Discipling Teens Through Doubt, Culture, Sex, Identity, & PurposeSample

CULTURE

"We have to understand how these cultural undercurrents are shaping our souls and driving us toward God or away from God, toward Truth or away from Truth."

—John Stonestreet, Axis ParentingTeensSummit.com interview

Today's Scripture describes how the prophet Jeremiah spoke to the people of Israel in their darkest hour. They had been taken captive, losing not only their land, but also their unique identity as God's people set aside for His glory. Amidst this tragedy, Jeremiah relays a shocking charge from God: Israel is to seek the welfare of the land of their exile.

Whoa. We can probably all envision Israel's desire to have nothing to do with their captors. Yet God doesn't allow it, instead commanding them to cultivate and engage the culture, for its welfare meant Israel's welfare.

As Christians, we're also exiles (1 Pet 2:11). We have a citizenship from heaven (Phil 3:20) and a home in a new city for a future world (Rev 21:1-3). Yet as exiles, we also shouldn't retreat and hide, but to engage and bring life to our culture (John 17:13-19).

That culture, as Stonestreet says, is saturated with undercurrents—ideas that subtly yet powerfully influence us. We need to be aware of how those undercurrents are influencing us, but we can't stop there. We must also be part of redeeming and restoring them.

Because God has gifted Christians with His Gospel of life, it is our job to bring that hope to the world. We can't hold that hope back from fear of our land of exile.

So how can we engage the world and offer life-saving goodness? Just like Jeremiah called Israel in his time, maybe we too should promote the welfare of our culture. Mr. Stonestreet offers more ideas of how to think through culture in his ParentingTeensSummit.com interview.

Discuss as a family:

• If you could completely solve one cultural issue, which one would you solve and why?
• Why is it hard to engage culture? What can you and your family do to reverse the effects of the curse on your family and community?

Dig Deeper: Click here for Stonestreet's practical tips on how to respond to culture and to download the Action Guide for his interview.