For years, there has been this accusing voice in the back of my head telling me that no matter how much I’m doing, it’s not enough. Like all lies, there’s truth in this. No matter how much I do, five seconds on my newsfeed is enough to jar me with words and images that confirm that this world is still ...
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How to Intentionally Study Your Culture
In the previous two Artios Leadership Conversations, Artios College co-directors Israel Steinmetz and Amber Riggs discussed the relevancy of culture in the Christian life. Specifically, the first conversation explored why Christians should care about their surrounding culture. The second conversation followed up with the explanation of why Christians should study their culture. Why should we care about it? Because we ...
Read More »The Leadership Conversation: Why Should We Study Culture?
Culture is complex. Not only does the term encompass everything that makes up a unique society, but culture is constantly changing and evolving. In the previous Artios Leadership Conversation, Israel Steinmetz and Amber Mann Riggs (co-directors of Artios Christian College) established that, as Christians, we should care about our culture. Whether we like to admit it or not, culture shapes us ...
Read More »Jesus- Followers, Instant Gratification and Other Cultural Issues
My little boy, Hudson is 20 months old. That said, it won’t surprise you that he has not yet developed a life skill parents grow to deeply appreciate. Patience. Hudson has none yet. The kid is pure impulse. Patience is something my husband and I are attempting to cultivate in him. We get to cultivate it in him when we ...
Read More »The Leadership Conversation: Why Should We Care About Culture?
If you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it a thousand times: we are in the world, but not of the world. This popular sentiment of our Christian sub-culture (taken from John 17) has come to imply that the Church and the rest of the world cannot and should not mix. We are not of this world, so why should we ...
Read More »From Modernity to Postmodernity: A Primer for Leaders – Part 4
Christianity is changing. Not in the core essentials that were affirmed by the apostles. But rather, the way we talk about, communicate, and even view our faith has changed radically in the past few decades. Anyone who spends much time reading serious analysis of 21st century Christianity, culture, and ministry will frequently come across the term “postmodernity”. Indeed, much of ...
Read More »From Modernity to Postmodernity: A Primer for Leaders – Part 3
“It seems like we are speaking two different languages.” If you have ever thought this, you aren’t alone. As religion columnist Phyllis Tickle observed, approximately every 500 years, Western culture—and the Church in particular—undergoes such a significant change in paradigms that words often develop two sets of meanings. True to the pattern, we are currently in an era of significant ...
Read More »From Modernity to Postmodernity: A Primer for Leaders – Part 2
Let’s face it – American culture has undergone radical changes in the past several decades. For Christians, the changes seem to be happening faster than most of us can comprehend. How can we influence a culture to follow Christ when it seems like we are speaking two different languages? Especially when it seems like even within the Church we are ...
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