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10 Habits of Fearless & Faithful Families

We’ve come near the end of a great Sunday series called Fearless Families: 10 Habits of Christian Parents, Grandparents, and Children

Here is the list of 10 Habits and our key texts for each one.

God Always Provides

New Memory Verse

August Pantry

Today was August food distribution day for our Food Pantry. Nearly fifty bags of groceries were provided by our team of servants who have been doing this faithfully for more than twenty-five years. Thank you to the team and to those that came to help alongside them. We invite each person receiving food to also be filled with the grace of God and invite them often into our fellowship for worship on Sundays and for other events.

Thanks for great summer!

Great Lock-in!

August Gathering

The August Gathering will be Wednesday, August 3, at 6:30 pm and will be hosted by the Garnett Student Ministry. We will be sharing photos and stories from our mission trip to Denver, Colorado, and from our 10th year of High Point Ranch. We invite everybody to come and learn what your Student Ministry has been doing this summer and how truly blessed we are to have the kids that we do. We’ll eat some cool creations from camp food by Chef Roy at 7:30 after the Gathering! Come hungry.

Habit 8 Notes

Some requested notes from Sunday, July 31 Habit 8 in the Fearless Families sermon series. Here are the two things I listed. At one point I tripped up and did not clearly indicate number 4 on the Christ and Culture list.

When I was a kid I remember a little ditty on Saturday morning cartoons, (sing) “Fashion Plates!” . . . little mix and match doll fashion clothes.

I don’t know exactly how it came to be used, but someone who is a “fashion plate” is a perfect model of fashion.

What I want to suggest is that we can either be “culture plates” or “Jesus plates” . . . we can be conformed to the pattern of this world or the pattern of Christ. Culture is this mix and match of ideas, art, music, business, church, government that is available to us in various forms, and interacting as Christians can be complicated.

Christians through the ages have tried to mix and match culture and Jesus plates in five major ways.

Fifty years ago H. Richard Niebuhr wrote one of the most influential Christian books of the 20th century, Christ and Culture, in which he explains these five ways Christians have mixed and matched Christ and Culture.

1. Christ against culture. Christians in this mode see the world outside the church as hopelessly corrupted by sin. God calls Christians to “come out from among them and be ye separate” in communities of holiness. Some examples are Amish/Mennonite, Fundamentalists that tend to isolate and form holy huddles. One big question is How do you defeat opponents from a huddle? How do you proclaim the gospel from a holy huddle? Christ AGAINST culture.

2. Christ of culture. Opposite end of spectrum from isolationist “against” view. Christian seek common ground between the teachings of Christianity and the noblest values of contemporary culture. An example of this mindset is the association of God and Country so that one assumes their nation is Christian, or “almost,” so that with enthusiasm and effort that country can realize that ideal. Examples in history are American Whigs like Thomas Jefferson, Victorian Liberals like John Stuart Mill, the German Culture Protestantism. In this view God loves who I love. God hates who I hate. Christ OF culture.

3. Christ above culture. All that is good in human culture is a gift from God. But this gift requires the church and theology to mediate this good and give further special revelation. A missionary finds in a culture a ceremony of child sacrifice and turns it into a chance to talk of Christ’s sacrifice, thus converting a tribe and ending child sacrifice. This is the story of Don Richardson’s Peace Child. Other examples are views of Thomas Aquinas and many Catholics since. Christ ABOVE culture.

4. Christ transforming culture. Society is to be entirely converted to Christianity. Business, the arts, the professions, family life, education, government—all must be reclaimed in his name. This can be done in truly Christ-transforming way or it can become like the Crusades, dominance and forced obedience and codifying Christianity into society by legislation. Examples include Puritans of England, Pilgrims, Revivalists like Charles Finney and even Alexander Campbell and Restoration Movement the Churches of Christ have come out of. These believed nothing outside the purview of Christian reform. The world must be evangelized and society reformed as a dual work. Christ TRANSFORMING culture.

5. Christ and culture in paradox. In this type, Christians live within a strong tension, trying to cooperate with all that God is doing in the world, of bringing shalom everywhere we can while recognizing that we will rarely succeed in making only peace until Jesus returns. God has ordained worldly institutions and governments and Christians live in a tension between their first allegiance to the Kingdom of God and their second allegiances to everything else. Examples are Martin Luther and Richard Niebuhr and most recently Leonard Sweet, who says, “To be a disciple of Jesus means to live life not standing against, or closing in, or shutting out, but walking alongside.” Christ and Culture IN PARADOX.

With some mix of the last two types perhaps, Erwin McManus asks the same question we’ve been asking today: “How should we relate to culture? We should astonish it.” How? By being transformed and then we become people who, like Jesus, live for the glory of God and the good of the world.

These give us historical perspective on how we individually, families, churches interact with the culture around us, how to not conform to the pattern of this age but interact in biblical and Christ-like ways.

It’s very easy to fall into cultural ways of thinking, to conform to the patterns of this world–because even Disney movies preach the gospel of non-conformity. Or Paula Abdul preachs, “just be true to yourself.” This may ring true, may be the first part of our Habit 8, but it’s not the gospel. The claim of the gospel beyond calling us not to conform is that it has the power to transform us from drug addicts to Christ addicts, from selfish snobs to selfless saints, from lonely depressed to joyful, from fighting for your rights to seeking righteousness of Christ, from revenge to mercy, from possessing to sharing, from consuming to creating, from status to worth in Christ.

Not World but Word . . .

Not ignore it . . . But See it (for what it is–created by God, corrupted by evil, needing redemption by Christ). Karl Barth said take your Bible and your newspaper (or mobile phone news app) and read both. Sometimes, literally I read the newspaper and have the Bible opened alongside and when I read about crimes, hatred, murder, war, I read about justice, love, healing, and peace that Christ died to bring us. The internet/tv/newspaper gives us an eye on cultural thinking–the World. The Word gives us an eye to the worldview God wants us to have–the Word.

Not hate it . . . but love. The world says, “Hate your enemies.” The Lord/Word says, “Bless those who persecute you.” Not hatred but love.

But do not love it too much and indulge in it to be consumers. Not love/marry it . . . Having no filters for what you consume will allow sin to consume you. The world says, “Sex is no big deal and should be tried before marriage.” The Word says, “Sex is for love within the commitment of marriage.” Not immoral sex but committed sex.

Not dominate it . . . The world says, “Greatness is measured by achievement.” The Word says, “Greatness is measured by service.” Not self-serving but serving others.

The world says to you, “Live for yourself.” The Word says, “It is better to give than receive.” Not selfish but sharing.

The world says, “Get even.” The Word says, “Do not take revenge.” Not revenge but mercy.

The world says, “Fight for your rights.” The Word says, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.” Not rights but right.

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