It’s all about how Christians engage culture and how we are to respond to culture.  His main argument is that the only truly effective way to do so is to actually be creating new cultural goods and environments. I just want to focus here, though, on one small point he made that made me think quite a bit.

Crouch correctly pointed out our desire to be people who change the world. This is especially true of my own generation of twenty-somethings. We are extremely ambitious, which definitely has its pros and cons. It’s good that we want to take initiative with things, but it can also be a little destructive when we settle for nothing less than changing the world.

In reality, however, we cannot change the entire world. By simple fact, that statement cannot be true. Some would say the Internet has changed the world, and yes, the Internet has changed the vast majority of the world, but there are still billions of people that do not even have Internet access.

What we can change is our world. We can and do have profound influence on the cultures we are a part of and that is ultimately what we must focus on. Take me for example: I have influence at The Gateway Church,  America’s Family Coaches (employer #1), InterVarsity Christian Fellowship (employer #2), Grinnell College, Des Moines and within my family and friends groups.

Within those groups, I have the ability change culture. Whether or not it goes beyond those places that I have direct contact with is completely beyond my control. You see if we focus on changing the world, our sights are too big to know where or how to start. We must concentrate on the things that are right in front of us, and slowly our ability to influence and change grows.

I will not be a world changer.

But I will be an influencer within my social location.

Now I know that’s not true. But right now, for me, it is. I have two part-time jobs, one of them being mostly work from the home should I choose. It’s strange.

It’s strange to not have my friends by my side 24 hours a day.

It’s strange to not have every hour of my day planned out.

It’s strange that I can take time to relax on a regular basis and not feel guilty about it. (Still workin on this one.. I was trained for four years to think that relaxing meant you were getting behind.)

It’s strange getting paid to do things I used to do in my free time like checking blogs and social media, studying the Bible, writing, etc.

What was your hardest adjustment from post-college life?