Lab Session 2 - Andy Crouch

Wednesday, Oct 08, 2008 at 02:57 PM

Made it into this session on time and WOW.  Andy knocked it out of the park.  Andy will be sharing the stage with me at National Pastor's Convention in February.  I couldn't be more excited. 

Here are some notes from his session.  I couldn't type fast enough!!

Culture Making with Andy Crouch

-The spiritual gift of the baptist church is alliteration :)

Thoughts from Andy's new book, Culture Making

His original thoughts as he started writing the book was that creativity is missing from our culture.  We don't have a way of honoring it or celebrating it.

He thought we need to be creators, not critics of culture.

But as he researched, he began to realize something in Scripture...

He started in Genesis - First two chapters are not about creation...but cultivation. 

God created, dug in, and put Adam and Even in to till and keep it.

A lot of the culture innovations/creations are expressions of sin. (i.e.. "Let's build a huge tower - Genesis 11")

It's not that God doesn't want us to create culture, he wants us to cultivate, care, tend, keep...

This is one of the things we're missing in our Christian engagement of culture.

CULTIVATION: tending and keeping that which is already good.

Are Christians known for cultivation?  Andy thinks no.

Christians are known for wanting to impact or transform culture.

There are churches named Impact, Revolution, etc...but there aren't any Cultivate churches.  Why is that?

There are things in our culture that need to be changed, but we aren't known for cultivating what is already good.

==

 

What does cultivation require?

ROOTS:

• Discipline - doesn't bear immediate fruit, but you can't create without it.
• Discernment - What in my field is really good, and what is a weed that needs to be eliminated?  What once was good that now doesn't fit?  It's about preserving the essential goodness that is there. 
• Patience - We are attracted to the language of creative because it sounds like we get deliverables ASAP.  But cultivation requires time.  Are we known for taking on projects of cultivation that take ten years, or do we want something immediate?
• Humility - You put yourself into service that other people created.  You're not a heroic artist.  You are a servant for keeping it going.  Be faithful to what people have done before you.

FRUITS:

• Insight - You start to see things in culture in a way that is electrifying because you develop insight into what you are cultivating. 
• Influence - When people see you are committed to the good of your city rather than change your city, you start to gain trust.
• Innovation - Comes out of cultivation.  The most durable things come out of an already cultivated world.  Not reactionary.  It will join tradition and have influence on tradition.

THE TROUBLE WITH IMPACT:

We use the word impact as a good thing -but culture thinks "impact" is something to be defended....cultures are designed to provide a way to survive impacts that nature throws our way.  Culture naturally wards of impact.  Think tornadoes or meteors. 

So why do we want to impact our culture?

Did Jesus IMPACT?

If you look at the most culturally significant event in humanity - Jesus' resurrection - nothing really changed.  Now hold on...there was an earthquake and some stuff but it is nothing really recorded in history. 

Life continued.  And a small group of believers began meeting.

300 years later, half of the Roman Empire is Christian (mainly because of politics).

Jesus doesn't describe "making an impact" in a big, flashy way.  He talks about the kingdom of God like a mustard seed - smallest of all.  But someone plants it and it grows into a tree.  Birds nest in its branches.

That's not a metaphor of impact, it's a metaphor of cultivation.

Best changes take time.  Most influential thing we will do in culture we will never see.  But they will bring durable, lasting change...

Technology could be the biggest "weed" of the North American Culture.  "I will give you a device that will make life easier."  A device for insulin? Great.  Is it a metaphor for my life?  Then it's profoundly robbing us.  But we have bought into that and our consumer culture has bought into it.

Cultivate...then create.

WOW.

5 Comments »

1. Why aren’t there churches called Cultivate?  I think you answered your own question. 

   What does cultivation require?

     * Discipline -
     * Discernment -
     * Patience -
     * Humility

   We’re not always the best at these.  Especially the first and the 3rd one.  Cultivation takes time, and we’re much more interested in the flash of the revolution than the hard work of the cultivation.

   Great session.  Thanks for providing us non-attenders this!

   Comment by Scott - Oct 08, 2008 @ 04:11 PM

2. Ummm, wow!! That sounds like that was an amazing session!

   Maybe I’m out of touch but I really wasn’t familiar with Andy or his book. I’ll definitely be checking him out.

   I just finished reading these notes to my whole group driving down in the car. Thanks for sharing!!

   Comment by Brad Ruggles - Oct 08, 2008 @ 04:27 PM

3. Great notes Anne.
   Cultivate is my new favorite word.

   Comment by Milan Ford - Oct 08, 2008 @ 04:30 PM

4. This session sounds amazing.  It has made me look at the story of creation in a whole new way.  Often I have looked at it and thought we are called to be creative first (we are made in the image of God after all) but I miss that God’s first real direction/purpose for us was to cultivate what He himself created.  Our action always follows His action.  Thanks for giving us an inside look at what is happening at Catalyst!

   Comment by Jacque Adkins - Oct 08, 2008 @ 06:20 PM

5. I got to see him and he was awesome!
   Note: Jesus did seem to make a pretty big local impact (5000+ crowds are impressive even today!), it just got so much bigger than a handful of people listening to him teach.

   Comment by Stephen - Oct 08, 2008 @ 11:08 PM

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