We live in culture where for many in the 40 and younger crowd (which I am clinging to by a thread) pop culture is king. More people my age and younger know more about which Kardashian is which and who they are currently “with” than know how many Gospels there are in the New Testament. We are crazy about pop culture. Which isn’t generally a good thing because there are a lot of really bad influences in pop culture today. Think about it–most references that people use today in conversation are from movies, tv shows, or social media. We live in a culture where most people don’t know Biblical stories such as David vs. Goliath and Jonah and the whale. For example, at school a mom came and dropped off an umbrella for her son for use after school. When her son came to the office to get it the mom made a comment to him that if it keeps raining like this we are going to have to build an ark! The middle school boy looked at her with a puzzled expression and asked, “What is an ark?” This was an “A” student that is living in a conservative, small, central Illinois town and he had no idea who Noah was and what in the world an ark had to do with it raining outside. This is the culture we live in today. We can no longer assume that people just know certain Biblical references.

I think this is because we as Christians have lost the battle–but certainly not the war!–for the minds of many in the 40 and younger crowd. Part of this reason is that we have lost of the battle for who gets to tell the stories our culture hears. There are many different ways we tell stories today in our culture–television shows, movies, music, art, videos, and books are just some of the ways people hear stories today. How many of those areas have Christians lost their influence between the 1970’s and the 21st century? This wasn’t wholly because the audiences didn’t like what we were saying, but more because we didn’t present it to them in a way that moved them. We probably took it for granted that people would continue to think and act the way they always had and would come around to “our” views when they got old enough. But think of the powerful storytellers of the 1970’s, 80’s, 90’s, and now when it comes to pop culture–how many of them were spreading a Godly message? How many of them were telling stories that reflected truth and goodness vs. if it feels good do it or nihilistic messages that don’t point to a universal truth. These stories are the stories that have prevailed in our culture over the last 40+ years–but I believe that is starting to change! Christians are now beginning to understand the importance of winning the battle of who tells the stories and are entering the marketplace of ideas armed with Truth. I will give you examples next week!

This week’s challenge is to pay attention to the popular culture around you this week. Listen to what gets referenced in conversations and what gets airtime on tv and movies. See how much of it is pointing to Truth.

More to come…
Jeremy