Culture or Subculture

Do you live in the "Bubble"?  You know, the "Christian Bubble".  We have all heard of it, but I want to look at it maybe in a new way.  Let me define it briefly. The  "Christian Bubble" is what happens to believers the longer we walk with Christ and it happens to most of us naturally. Here is how it goes:  We trust in Christ as our Savior, then we get active in church and in order to grow deeper we get more and more involved in church until eventually the only people we really know are Christians.  We listen only to Christian music, go to Christian schools, have our parties with Christian Friends, etc. and etc.  Obviously, nothing is wrong with our desire to protect our minds and kids from the things that are harmful and our desire to live in deep community is biblical, but we must remember that we are called to engage the culture.  

Some of what I mentioned above don't have to belong to the life of the "Bubble", if other things in our life are different.  Obviously we make decisions to guard our purity and the innocence of our children, but that is not what I am addressing here.  I like my Christian friends, Christian music, and the community I have with other believers, but we need to be careful.

What I am saying is that our lives must intersect with both Christians and non-Christians.  If we never cross paths with non-believers in a focused and strategic way then we most likely live in the "Bubble".  Jesus spoke to this issue in John 17:15-18, "I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.  They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.  Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.  As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.  And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth."  Jesus wants us to be in the world, to be engaged with it, but prays that we would be safe from the evil one and he shares how we can live best in the culture.  Being safe from the evil one requires us to be sanctified in the truth - it is the only way to protect ourselves.  But listen,  this does not mean we insulate ourselves from the world entirely.  Jesus says that just as he was sent into the world, we are sent by him into the world. A deep passionate love for truth becomes our protection as we live in the world - that prayer comes from Jesus.

What it comes down to is this:  Will we live in the culture or will we create a "Christian Subculture" that actually keeps the gospel away from those not yet believers?  Look at the life of Jesus, he was engaged with both believers and non-believers.  Remember, it was those in the "Bubble" who gave him the biggest problems and it was those dominated by the culture who found him the most intriguing person they had ever seen.

Where do you live right now - passionate for Christ and the lost in the Culture or engaged in the "Christian Subculture"?  Remember, we are to engage the lost culture and it is hard to do when we live disengaged from it.