“Yes, Christians are called to seek the good of those around us, and to pursue justice and to love good and shun evil. But we get into trouble when we confuse the earthly city with the heavenly city. Until Christ returns, this world will never look like it should. You can’t use politics to build the new Jerusalem, and you can’t legislate people into the kingdom of God.”

From terrorist attacks to racial injustice to political chaos to an increasingly secular world that seems to have lost its moral center, we find ourselves in some unique and challenging times. Fear runs rampant across our cultural landscape—and, especially and increasingly, fear sits in the pews of our churches. Talk to most Christians—or read Christian blogs and social media streams—and it’s clear that the church isn’t what it was. Or rather, it isn’t where it was.

As we live in this cultural moment as Christians, each of us responds in one way or another. We may do it with great thought, or we may do it based on gut instinct or on what everyone else at our church is doing—but we will respond. Typically, that response will take one of three approaches—converting culture, condemning culture, and consuming culture—which I’ve borrowed from concepts in Andy Crouch’s book Culture Making.

But I believe each approach is problematic and missing something fundamental and biblical: courage.

‘Convert’ Culture

In this mindset, what matters most is that our nation’s culture reflects biblical principles and values. Supporters of this view are willing to go to great lengths to make it happen, even if that means making alliances with corrupted politicians and political parties, or making what they might see as lesser moral compromises. Think the “Christian right,” especially as of late.

But this approach, especially in a span of history where the church doesn’t have high cultural standing, is going to leave a lot of people frustrated and bitter. It already has. It will only perpetuate “the culture wars,” a frankly arrogant posture that pits the church against the world, and doesn’t draw a healthy line between the kingdom of God now and the kingdom of God to come.

I’m not going to pretend there aren’t some good aspects of “converting culture.” After all, you can trace much of its roots to the work of amazing theologians like Abraham Kuyper and Francis Schaeffer. It recognizes the reality that Christians should be engaged in all of culture, seeking to transform culture through the power of Christ, through whom all things were created and through whom all things are sustained. After all, Christ isn’t just the Lord of the church, but of the world.

And yes, Christians are called to seek the good of those around us, and to pursue justice and to love good and shun evil. But we get into trouble when we confuse the earthly city with the heavenly city. Until Christ returns, this world will never look like it should. You can’t use politics to build the new Jerusalem, and you can’t legislate people into the kingdom of God.

In fact, I’d argue the compromises and unholy alliances that Christians have made to “convert” the culture have left many more suspicious of and hardened to the message of the church. And I don’t blame them.

‘Condemn’ Culture

This is the idea of removing ourselves from the world, retreating into a subculture, and staying well away from wider culture because society is sinful, corrupted, and antithetical to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

This stream has always been part of the church’s response to the challenge of living in this world. You see it in the rise of the monasteries. You see it in various parts of the Anabaptist movement. There’s certainly something admirable and beautiful to it. God does call his people to holiness. The Scriptures are clear about the church being distinct from the rest of the world. We’re to be salt—we are to “taste” different.

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