As I said earlier this week, a major theme I hear in evangelical churches is a deep frustration about and fear of the culture. Evangelicals see the world around us and wring our hands, seeing an increase in humanism and the demise of traditional values.
We point our fingers and blame others for the culture spiraling downward away from God’s intentions.
But are they really the only ones to blame? Certainly everyone is culpable for their sins, and the human race is fallen and rebellious to God and the salvation found in his Son and the goodness of living according to his kingdom.
But the world is lost. They are sheep without a shepherd. And we Christians have not done a whole lot to help them.
One of the worst things that we do as Christians is create a false dualism between “the secular world” and “the sacred world.” Many Christians think that those things “secular” (business, music, art, sports, television, movies, education, government, medicine, science, technology, etc.) are of the creaturely material world and thus are inherently evil. Those secular things pale in comparison to those things “spiritual” (prayer, evangelism, missions, church life, worship, Bible reading, etc); in fact the “spiritual” is all that matters.
But as Al Wolters wrote,
“Because of their two-realm theory (seeing all things as either “sacred” or “secular”), Christians have themselves to blame for the rapid secularization of the West.
If political, industrial, artistic, and journalistic life – to mention only these areas – are branded as essentially ‘worldly,’ ‘secular,’ and part of the natural domain of ‘creaturely life,’ then is it surprising that Christians have not more effectively stemmed the tide of humanism in our culture?”
-Albert Wolters, Creation Regained, p. 54
Why is it crucial to reintegrate? If Christians live compartmentalized lives, separating the secular from the sacred, we no longer have influence in the culture. God always intended for an integrated world, where all things are sacred. We need to reintegrate, so that all that we do, all that we are, are part of the kingdom of God.
When Christians live (dis)integrated lives, we no longer live as though Christ is king over all things. When we live (re)integrated lives, we show the world what God’s original intention for an integrated world looks like. Check out the “vocational channels” section of Reintegrate and discover how to begin living for Christ in your particular vocation.
Perhaps the greatest witness for Christ to the world is a community of Christians living reintegrated lives.
Image by gapster. Used with permission. Sourced via Flickr.
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