “make something” as license to head off directed primarily by the heart, rather than by the scripture. Examples I can think of:
Parents fulfilling bibilical commands are constrained from some creative works due to time commitment and nurturing roles. Biblical commands to provide food and clothing, care for elder parents, teaching children, etc. are non-negotiable biblical constraints. Any creative work must be done in addition to these, not in the place of. Spiritual leaders constrained by biblical church order and roles. All creative works must be examined and tested according to biblical commands. Approving works that flourish simply on that basis is unbiblical. Some things flourish for a while but washout, as seeds on the path in the sower’s parable. Many modern careers and jobs while seemingly creative, or helpful to modern lifestyles, are anti-biblical and must be rejected. Careers involving debt, insurance which oppresses the unwise, government which is unconstitutional and overreaches biblical jurisdiction, technology which dehumanizes and exalts the trivial, and so forth.
In everything, choose your path wisely, prayerfully – remaining free to repudiate all and change direction when you discover biblical order is violated.
See it at Amazon: Culture Making