Made to Make Culture

Living the Purpose God Intended

This is a defining moment in culture.  What will we allow to become normal, and what standards, values and principles will we fight to maintain?  The question of what it means to live out faith in today’s culture is resurfacing in classrooms, churches, and dinner-table conversations. It’s not new, but the urgency feels sharper.

Recently, Dr. Cy Smith, Superintendent at Mansfield Christian School and host of the Clearly Christian podcast sat down with John Stonestreet, president of the Colson Center and host of Breakpoint Radio.   Their conversation cut right to the heart of the matter: how Christians see the world and how that vision shapes the next generation.

“We have a responsibility to help our people interpret the world around them and then cast a vision for what God is calling us to do”, said Dr. Smith. That mission, he said, is one that leaders like Chuck Colson, founder of Prison Fellowship understood well, and one John Stonestreet continues to champion today.

Chalkboard Point #1: Christians Must Shape Culture Instead of Being Shaped by It

When Cy asked what the “cultural mandate” really means, John didn’t hesitate. “To be human is to be a culture-maker,” he said. “Wherever humans get together, they make culture.” It’s not optional. The real question, he explained, “Isn't whether we make culture, but whether we’re making it for the glory of God or for the glory of man.”

That point struck a chord with Cy, who noted that what society normalizes quickly becomes what it worships. John agreed. “Culture’s greatest influence is what it presents as being normal,” he said. “The problem isn’t that we make culture. The question is, what kind?”

Cy added that Christian educators have a unique calling to model that culture-making in classrooms every day. “We can’t separate culture from being human,” he said. “God knew that was going to happen.  It was part of His original plan.”

And yet, John warned, the line between shaping and being shaped is thin. “Culture isn’t reality, it’s what humans do with reality,” he said. “Only humans do this.  Squirrels don’t make culture, humans do. So we have to ask: what kind of world are we building?”

Chalkboard Point #2. Nothing Is More Important Than Humanity’s Vision of the Human Person

As the conversation deepened, Cy asked what it means to recover a biblical understanding of what it means to be human. John began with a stark observation: “When you lose sight of God, you lose sight of yourself.” Drawing from Psalm 135, he explained how modern idols like sex, science, stuff, and self, promise freedom but deliver emptiness.

“Our idols today are just as dead as the idols of old,” he said. “Those who make them will be like them.” When we forget that we’re made in the image of God, he added, “we start to see ourselves in the image of whatever we worship.”

Cy pressed the question further, asking how this distorted view shows up in real life. “Right now, we’re facing an incredible demographic crisis”, John answered. “Because we’ve been told the greatest threat to the planet is humans.” Viewing humanity as a problem, he said, “leads directly to despair. But if you believe humans are made in the image of God, then yes, humans create problems…but they also solve problems.”

That difference in worldview, John explained, changes everything from education to economics to how we treat our children. “If we don’t know what it means to be human, we’ll lose the ability to tell the difference between man and machine,” he said. “And when that happens, confusion and chaos follow.”

“And what it means to be human,” Cy added, “informs our position on everything else.” The adversary, he said, has convinced many in the next generation that faith is a private matter. “But if we’re made in God’s image, that belief has to shape everything about how we live and what we stand for.”

A Story Bigger Than the Moment

At one point, Cy asked how Christians can keep their bearings when the culture feels so off-balance. John’s answer was both reassuring and grounding: “A cultural moment is just that.  It’s a moment. But the story is not lost because Christ is risen, Christ is Lord, and Christ is making all things new.”

He explained that the biblical story transcends every cultural moment: “We stand in our time, but we belong to a story that began in creation and ends in new creation. The story tells us that God determines the times and places we live, and that means this moment isn’t random.”

Cy summed it up beautifully: “This moment is ordained by God in time—you, for this moment—and it fits within His larger story.”

Living the Truth in This Moment

This moment matters.  Not just for each of us, but for Christianity and for society.  This podcast and this conversation serves to remind every one of us, including every Christian educator, parent, and leader, that we each have a critical role to play.  “We’ve been called to this cultural moment’, said John Stonestreet, “not to flee from it, but to redeem it.”

Subscribe or follow our podcast so you don't miss an episode of the Clearly Christian with Dr. Cy Smith podcast at www.clearlychristianeducation.com and wherever you stream your favorite shows.

For more information about Dr. Cy Smith, Mansfield Christian School, and/or the Clearly Christian Education movement, click on ClearlyChristianEducation.com.