Dear friends,
It’s time to get gardening! Culture gardening. Let me explain.
Consider the dominant metaphors for culture: melting pot, war zone or contest, stage, endlessly repeating cycle, or culture is likened to a house or a river. And while several of these have scriptural support, the primary metaphor God uses for culture throughout the Bible is actually, a garden.
Our view of culture – the way we see the culture – influences how we engage and relate to the people, technology and events of our day. So, if we see the world only as a battlefield, then culture is a war zone and we are culture warriors. There is truth to this— we are certainly Ambassadors of a foreign King and kingdom (2 Corinthians 5:20). But even in war, you have to eat.
So, here is my question: who is tending the garden of culture today?
This summer, I invite you to join me as a Culture Gardener. God has set us in the garden of this day and time. And this summer, through simple, weekly challenges, we will till and plant and cultivate good fruit right where we are.
Each week, I’ll post a new “Culture Gardner Challenge” on Facebook. To join in, make sure you are following:
Why culture gardening?
As Christians we receive the Great Commission from Jesus in Matthew 28, but the first commission and indeed the very first commandment of God to humanity as a whole is found in Genesis 1:26-28 and 2:15. First, God commands His people to “rule over the earth” as His delegated authority and image-bearers, as stewards of His creation. We are made in His image, that under His authority we might do His will in the way in which He would do it Himself. This mandate of God is in view as we hear Him issue the next command “to serve and keep the earth.” That’s humanity’s role and responsibility in the Garden of Eden and, I would argue, in the garden of the world today.
As His image-bearers and now as His stewards, we cultivate the garden of our particular culture in the spirit of the living God. The cultivation of the culture is worthy, worshipful, fruitful work.
God also has a clear expectation that we be gardens ourselves— people who are good soil, abiding in the Vine (John 15), producing good fruit in every season (Psalm 1) from roots to fruits!
In some seasons culture produces a harvest of unrighteousness, but in every season God expects His people to produce good fruit and sow peace, caring and tending to the field where He sets them to labor.
So, will you join the Culture Garden challenge?
This summer, each week, I will be posting a new Culture Gardener challenge on Facebook. This might look like preparing through prayer, planting seeds through conversations or service, watering parched ground through acts of generosity, weeding by doing the unseen tasks no one else wants to do. From Memorial Day to Labor Day, we’ll till the soil and see what kind of growth God gives.
To join, make sure you are following on Facebook, and start praying for eyes to see your street, your neighborhood, your little corner of culture as a garden, and your role as a God ordained culture gardener. Grab a family member, a friend or a whole Bible study group and do it together! Who knows what God might cultivate in, among and through us.
Carmen
