Hey Engage Peeps,
So we are Engage. We are different. We are edgy. We aren’t traditional. We are different. We engage culture. Engage is quickly becoming a tribe–in a good way. Every church is a tribe of sorts. And every tribe has its own culture or fishbowl of sorts. It’s easy for us to be proud of our differences in our tribe from other tribes. That’s ok to a point. But we have to be careful we don’t become tribal. Tribal is when we think our tribe is better than some other tribe because of our differences. I was reading this article from Christianity Today about the movie Avatar. Many of you have seen it. I loved the warning this article gives us. In fact, the article even refers to tribes like ours as “engagers” 
Many of us grew up in church tribes that were backwards, separatistic, harsh, or judgmental. So we go the other way and become open, accepting, and non-judgmental. We engage culture, not run from it. So Engage shows movie clips and plays “secular” songs at times because we want to take what is familiar (pop culture) and use it to point to the unfamiliar–a personal God we know in Jesus. This is a good thing. But on a bad day all good things have dark sides that peek out.
One of the dark sides we need to be aware of in our tribe is lack of Christian discernment when it comes to the big stories our culture tells about God. The article shows how even Avatar is based on a certain theology and understanding of God. The article challenges our tribe to be vigilant to hone our ability to discern what is true and what is deceptively false in our understanding of God. Be alert, be careful, that we aren’t going to another extreme in our attempts out run our backwards Christian past. Engage is different, but not for the sake of being different. We are different for the sake of mission and reaching those far from God. With the help of the Spirit of God may we hone our ability to discern truth from deception and have the courage to call a spade a spade with confidence, love, and grace.
15But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, - 1 Peter 3
Enjoy the article and pass on any thought you have. Might be fun to have some conversation.
http://www.ctlibrary.com/ct/2010/march/6.53.html
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