One of the church’s most difficult challenges has been to engage the world beyond its doors. Evangelism and the pursuit of personal holiness have occupied most of the church’s attention. At the same time, the biblical mandate to influence our world so that it might more truly reflect the character of Christ has often been overlooked. The Gospel & Culture Project (GCP) seeks to respond to this situation by bringing the Gospel to bear on the key issues and social circumstances of our age. We do this through cultural interpretation, involvement and transformation.
The Bible views cultural engagement as an integral aspect of obedience to the Gospel. We are commanded to “fill the earth and subdue it.” (Gen. 1:28) This task is central to Christ’s Great Commission “to make disciples of all nations.” (Matt. 28:18) The Lord requires us to “do justice and to love mercy.” (Mic. 6:8) The GCP has grown out of the longstanding concern, stretching from Augustine to Harvie Conn, to fulfill the imperative to “seek the welfare” of the city that is our contemporary local and global society. (Jer. 29:7)
The GCP does this by training men and women in the craft of cultural engagement within a community dedicated to applying the truths of the Gospel in a broken, searching world. The people who lead a culture set the tone for it. Realizing this, we recognize the importance of becoming changed people before we may effect meaningful change. The GCP is a place of shared concerns. It functions as an incubator for developing approaches to applying the Gospel as a solution to aspects of the human condition as divergent as urban poverty and media globalization. The GCP provides a means of bringing people together to collaborate in finding holistic solutions while also giving them the tools they need to become agents of change.
We recognize that the church must play a crucial role in cultural engagement. Of course, neither the church nor the GCP are immune from the failings that characterize the larger world. The contemporary church has been limited by the adoption of perspectives on the Bible that have driven it toward separatism and an inappropriate emphasis on individualized faith experience. In contrast to this, the GCP has grown out of Westminster Theological Seminary’s redemptive-historical framework.
This unique outlook interprets the Bible as articulating an unfolding historical process, which culminates in the coming of Christ’s kingdom. This vision recognizes that all things cohere in Christ, who is the Lord of human history and therefore of culture. The goal of the GCP is to help people see that right now is a piece of eternity. History, as God ordains it, is moving toward a new creation, a new heaven and earth. At the center of this process is God speaking to us both through his world and through his word. Through this process God guides us in how we may work in a fallen world, yet one that is being redeemed. As a result, to understand culture in a redemptive-historical framework is to understand that God is working with us and through us to influence the world we live in to more truly reflect his glory.
who we are
Dr. William Edgar, Director
Mari Stout, TalkHouse Director
Mark Traphagen, Fellow
John Eddy, Executive Director
James Schaefer
