Archive for July 25, 2013


Jul 25

The Culture of the Church in the Last Days

2013 | by Trent Hunter | Category: Sermon Follow-Up

In Sunday’s sermon, “The Life of the Church in the Last Days,” Ryan unpacked the significance of several words, including self-control, seriousness, love, and hospitality. As those who are living in the last days, these are the qualities that should characterize our life together.

From his article, “Create a Contrast Culture in your Church,” here’s a helpful reflection by Jonathan Leeman on how our citizenship in heaven transforms our life together as God’s people.

Think about the local church as an embassy from the future. It’s a formally constituted gathering of Spirit-indwelt kingdom citizens who proclaim and display Christ’s end-time rule. They gather to declare their king’s warnings and promises, and they gather to formally affirm one another as kingdom citizens through the keys given by their king, which they do with baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Here are the laws, and here are the passport holders.

What’s more, these eschatological embassies on earth, spread out like pins on a map, should be characterized by an unworldly culture. It’s not a culture imported from another place, but from a future age. It’s not defined by sushi, cricket, or burqas, but by the habits of holiness and love and the ambassadorial work of discipling, evangelism, hospitality, and caring for the needy.

Citizenship, mind you, is an office. And activities like discipling, evangelism, and hospitality constitute a Christian’s basic office responsibilities. “Go and make disciples,” Jesus says. “Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality,” Paul says. These are what Christians do by virtue of being citizens of Christ’s kingdom. We “live as citizens worthy of the gospel,” which means “striving side by side for the faith of the gospel” (Phil. 1:27, my translation; cf. 3:20).

The local church, in short, is the embassy where we show up for work, where we learn to be ambassadors who evangelize and disciple, and where we display an otherworldly culture that shines like stars in the dark night sky (Phil. 2:15).

Leeman continues with 12 ways churches can cultivate such a culture.