While I am balancing life as a father, husband and Dean at Carey Baptist College, I’ve recognised the importance of being into daily habits of Bible reading and prayer.. I’ve also been reading some great books. Dick Staub’s The Culturally Savvy Christian is one of those books that begin to answer some of the questions developing about how to shape Christian life in an increasingly post-modern and post-Christian world. Over the next few posts I want to reflect on the creed that Dick wrote at the end of his book (pages 200-201) and what living it out might mean for me and those in our churches.
The first paragraph reads “I will make God of central importance, digging a deeper well through nurturing God’s loving, transforming presence in my life, denying self, no longer conforming to culture, and renewing my mind through the daily practice of the spiritual disciplines, fully committed to discovering and doing God’s will in daily life.”
The world I live in is sinking in the idea of the importance of the self. As we rush around seeking for that which satisfies this hunger we dip our lives into the wells provided by the culture we live in. These wells are of varying quality. Looking for instant gratification we move from one to another. We get into the habit of dipping and moving without soaking and drinking deeply because what we find doesn’t satisfy our deep cravings. Jesus meets us and wants to give us water that satisfies. He wants us to soak ourselves in him. He wants us to recognise and feel his transforming love in the middle of life. His love and transforming presence are not something found as we conform to culture or cocoon ourselves away from culture. As followers of Jesus we are to nurture God’s loving transforming presence by renewing our minds through prayer, Bible study, meditation and fasting (Private disciplines). Adding to these the more observable disciplines of simplicity, solitude, submission and service and the communal disciplines of confession, worship, guidance and celebration we become counter-cultural. We dip and dwell in the well Jesus provides throught the Word and the community of Jesus follwers he has given us. We are captivated through the relational power of the Holy Spirit empowered by His transforming power to be the people God wants us to be.
Tags: Christian life, creed, Jesus, shape
