Every Christian today feels like an outsider in their own culture, and most don’t like it. To resolve that tension, they are tempted to conform to the culture, combat the culture, or cloister themselves from it. But what if we aren’t supposed to resolve the tension but live in it? What if Jesus wants us to be joyful outsiders and engage the culture?
Most Christians assume they feel like outsiders because the culture is rapidly changing. It feels like overnight the culture went from “Christian” to “post-Christian” to “anti-Christian”. But this reasoning ignores an important truth: Christians have always been outsiders. We worship a king who was an outsider! The author of Hebrews wrote, “So Jesus also suffered outside the gate to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore, let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured.”
You’re called to be an outsider because you’re called to be like Jesus.
But how should Christians engage the culture as joyful outsiders? We settle too easily for one-size-fits-all answers. But the Bible and Christian history do not. They give us many ways. Consider the way three well-known Christians from history engaged their culture. Dietrich Bonhoeffer founded an underground seminary and joined a failed assassination plot against Adolph Hitler. Martin Luther King Jr. led a nonviolent movement protesting racial discrimination. Saint Teresa cared for the least of these by founding orphanages, hospices, and leprosariums.
These three believers had very different emphases and yet each could appeal to the Bible to support their approach to representing Jesus in a hostile culture. Who is right? One of them? All of them? None of them?
The question becomes even more complex when we consider the biblical outsiders. Daniel advised pagan kings. Esther outmaneuvered a pagan king. Nehemiah built a wall to keep Samaritans out. Jesus spilled his blood to tear down the dividing wall between Jews and Samaritans. Our cultural engagement must be faithful to the entire biblical witness. We need Bonhoeffer and King, Daniel and Esther, Nehemiah and Jesus.
In Joyful Outsiders, we explore six biblical ways God calls individual Christians to engage the culture. The Ambassador changes the world by sharing the gospel. The Trainer changes the world by changing people’s habits. The Advisor changes the world by influencing the influential. The Protester changes the world by challenging injustice. The Builder changes the world by building institutions. The Artist changes the world by creating beauty.
Just as each Christian has different gifts and yet is a part of the body of Christ, so each Christian must find the way God is calling them to engage the culture while respecting other Christians who engage differently yet biblically. We need to encourage one another not judge those with a different calling. To that end, we’ve created an online assessment everyday Christians can take to identify which way best fits them.
If we want to be a light on a hill, leaders must equip people in their churches for their culture-changing calling and transform fearful outsiders to joyful outsiders. Joyful Outsiders will help them stop conforming, combatting, and cloistering and begin instead to engage and influence their culture. Together, we can change the church into a Christ-centered culture changer.