Does Culture Matter? The Importance of Vision, History, Theology, and Culture! Kevin Brechbill

I'm going to talk about a subject this morning that, when I'm done, you'll probably either hate me or at least hate the subject or love me. It's kind of a bittersweet subject, and I think we've made it that way. And so hopefully, when I'm done this morning, we can understand it better and have a better understanding of it and know how to think about it in a way that's effective. I just want to start off with a verse from Proverbs, and it says this: "Every word of God proves true. He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him. Do not add to His words lest He rebuke you, and you be found a liar."

As David mentioned, I'm not sure if it was last Sunday or the Sunday before, we're going to do a few messages on a series on these subjects, okay? And it's how to think about it. So our VHTC theories, I call it, vision, history, theology, and culture.

I want to discuss on where we should focus and why, where we should put our energy in all these. And I'm going to start with culture. Does culture matter? Now, some of you, that may give weird vibes too.

Like I said, some people, this is their pet subject, and some people don't. So it depends on your background as to how you're probably feeling about that. But I think when I'm done, I hope to bring all of us into a very similar perspective. I don't think we're actually as far apart as we may think, or whether we like or dislike it, I think it'll help bring us into this. Does culture matter? So the first question I want to talk about is, why are we questioning our culture? I hope the answer that I give you is not the answer that you're expecting.

So I'm going to start with a series of questions just to start to get you to think. It's how my brain works.

Why are we having culture battles? Why are we having lifestyle battles? Why are we having church standard battles?

Are all the cultural battles worth the fallout? Is it worth the disagreements among us?

Is it worth the fight?

When there is a battle, there are two sides. Someone is defending, and someone is questioning.

I find the most devastating thing about battles is that it often divides people, especially cultural battles. They almost always divide people.

But my observation has been that both sides think they're winning, but neither wins.

I have another question. Are any of you here this morning exempt from these cultural battles?

I've heard some people say, "Oh, it's just cultural battles is just a church problem," that it's naive and unnecessary. It divides people unnecessarily. Therefore, it's ridiculous. So they choose the path of denial. Cultural battles don't exist.

The next question I have is, does it matter that we keep our culture? Is our culture being threatened? Is your culture being threatened? Is the Christian culture being threatened?

I have a bigger question. Are all cultures being threatened? Think of it worldwide. Are cultures being threatened?

My next two or three points here, what's Paul says, "This is mine, and it's not from the Lord." Definitely here. I happen to believe that most cultures are being threatened. I personally believe that there is a worldwide onslaught to destabilize every culture in the world.

That's personal. I also personally believe that the onslaught to destabilize every culture is demonic in its nature.

However, I do not believe that this worldwide onslaught is anything new.

Think about this. We are working with an old problem that is new in each generation, but the problem isn't new.

Every generation fights this. So when we think of culture and losing our culture, where does our primary threat come from? So as I said before, when we think of culture and losing our culture, where does our primary threat come from in losing our culture?

Does our threat come from without or from within? Where does our primary threat come from?

So now I want to do a little definition on what is culture. And I want to zoom out and try to communicate what is culture because depending from what background we come from, culture has been this very narrow pinpoint perspective of what culture is. So I want to try to communicate what this is.

I want us to think of the word culture as an umbrella. It's a big word.

And it includes and encapsulates everything, all the key aspects that we're trying to live and communicate.

Culture includes beliefs and values. It includes norms and social practices.

What's beliefs and values? Culture includes the shared beliefs and values that influence what a group of people considers important, moral, and acceptable. Norms and social practices, these are the customary ways in which people within a culture interact with each other, including manners, traditions, and social roles.

Symbols and language. Culture is expressed and communicated through symbols, including language, which is the primary means of transmitting cultural knowledge. Material culture. This includes the physical artifacts such as tools, clothing, architect. All this is associated with a particular culture.

Arts and expressions. Culture is also manifested in the arts, literature, what Lynn's working at, music, and other forms of creative expression. It reflects who we are. Social institutions. Cultural values and norms are often embodied in institutions like family, education, religion, how we govern ourselves.

It's our structure.

Now, if that's the big picture of culture, I have a question. Does culture matter?

After you hear that definition, I think only a fool would say no. It matters a lot. There's a lot involved in culture. Of course, it matters.

Understanding that it's an umbrella, culture includes everything.

It's the overwhelming abundance of what culture is that makes it compelling, not its scarcity.

Culture includes everything. Our beliefs and values, a people that considers what they consider important, moral, and acceptable, norms and social practices, symbols and language, material culture, physical objects, arts and expression, social institutions, our communities, and our churches, how our beliefs and values and norms are often embodied in these institutions. We care about family. We care about church. We care about education. We care about our faith. We care about how we govern ourselves.

My point is, I hope I broaden your understanding of what culture is. It's not a narrow pinpoint word. It's a very big concept. So I have a more important question to ask. If we lose the cultural battle, have we lost the war?

I would say we have.

So I want to give some examples that I've read over the years to try to communicate why culture matters. And I've read a lot of books in my life, a lot, probably not compared to Lynn, but for me, I've read a lot.

And I've learned some things from these books.

And when I talk about these books, there's about four of them I'm going to mention. There's a lot more. But they taught me two things: why things fail and how to prevent failure, how not to let it happen.

All these books are very fascinating in their own right. But there's common things I've learned, and I want to try to communicate each of these to try to help us understand why we need to care about the right things, how to care about the correct things.

The first book is written by Peter Greer. It's called Mission Drift. He's a CEO of Hope International out of Lancaster. And they do microfinancing. And he read this book on these different mission organizations. And because he was a part of a large mission organization, he wanted to know why do missions drift away? Why do they drift and why? And he did this in-depth study. And one of the studies that he done was on Harvard University.

Harvard University was established, I'm all of a sudden forgetting the exact date. It's 1636 or 1639, somewhere in that ballpark, in the 1600s.

And when you go back and look at their mission statement, Harvard University and who they are today, do you think it looks the same? It's nowhere close.

The leaders today have forgotten their mission statement. They don't even know what it is.

They don't even know the purpose anymore. It has changed. The leaders have changed their purpose.

They have drifted from their founding purpose. And it's a fascinating read. I recommend you go read it. They forgot their history, 100%. When you forget your history and your founding purpose, the generation after you will only just continue to drift.

And you think, how could that be that Harvard University went that far? I mean, weren't they helping? There was a Christian mission when they started a Christian education. They were helping humanity.

Harvard was governed by religious leaders who were deeply committed to its Christian mission. However, over time, the leadership shifted towards individuals who prioritized academic freedom, scientific inquiry, and secularism over religious instruction. This shift in governance led to decisions that incrementally moved the university away from its religious purpose.

Drift isn't complicated. To return to what's right isn't complicated. We just need to be aware of it.

So that's drift, mission drift. I recently read a book by Russell Moore. It's called Losing Our Religion. And he grew up in the evangelical world. And he got really, what's the word, disengaged by the church he was a part of. He was very much influential in it.

And you think we have an evangelical church, it's God's institution. That definitely shouldn't drift, right?

I would say maybe it's already drifted. But from what he was looking at, he saw this major drift. They forgot their history. Go read the book. It's very fascinating.

They didn't focus on character. They didn't focus on developing people. Another book is Jim Collins. It's on business. It's called How the Mighty Fall. Businesses have money. And there's this funny concept out there that if you have enough money, you won't fall.

This book proves some of the largest corporations in the world fall, not because of the amount of money, which is very fascinating.

They forget. They forgot their purpose.

They forgot their history. They forgot what they were founded on. And it's interesting.

Out of that, the number one reason of failure he mentions is he calls it hubris born of success. Interesting. They have so much money, so much influence, and they become conceited or proud, hubris, he calls it. And they become blinded, thinking their money can get them.

The first state of decline where a company becomes complacent and arrogant because of its past success. Very fascinating read. Leaders begin to assume that their success is inevitable and stop paying attention to the fundamentals that led to their success in the first place. They forgot how they got there.

Huge billion-dollar companies fall. You think, how can that be? It's incredible to me. Let me share one more. Another fascinating read is by Ben Shapiro. He not too long ago wrote the book, How to Destroy America in Three Easy Ways.

Now, here we have nations. They have guns and money. And you think, how can they fall?

You have guns, you're not going to fall. And you have money, you're not going to fall. That's a double.

Look back over world history. How many empires have fallen?

Shapiro argues that one way to destroy America is to undermine its historical narrative and cultural traditions. Very fascinating. Nations that forget their founding, their history, and undermine their culture will crash and burn no matter how rich you are. America is currently the largest nation economically with guns and money in the world.

And I think we all sense that something's happening. Okay? I think it's just good to be aware. But the most fascinating thing to me is when you read the Bible, read the history of the children of Israel, and what is the number one thing that God tells the children of Israel? He says their number one thing was unbelief. Does anyone know what God accuses them of forgetting that led to their unbelief? Does anyone know?

They forgot their history. And out of that, they forget their purpose, and they forgot what God said. Very interesting. When you forget your history, you forget what God said, and you forget your purpose. And think about all those other examples that I gave from missions, churches, businesses, and nations. They all fall, have a common thread. They fall for the same reason. The kingdom of God is no different.

Another thing that I found interesting is in all those books that I read, at the end of each of those examples, they would find themselves fighting. Okay? The business people, the nations, the missions, they would find themselves fighting. And you know what they were fighting over?

Cultural things. Over where they sat around the business table, what position they fought over, churches fought over standards, what kind of clothing they wore, what kind of clothing they didn't wear.

It dialed into a specific thing, and they end up fighting over that because they lost their vision. They forgot their history.

So I think there's a lesson to be learned in this. When we find ourselves what I call so when we think of culture and we think of all these buckets, I would say, that sit under that, beliefs and values, norms and social practices, all these buckets that sit, and we come down and say material culture, for example, we go down inside of that bucket, and then inside of that bucket, we pick up something and we cherry-pick it.

What have people cherry-picked over the years and fought over?

So I'm going to pick a couple of different groups, and then I'm going to come back to us.

Some groups among the Anabaptists, Atley, you're going to be familiar with this one, they will say, "It's important that you buy a piece of equipment that you pull it behind a horse. And if you don't buy this kind of equipment and you pull it behind a horse, we're going to lose our entire culture."

Other people pick articles of clothing.

And they'll say, "If we don't do this, we're going to lose our entire culture."

Russell Moore has a quote that he says, "When institutions and churches start to decline, they start fighting over standards and positions." And I found that interesting. That's what their focus is.

Now, back to my definition of what culture is, and it includes all of our life. Does culture matter? Absolutely. But let's not use a distraction and pick on something very, very small. I don't really care if you drive horses and pull equipment behind horses.

I think that's neither here nor there in the kingdom of God. Whether you choose a particular article of clothing is probably near here nor there. But if that's what you're saying is your driving factor, that's what's going to keep your culture, you will be disappointed.

Not that it might not matter, but you will be disappointed.

So here's another example of what I just said. And I want to try to communicate something.

Where should we put our energy when we think about all those things? I mean, should we focus on symbols and language? Should we focus on material culture? Where should we put our energy?

It's life. It's all of life. We're all affected by this. How you live affects. Which one matters that we all put our energy?

So I might stretch you here a little bit, but I was trying to think of an example, analogy. How do I communicate what matters?

How do you set? I'm guessing most of you would say, "Well, beliefs and values matter." Why does it matter? Everything else has to live under that, right? We're out of that.

So in business, there's this common—I'm going to go analogy; that's not quite the right word I'm after. But when you sell things, they talk about the 80/20 rule. So we have a store there. And the 80/20 rule is this concept: 20% of what you sell, of everything that's in your store, no matter how big or small your store is, 20%, you will sell over and over and over, and you'll make up 80% of your revenue. Okay?

Does that analogy work for that? Just focus on 20%. I recently came across a better analogy, and it's in marketing. And so in marketing, there's this idea out there that they'll go into a business, and they will pick—it's between 3 and 10. It's called your drivers in marketing. They'll never go over 10, and they'll never go under 3. So that's using the number 10 just to be easy. So if you're selling 100 products, for example, they will pick out their top 10, and it's divided by your highest revenue and your most volume. That's called a driver. So if you sell 100 products, they'll pick out 10, and that's your driver. That's what they'll advertise. That driver accommodates 100% of your revenue, those drivers.

What's curious about this is it never goes over the number 10, no matter if you go from 100 to 1,000. 10 is always the driver.

It produces 100%. And my point is, I think there's something to that. We need to focus on our beliefs and values.

So my question is, where do we focus? What is our vision? How do we build our faith? I think it's through our history. We talked about our VHTC, our vision, history, and theology. If we want our culture to be sustainable and know where to focus, we have to know our history. And I'm not talking about just our history like 100 years back, but the history of the Anabaptists, the early history, the original Anabaptists. Learn what they are. What is early Christianity? What is the faith once delivered? What is your history? If we know that, that's our driver. It will produce 100% of everything else. The details do matter. It does matter how we dress. It does matter the houses we live in and the cars we buy.

The details do matter. It's not this modern theology that the details don't matter. It's completely the opposite. The more you understand your history, the more you understand the historic faith, the more you care about the details. But what's interesting, we were talking about being judgmental. The more you understand the faith, the less judgmental you are to others. The more you focus on an individual cultural practice, the more judgmental you get towards others. Did I say that right? I feel like I said something backwards. And I think that's huge. I find it fascinating. The people that are more godly get less and less judgmental because they know their history, not because they're going down the tolerant road.

It's not what I'm talking about. They know the truth. They know what stands, but they're very understanding. And I find that driver concept very interesting.

And when I read those books of all the different things from missions to nations to churches, that's in businesses, it's all very similar. They forgot their mission, which is their driver that influences everything else.

So my question is, is the threat from without or from within?

It's from within. We hold that key. We can't blame people around us or other churches or other church groups or our nation. Sure, there's influences, there's temptation, but the thing that drives us is what you know about your history and your faith. Then you'll care about the details.

So I end with this.

Our vision is to know the historic faith, to know the Christian faith. We do it through studying history. That's what develops our theology, our doctrines, everything that we know, and then we'll live out our culture. Our drivers are the top two.

And I think if we make that our goal, I think it'll be very helpful in establishing our culture that we all want and need to live healthily. It's hugely important.