David Thompson was saved by grace in 1990. Since then he has been involved in prison ministry, drug and alcohol ministry, discipleship, various forms of music ministry, and has hosted and taught a home bible study for roughly 12 years. He currently serves with the youth as director of student ministries at Community Bible Church Sunriver. He has been married for 16 years to his lovely wife Carrie and together they have 4 children, 3 boys and a girl. David enjoys spending time with his family, whether it be camping, playing video games, or just laughing at each other. His game of choice is Modern Warfare 2, and his most enjoyable party to play against are kids from the youth group.
    However, David's greatest interest and passion is scripture. God gave him a strong hunger for His word early on in his christian walk and he continues to spend much of his time studying, teaching, preaching, and meditating on it. Heavy influences and sources of edification for David include Piper, Driscoll, Mohler, Chandler, Mahaney, and Grudem.

        How to be in the world, but not of the world for the gospel of Christ.

*John 17:14-19
    As Christ prays his high priestly prayer before the Father concerning what lies immediately before him (the cross), as well as what lies immediately before his disciples (the twelve, as well as us, vs.20), there is a clear reveal by our Lord as to what exactly our missional position must be as the church, in relation to the world.  We have indeed been coMISSIONed to make deliberate contact with the world for the purpose of “making disciples” (Mt.28:19), while at the same time remaining wholly set apart in our devotion, desires, and object of worship toward the one true God who bought us.
    The challenge that we often face is living in this “sweet spot” of being “in but not of”, as we are  continually drawn by our natural weaknesses, preferences, and tendencies off the mark of a biblical balance.  In other words, we often don't engage culture enough, or engage it too much, based on what we're most comfortable with.  We can all find a scripture or two to justify our position; to support our lob-sidedness that we may safely continue in our sinfulness and neglect.
    We will briefly identify the two common extremes so that we might be able to identify our own tendencies. The hope and purpose of this session is that an honest examination would result in repentance and a biblical “rebalancing”, so that we can be most kingdom effective.

*These labels are obviously made up and very general, as well as generic, but you'll get the picture.

    A.) _________________.= These people tend to be very focused on being a separate     people.
    ⁃    They tend to have a self righteousness without necessarily meaning to.
    ⁃    They tend to be far more legalistic or militant then gracious or patient.
    ⁃    They often feel so strong about being a different people that they literally remove themselves from culture, or the outside world in many areas of life. Almost as though they'll catch something bad just by proximity, but their avoidance becomes, or is ultimately, a lack of love for the lost.
    ⁃    They tend to huddle into a small group of people who are like minded that they may validate each other and feel safe and secure from any kind of worldly threat.
    ⁃    A common passage that they might champion could be 2 Cor. 6:14-7:1.

    B.) _________________.=These people tend to mingle heavily in and with culture.
    ⁃    These people can often make christianity a cheap, non-reality in the eye of the non-believing onlooker, thus undoing the very thing that they are trying to do.
    ⁃    They claim Christ while they live “loose”.
    ⁃    They tend to be oriented toward being very gracious and patient, even at those times they should be honest and firm.
    ⁃    They tend to put themselves in dangerous situations spiritually without an awareness of the negative effect that it is having on them or their testimony.
    ⁃    They are more apt to please man than pleasing God.
    ⁃    A common passage that they might champion could be 1 Cor. 9:19-23.

    The art of balancing the scales is like all doctrines in scripture.  We must fully consider the whole council of God.  In this case, that would require bringing 2 Cor. 6 together with 1 Cor. 9 which then brings us a more accurate, biblical truth of our place in engaging culture in mission. A separate people, fully engaged. The blueprint passage that we will use for what it looks like to successfully engage culture as christians for Christ will be Acts 17: 16-34. We will simply stroll through this passage and make observations.

    1.) _____________________= This requires that we not only be in it, but that we also try to understand it to a certain degree.  After all, people make culture. Therefore, to understand culture better is to understand the people better.
    ⁃    Consider this, Paul at this point of observation could have three basic responses to what he saw.  He could
        a.) ____________________.  Turn his back in judgement.
            b.) ____________________.  Be led by his flesh and join.
                             c.)____________________.  See people dying and jump in.
                    
           2.)____________________= Because of this Paul would've chose “c”.      Question: when you see wickedness active around you what does it do to your spirit?      Is your theology your reality? Do you see spiritually dead people on their way to hell, or     do you just see life going on?  If we're not provoked in our spirit when we observe     blatant sin running rampant in our culture around us, something is wrong.
        
           3.)____________________= When an accident has occurred, it is             automatically followed by response from those who witnessed it, or those             who are near, to come to the aid of the afflicted.  If we see and observe             impending injury for the unregenerate,  shouldn't we come to their aid             before it becomes their reality? Our response should be one of urgency.

                       4.)___________________ = The whole goal of initiation and engagement runs directly towards gospel proclamation.  That doesn't mean that we jump out and hit them with gospel, but rather all that we do, say, and form in our interaction is towards the result of Christ being proclaimed.  After all, we are representatives and ambassadors of an eternal kingdom, not an earthly one.  We therefore desire opportunity to share that kingdom with those unfamiliar with it that they may be reconciled to it. (2 Cor. 5:18-20)
                        5.)___________________= Because we have observed culture, we are able to use some of what we know to convey gospel truth without compromising the gospel itself.  It is known as identifying with, or relating to a person with a specific back ground, or system of thought that they've been familiar with.  This does not mean that the gospel wouldn't otherwise work. That's not whats being implied or intended.  After all, it is the power of God for salvation unto all who believe (Rom.1:16).  But rather that we may be most effective in communicating the gospel message towards our listener.  This is undoubtedly Paul's intent when he declares,” I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some” (1 Cor. 9:22b).  For us this takes love, humility, time, patience, and a true desire to see people saved even if it takes us outside of our comfort zone. Remember, to have a good understanding of culture does not, and should not, mean that we participate in the “junk” of the culture. We belong to the Lord.
                         6.)______________________= This one takes care of itself and needs no explanation here.                                                                                                                                   
    * Things to consider:
    •    Are you currently active in coMISSIONing?
    •    Are you able to identify your weaknesses toward how you engage (or don't) culture for Christ?
    •    If so, what are they and why?
    •    Are you willing to repent of any biblical imbalance you currently have and fully trust God in mission?

Parting thoughts:

    ⁃    We must love men enough to repent of our silence, isolation, and self righteousness to engage them for the gospel of Christ.
    ⁃    We must love men enough to share the truth about their condition of fallen sinfulness followed by hope in the Savior. We must include modeling Christ in our own lives while doing so.
    ⁃    We must love the Lord enough to be obedient to what He's called us to, and commanded us to do. To make disciples of all nations, and call all peoples to repentance.
    ⁃    We must love the Lord enough that we are a separate, holy people unto him who has called us out of darkness to light. May we be a light.