www.nextwaveonline.com
Leadership & Life
Culture Is Spiritual
Mal Fletcher
Excerpt from 'The Future is X'
A people’s culture is bundled with their worldview, so it is not surprising that culture always carries a spiritual dimension.
In today’s world, we’ve come to associate ‘cult’ with a negative perception.
Actually, the word ‘cult’ simply refers to the religious practice of a group of people. It is the root word for culture.
Anthropologists know that, from the dawn of human civilization, the cultures of people groups have in large part been established around some kind of religious practice.
It’s worth noting, in our so-called post-Christian age, that if we in the West abandon our traditional religious heritage, we are in danger of losing touch with our core culture. If we do that, our voice and influence in the world will only grow weaker, as societies with a greater commitment to their own religious roots establish stronger and more dominant cultures.
Sociologists have established that, in any group of people, the person or sub-group which builds the strongest culture always ends up becoming the leading voice. In our pluralistic Western social model, we often see relatively small groups of people exercising a degree of influence in society which is disproportionate to their size.
This is often because they have established within their own ranks a very strong culture. They have defined a clear set of beliefs and aims, based on a shared worldview, and they communicate to their constituents a clear understanding of who they are and why the group exists.
Church history is filled with characters who provided history-shaping leadership by redefining cultures.
John Wesley, for example, has been accredited by some historians as having helped to save Britain from the bloody ravages of European insurrection.
Wesley connected people into tight-knit cell groups which offered people accountability, training, encouragement, and a potent sense of identity.
They were the key to the growth of the Methodist movement. Within a few decades it grew from a handful of people to more than 70,000 in Britain alone.
In his influential book The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell attributes much of that rapid growth to the fact that members of Wesley’s small groups knew exactly what they stood for and where they were headed. They shared a potent sense of identity, a well-established culture.
Western society needs again to see the emergence of Christian groups which can offer a strong voice of leadership; groups which spread quickly, through all layers of society, because they are founded on a potent, faith-based, biblically-sound and socially-relevant culture.
As a member of Gen-X, it is incumbent on you to help establish groups of Christians who can fill that need.
This is an extract from The Future Is X by Mal Fletcher, available from our webshop in both Paperback and E-book Format.
www.nextwaveonline.com