An Ecclesio-Centric Model of World Transformation
Andrew Breitbart said that politics is downstream from culture. His observation is true. The deterioration, corruption, and wickedness we have witnessed over the last 20… 60… 80… 160 years in American politics is a symptom and effect of a more fundamental deconstruction of American culture and corresponding rebellion against our Christian heritage and values. But culture is not inherent. Culture is itself a product of something more foundational. Politics is downstream from culture, and culture is downstream from the cultus, i.e. a society’s religion, worship, and ethical values.
Many people talk about the need for a work–life balance, but this is not biblical. Scripture defines work as part of the meaning of life, central to the purpose of it. We do not leave work in order to engage in life. Work is part of life, an important part, without which human beings become aimless, hopeless, worthless, and unfulfilled. If we are to think biblically and christianly, the balance we need is not between work and life but between work and rest, the work of building culture and the rest and rejoicing of Sabbath.
What Christians do on the Lord’s Day is the most important, most foundational, most productive thing they will ever do in their lives. Worship in the gathered Church on the Lord’s Day does not replace the many other things God calls us to do in the world. Find your mission, get married, have babies, build a career, toil to the glory of God, grow tired and old, and die in the hope of glory. But worship every Lord’s Day is central to everything else. It is where God meets with his people: cleansing, equipping, and renewing our souls for the culture-building activities we are to engage in the other six days of the week. For in six days Yahweh made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. God’s work is the pattern for our work as his image-bearers.
Sunday may seem less important than the work we do the other six days of the week, but it is actually more important than everything else put together. Man was made by God and for God in order to glorify and enjoy him. On the Lord’s Day, Christ’s Body assembles to accomplish the primary mission. Like Voltron, the individual members engage in their ordinary labors and do battle against the forces of darkness the other six days every week, but on the Lord’s Day all the members assemble for the great battle, to go to war against the world, the flesh, and the Devil. The voices of God’s people unite, in heaven and on earth, to sing God’s praise and to light the incense of prayers that ascend before his throne. Worship is warfare, and as the smoke of the offering rises into the heavens, the Lord answers with thunder, lightning, and fire.
If you want to change the world, put first things first. There is a proper priority and sequence to true, godly reformation, revolution, and renewal. In order to repair and restore godly government and politics, the culture of human societies must be rebuilt. To rebuild a godly culture, families and individuals must be taught to fear God and honor his covenant by keeping his law. To begin leading families and individuals in repentance, the Church must be the Church, faithfully worshiping God, submitting to his Word, and making worship the first priority, offered in the beauty of holiness.
You will not change the world for the better by ranting on Twitter or Substack. Your family will not be fixed or your marriage restored by spending more time on YouTube, Twitgram, or InstaTok. If you want to see God’s grace restore our nation, transform civilization, and save the world, start by going to Church. Make worship the foremost priority in your life. Adopt a life of prayer rather than merely trying to develop better habits in your “prayer life.” Submit yourself to the King of heaven, lift your hands and voices in prayer and praise in his Name, and then stand still and watch the salvation of God.