Our culture is the ground to fulfill our mission and there is a need to view ourselves as people with a mandate to achieve a purpose in the mission field. Our home is not here; hence, we need to view our occupation as a mission, kingdom work.
Strangers in a Foreign Land
According to 1 Peter 2:11, we are strangers and exiles. The land we are occupying here is not our home and many people are trying to fight for their homeland as opposed to seeing themselves as exiles. Using population facts, we can conclude that we live in a land that continues to become more secular.
The consequence is the need to redefine gospel clarity. Anyone labeled Christian is not anymore a ‘social Christian,’ but such a person can be described as someone converted through the power of the gospel. This is an important repositioning in theology when it comes to people’s perception about us and how we should see our land.
We need to understand these repositioning as the age we are in currently is full of outrage just as evident in the way people become angry when things they don’t like come up. This is telling us to be more clear on the gospel. It is when we see ourselves as foreigners and strangers that we can show and share Jesus’ love as expected.
We Are a Convictional Minority
At one time, we were perceived (incorrectly, I think) as a religious majority. Today, we’re a convictional minority. This is key because when you’re a convictional minority, you don’t fit in the mainstream of culture. We are statistically a minority of people in our culture who think differently than the mainstream culture. We are not walking around thinking, We’re the majority. You’re going to do what I say. You’re going to accept all my standards.
A lot of people still think Christendom when they think American, Canadian, British or whatever. They believe they need to take back the country because it’s theirs and others are interlopers.
The reality is, we are the interlopers. We are the strangers and foreigners.
When we think like a convictional minority, we’ll engage culture less with “You owe me” and more with “How can I engage you the culture we are in via the mission we are on?”
Christendom has died. Not Christianity, statistically, but Christendom.
The prevailing idea of a Judeo-Christian worldview is no longer something we can take for granted. We are in a post-Christendom age. Our focus must now be more on mission, evangelism and the like.
Sorry, Christian, we are not birthright owners. We are exiles. Many sincere Christians have seen America as a new Israel. When Ronald Reagan said, “We will be as a city upon a hill,” some saw some divine relation to a specific nation. But, let’s be clear: Reagan wasn’t quoting the Bible; he was quoting John Winthrop standing on the deck of the Arabella in 1630.
God loves all people. And perhaps we have a great responsibility because we occupy “a great land between two great seas” (another Reagan gem). But we are not the new Israel. Our covenant relationship with God is no covenant like the Old Testament.
Sure, we can pray, “Lord, heal our land,” but 2 Chronicles 7:14, where God says, “If my people, which are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray, I will hear from heaven and heal their land,” is not about us. It’s about ancient Israel in the time of King Solomon, who was about to go off the deep end into idolatry.
We need God to heal our land, but we don’t have a land in the same way as King Solomon.
Stop Israel Thinking
We’ve got to stop the Israel thinking, which is, This is our place, our home. Instead, we must consider that we are foreigners and strangers in exile. It’s someone else’s home. We’re not Israel. We’re Israel in exile.
Jeremiah 29:5 speaks to those like us in exile. Sure, plant gardens and grow, and flourish, and more. But always remember you’re in Babylon.
This makes all the difference. Why? Because only then will we have exile thinking and gospel focus. We begin to think about our mission to engage a culture that God loves and wants to redeem and restore to himself.
