How to Influence Culture in 2025

In the inaugural episode of the In and For podcast, hosts Brock Anderson and Shelley Komoszewski of the Josh McDowell Ministry discuss the intersection of faith and culture, emphasizing how to be 'in and for' culture for its ultimate good. They explore the definition of culture, the biblical mandate to engage with it, and the three approaches Christians can take toward culture (and which one is most effective). This episode highlights the need for understanding cultural issues, finding personal influence, and being authentically present in conversations about faith. The episode concludes with practical steps for listeners to engage their communities and share the message of Jesus effectively.

Resources mentioned:
Josh McDowell Ministry
Evidence that Demands a Verdict
More than a Carpenter
Sharing Jesus without Freaking Out

Key moments
00:00
Introduction to the In and For Podcast

03:05
Understanding the Mission of the Podcast

05:52
Defining Culture and Its Importance

09:09
Navigating the In but Not Of Concept

11:59
The Men of Issachar: Understanding the Times

14:46
Approaches to Culture: "Against" and "Of"

18:56
The "In and For" Approach to Culture

24:03
Practical Steps to Engage Culture

29:54
Understanding Cultural Issues

33:10
Finding Your Influence

37:06
Knowing Your Limits in Cultural Engagement

40:55
Recap and Next Steps

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to the In and For Podcast
• 3:05 Understanding the Mission of the Podcast
• 5:52 Defining Culture and Its Importance
• 9:09 Navigating the In but Not Of Concept
• 11:59 The Men of Issachar: Understanding the Times
• 14:46 The "Against" and "Of" Approaches to Culture
• 18:56 The "In and For" Approach to Culture
• 24:03 Practical Steps to Engage Culture
• 29:54 Understanding Cultural Issues
• 33:10 Finding Your Influence
• 37:06 Knowing Your Limits in Cultural Engagement
• 41:23 Recap and Next Steps

Transcript

Welcome to the inaugural episode of the In and For podcast where we talk about what it looks like to be in and for Christ and in and for culture for its ultimate good. And we'll talk about that in just a minute. I am so excited about this podcast because if you're somebody who is a Christian who is interested in learning how to take concepts from cultural apologetics, concepts from evangelism,

and see how to apply them in the context of your immediate surroundings and the immediate culture where you have direct influence, this is a podcast you're gonna wanna add to your library. Because that's what we discussed, that's what we talk about. Before we get too much farther, I wanted to do some introductions on who we are. My name is Brock Anderson, been in ministry for about 20 years, local leader in the church, been an elder, also written curriculum for churches, for ministries, and been an executive.

leadership. You're showing off just a little bit. Well, it's not an easy thing to say. I've in executive leadership in in parachurch ministries for a few years. All right, so you're qualified. but love apologetics and love evangelism and love equipping fellow Christians and how to be articulate and explaining their faith and just talking about Jesus, where they are with who they have the opportunity to encounter. So

That's me, Shelley, talk about you. Thank you. Thank you. I am Shelley Komoszewski. I know that is a mouthful. Komoszewski is in the kitchen and ski is. That's not going to help anybody when they see your name. Komoszewski. Anyway, I am Shelly. have been in ministry over 30 years in both the church setting and the nonprofit sector. Sector. Sector. Sector. Yeah. Yeah.

That's what I want. So we are excited to be here because what I love most is watching people understand when they see Jesus, everything changes. It transforms them and it spills over into their closest relationships and to culture around them. And so that's what we're talking about today. And we couldn't be more excited that you're with us for this conversation. Yeah. And so we both work with the Josh McDowell ministry. You may be familiar with that name. Shelley, tell us a little bit about

Josh Maddow ministry and if that name rings a bell it might be from work such as more than a carpenter or evidence that demands a verdict. there. But yeah, little spot there. Nice. But many of you might not remember Josh's story. And so Josh set out. Josh's early upbringing was a disaster. There was sexual abuse and physical abuse and he had a really difficult childhood. He got to the university and he saw a group of people.

that were different and he wanted what they had. Because of his upbringing, he wanted nothing to do with Jesus or with religion. But this group was interesting. They challenged him to look at the evidence. And Josh said, I'll take that on and I'm gonna disprove you. Instead, the evidence told him it's true, but it would be understanding God's love for him.

that would cause him to not only bow his knee and give his life to Christ, but to dedicate his life to ministry. so 60 years later, over 150 some books in 120 some languages, God has just gifted that man and that ministry. And so we're here today taking the evidence for the faith, living it out in practical, everyday ways that changes how we view ourselves, the world around us,

And that's what we're here to talk about. And that leads perfectly into what we wanted to talk about first, was the... nicer setup than you give me. Well, yes. Well, then I apologize for that. But it leads us into the name why, in and for. And I think you summarized it perfectly. You're taking the concepts of apologetics and seeing how to apply it into the cultural surrounding where you are. We already know we're in Christ and for Christ.

Bible tells us that multiple places. We're in Christ, He is in us, and we are for Him in our cultural context. But in order to do that, we also have to be in and for culture. And we also see that throughout Scripture over and over again, both in the Great Commission, both in the missionary mandate and Acts. And we see that descriptively in the works of Paul and others, where they're going out in these missionary journeys and impacting the local cultures around them for Christ.

The important part to remember here is we're impacting culture for its ultimate good. And so we're in and for culture, not meaning we're all about the way culture is right now. Absolutely not. We are in and for culture for its ultimate good. And the question that comes from that then is what is the ultimate good for culture? And the ultimate good for culture is the essential truths of Christianity, what Jesus himself has taught. And the ultimate good is understand

helping other people understand who God is and who Jesus is, why the Bible is a source of authority, who we are identity-wise, what does it mean to be created in the image of God, what's our ultimate meaning and purpose. When we help others in our cultural context understand that, our- Everything changes. Yes, our cultures where we have influence change and then the concentric circles outside of that change. And so that's what it means.

to be in and for Christ and in and for culture, which is why we're called in and for. we're going to talk to that. Such a cool name. Yeah. We're going to talk about that a little bit later about comparing that with a couple other approaches to culture, the against culture approach and the of culture approach and compared to what that looks like when compared to the in and for approach. before we go there, I think we need to define culture.

What is culture? It's kind of reminds me of that commercial when someone says, what is the economy? And they're saying, well, what's not the economy? And we all know the term, but yet we're might not be so quick to be able to define it. So Mr. Webster's dictionary, how would you define culture? The difficult thing about culture is that some people like to use the dictionary definition of culture and other people like to use contextualized definitions of culture that they see in blog posts and in books.

and in various pieces of content from creators. But the things that we know are true about culture are always involves people, always involves people interacting with each other and the world around them. And what's produced from that becomes the thing that defines what that culture looks like. And then we look at that from biblical worldview and we say, is that good and helpful and beneficial and life giving and beautiful, or is it harmful and destructive? And so that's what we look at when we think of what is culture.

So we have global culture, which is ultimate big culture. And then it goes down to what even that would be big culture. And then small culture would be what? The way our teams at work play together. Yeah. Family, neighborhood, community. Again, when you start breaking culture down into the components of starting with culture is where people are. The amount of people.

What people tend to think of when they think of culture is big culture, like you said, they think of their cities, they think of large, vast communities, they think of global culture. How can I ever impact global culture? But what they tend to miss is that culture happens within your family, within your neighborhoods, within your communities, where you actually have impact and influence and have the opportunity to speak into that. And that's how we want you all to think about culture.

Instead of just always thinking on the big grand scape of culture overall, which is vast and complex and always changing and hard to pin down. Intimidating. Yeah. Think of more intimate culture of family, neighborhood, community, where you have share of voice, where you have influence, where you have impact. That's where you start. That's why this podcast was developed to show you how to take cultural apologetics concepts and evangelistic concepts and bring impact.

to the areas where you have influence and share a voice to bring impact to your culture. So I was talking to a friend recently and was telling them that we were gonna be starting this In and For podcast. And she said, she asked some questions about defining culture. And then she says, but doesn't scripture say to be in the world and not of the world? Doesn't scripture say not to be in love?

doesn't scripture put the world at odds against Christians? How does that apply to the podcast? And I was like, wow, that was like a really deep and meaningful question. So it might be helpful to talk a little bit about that because the Bible does say in many ways talks about the world systems and the rulers of this world. And so when we look at culture, how do we balance that? Yeah, I mean, so when we think of culture and we think of the

in but not of section of scripture, is usually seen as John 15 through 17. There's something interesting going on there because there is throughout the book of John, you see the world talked about different way. The same world that Jesus died for in John 3.16 is also the world that we're told that's going to hate us and not have anything to do with us. And so there's different concepts of world going on there. But more importantly, in John 15 through 17 specifically,

This is a section of scripture where Jesus is talking about how he is the vine and we are the branches. We are in the world, but there's a way that we are to love that's not of the world. The way the world loves each other is not the way Christ loves the world and the way that we are to love the world as ambassadors of Christ. And that's really what that section of scripture is dealing with is how are you loving the world? Remember, we're identified as followers of Christ by how we love one another and we love one another the way Christ loves one another.

The idea of love, the concept of love in this world is incredibly broken. We love people based oftentimes on what they do for us, what they give for us. When people even say, people say, I love you one day and the next day they have nothing to do with each other. God and God's economy is nothing like that. Christ loves with a pursuing love and enduring love and an eternal love. We're told to love like that. Well, that's not of the world at all.

And so in that way, we are to be in the world, but we're not of the world in the way that we love others and the way that we're for others. Just like in a secular sense, if somebody's for culture, what they mean is I'm for everything going on right now. I love it. I love the way it is and I want more of it. That's not the way we approach it from a Christian worldview. The way we're for culture is we're for its ultimate good. And its ultimate good is the embodiment of the essential truths of Christianity. That's good. That's good. So as Christians, we...

have to care about culture because God has loves the people in culture. and you have you have a wonderful illustration about this from scripture from first Chronicles and the men of Issachar. Can you talk about that? I think that early on in early on in my journey with Josh McDowell ministry, Josh himself introduced me to the men of Issachar. And I will never forget it because it had a profound impact on my life. And it says in first Chronicles that the men of Issachar

understood the times in order to know what to do. And that was a whole different way of looking at culture of saying, Hey, I want to understand the people. Truth doesn't change. Truth is constant throughout all cultures, throughout all generations, but it's critics change and the questions each generation asks for different cultures, ask different questions. They have different barriers to seeing Jesus clearly. And so we want to be able to

understand the times like the men of Issachar in order to know what to do to be winsome and to be light in a dark world that falls too easy pray for cheap imitations of the real thing, which is the love of Jesus like you just talked about. Absolutely. And to be winsome has to come from an authentic place of concern. When you're being winsome to reach others for Christ, there has to be an authentic concern for that person as an image bearer of God. And so I have an authentic

concern for them because I have an authentic belief that they're created in the image of God and they have intrinsic value. And so that section from the men of Issachar is wonderful. And it's also embodied really well in Acts 17, which I feel like is kind of like the go-to verse when it comes to interacting with culture of Paul and Athens. And when he's there, it's such a beautiful description.

as he's waiting for his companions to arrive and he's walking through Athens and he's torn at the heart the way scripture talks about it because he looks around and sees that the city is full of idols. He sees where they've placed their hope and their trust and he doesn't run and tear down aisles and scream at people. then, he learns about the culture, right? We see that when he talks to the Areopagus and he's debating with the philosophers and he shows that he understands the writings of the culture and he studied them.

and even talking about the statue to the unknown God. He knows about that. So he studied the culture. He knows the culture. But the reason why he's torn at the heart is because he has compassion for the culture. So this question of, we have to care about culture? Well, if culture is where people are, then as Christians, do we have to care about people who are image bearers of God? You're not going to... We do. Yes, we do. The answer is yes. Yes. That wasn't a trivia question or anything, so that's good.

We do we need to care and the more that Jesus transforms us the more we are eager to impact our world for Christ and so I know the terms some of these terms of culture seems really overwhelming and big and so we want to break down some of that for us and so What I want to talk about is when we first talked about the concept of in and for yeah We talked about some of the ditches that believers have

when it comes to culture. so there's some different views that we want to be aware of so we don't fall into them. So let's talk about those. Yeah, I would say there's some pitfalls that we want to avoid that for, despite the best intentions that some people would have, it doesn't lead to the kind of encounter with the world that best aligns with a Christian worldview. And one of those is how do I interact with culture?

The best thing to do is just to be against culture. And I just want to be anti everything that's going on in culture, anti music, anti movies, anti anything that's going on in popular culture. I want nothing to do with it. I'm not going to have any interaction with it. Well, that also means you're not going to have any interaction with the people that are involved in that culture as well. And so you're not going to have any context for having winsome meaningful conversations with them. So it ends up with an attempt and a well-intentioned attempt.

Some of that being separate from the world and almost fencing ourselves from being too easily pulled in. Sometimes we pull too far out. We're not able to shine our light into the dark though. And I think that's an excellent way of saying that because what happens is with the attempt to preserve the churches or the Christians' purity.

what you end up having is more of a fear-based approach. And it's not. That's so helpful, Yeah, it's more of like a what if, fear-based approach. What if this happens, what if this happens, instead of an even if kind of faith-based approach of. That's good. Even if I have to step into this kind of culture, I'm gonna do so on behalf of Christ for the purpose of winning other people to Him in their cultural context, just like we see Paul doing in Athens where he steps into that culture.

For the purpose of to see Jesus. I love that. the purpose to Jesus. So we have some groups who say it's all evil. I want nothing to do with it. And they pull themselves against culture. And then too many believers today swing the pendulum so far the other direction that you can't separate them from culture. So let's talk about that for a second. Yeah, this is that that second, that second option, that second approach that we have to culture, which is being of culture of just like, well, if I just look

just like my neighbor, then my neighbor will wanna talk to me. And if I just watch the things, all the things my neighbor watches and engage with all the things that they listen to and do all the same things they're doing, well, then I look just like them. Well, the problem is that you look so much like them that there's no reason for them to turn to you for any answers whenever they come into. You're one of them. Yeah. When they come into contact with a difficulty or a...

just a difficult life circumstance, or they just come with the reality of their existence. Like they've come to this point where like, is there more to life than this? They don't know you're the kind of person that they can talk to about that because you haven't demonstrated that. I teach this to my own kids all the time of, be the kind of person that just talks about Jesus. But more importantly, when you talk about Jesus, especially with those people that you're in contact with regularly, they should feel like you're the kind of person that I would expect.

to talk to me about Jesus. That's so cool. And I think that's, you can't do that if you're of culture in every single thing, because then you end up telling people about Jesus and about the Bible and they start digging into who Jesus is and they start looking about what the Bible says and they start coming to conclusions like, wait a second, I have to change my life and do this, that and the other, but I don't see you doing that. You don't seem to be changing your life for this, that and the other.

You seem to, it seems like the only difference between me and you is you do the same things I do, but you have all these restrictions that I don't have. necklace. Yes, or you wear a cross necklace. And, and that's, being of culture, it sees culture as more of an ally than, than of a threat. And, and it, it fails to see the perseverance of sin and the pervasiveness of sin within culture, because there, there's no, there's no attempt to pull somebody from their worldview.

Into a christian worldview with winsome discussion. That's good. Yeah, so we have one ditch that is separate One ditch that's all in neither of those work for us. So going back to the title of the podcast i'm going to sneak that in wherever I can because it's really awesome In and for culture and then for christ in and for culture That's the middle ground that avoids the ditches and it's what kind of posture is that? Yeah, well

When we talk about being in and for Christ, we're talking about being representatives of Christ. Because that's what it means to be in Christ and to have Him in us is that we are now citizens of heaven. We are now ambassadors for Christ called to represent Him well. And so we're representative of Christ and we live our lives in the midst of and for the good of our cultural We'll say that again, that was really good. In the midst of and for the good of. For the good of culture. Yeah, of our cultural context where we are. And again, if you're a follower of Christ,

then you know that what's for the ultimate good of the cultural context you're in is the essential truths of Christianity. When those are lived out, the world becomes a better place. People become more holistic because they start living the way they're actually designed to live, an acknowledgement of their creator. So our mission ends up including identifying ways in which our cultures are corrupted and misdirected by sin.

and then bringing healing. We want to bring healing and redirection to them through biblical truth. And this is really the heart of both apologetics and evangelism. Evangelism is bringing the gospel to those who you have in your sphere of influence. And apologetics both has a pre-evangelism element to it, to where it gives that evidence that leads to the gospel, but it has this post-evangelism element too, where it surrounds the gospel with additional reasons to believe why.

It's grounded in reality and not just a belief. That's so, so good. So, this isn't in the notes, so I might make him a little nervous, but we'll try. It reminds me of our new mission statement at Josh McDonald ministry. And it says what we exist to cut through cultural confusion. So people see Jesus clearly. And that's exactly what we've been talking about.

helping people see Jesus clearly and helping to cut through that cultural confusion, help to answer some of the barriers. But before we can answer and cut through that, we have to be aware of the barriers and aware of what various cultures, they're barriers to the gospel.

Yeah, once we understand that, like the men of Iscar, we understood the times and then we know what to do. And that's where our boldness and our winsomeness. I'm going to keep saying that because I love that word. It might be my new word for the share. Anyway, the winsomeness of the gospel, our winsomeness that we are ambassadors of Jesus. We are his and we're shining light into a world that is so desperately needs it. And so if we are against culture, there is no light to shine because you have hidden that.

And if you're in of culture and you're then there's no light because it looks like everybody else's. And if we are in and for culture, just like the podcast name, then we should shine our light in such a way that people say, you're different. Tell me more. And that's, what we want. We want to engage our families, our communities and let them see Jesus clearly. So anyway, sorry.

Yeah, so if you have a detour there. Well, that's, but that's, that's great. I mean, that's what that's why we do this. It's so we can let the spirit do his thing. We're not interested in just following, following a script. We want to make room for the spirit and everything we do. Um, but yeah, for, for, for those of you who are just looking for kind of recaps or maybe jotting down some notes or things like that, those three things are the three approaches to culture that, that

that we talked about at beginning of the podcast. Those three approaches to culture are being against culture, which is more fear-based, and I'm pulling away from culture, and I hide away from culture, which ends up being fear-based and isn't living out a biblical worldview, because you're not stepping into culture, or being of culture, which makes you look just like everybody else, which doesn't set you apart as different or distinct on behalf of Christ. And then lastly, there's in and for culture.

which means I'm in for Christ, which means I'm engaging in and for culture for its ultimate good. And that's your only option that best aligns with the biblical worldview. And that's why we named the podcast this. And that's what we call you to and ask you to consider doing in the context where you have the most influence already, your families, your neighborhood, your friends, your peers, your coworkers. These are all cultures where you have influence. And it naturally brings up the question of

Where do we start? Well, I know I was going to ask you that because I think everybody is very compelled now. They want to be in and for culture. And so they're like, great, Rock and Shelley, we are in. We are in and for this podcast. I got it. I picked up where you're putting down pretty quick. Yeah. So where do we start? Well, you mentioned two things already. You mentioned gesture and posture. that's really, those are two really important words. Your gestures are the things that you do.

But the posture is the motive for why you're doing it. So and the winsomeness Yeah, welcome. So that's that's important to remember that those things have to be aligned Your gestures can look great But if your posture isn't authenticity Sincerity a true desire to see somebody come to know the Lord Jesus Christ because of your concern for them

then your gestures are going to fall flat because your motivation for why you're doing what you're doing will eventually be found out. So the first step when it comes to being an NN4 culture is ensuring that our gestures, what we're doing, are lined up with our postures, why we're doing it. And that takes a lot of self-reflection and a lot of introspection and perhaps some confession as well and some repentance and going before the Lord and taking that.

Psalm 139 approach of just asking, Lord, search me and reveal within me anything that may be insincere, anything that may be Christianese or from just a soul Christian perspective of something my pastor said to do or something a podcast told me to do, but help me to truly have a desire for those I have influence over so that my posture lines up with my gestures.

And I truly am reaching people for the purpose of seeing them come to the faith and come to know Christ. Not because I want to get a notch on my belt, not because I want to go talk to my pastor and say, look what I did. Not because I want to go talk to my Bible study leader and say, well, I shared the gospel this week, but truly because my posture is for the ultimate good of the people that I'm trying to reach. That's really important. And that's that's the first one. There's a second one that comes after that.

Well, first, before we race on, we're going to stay on the first time. Just a moment, because I really think that sometimes as believers, we struggle with this. We struggle with our posture and our gesture because we have the truth. We it's true. It's true. We have the evidence and we want to come in and say, wake up world. Here it is. Now believe. And so I was just reminded that that never works with my husband.

When I come in and say, I have the answer, just pay attention and let's go. It doesn't work with my children, so why on earth would it work with those that we want to love well and shepherd well to see Jesus clearly? And so just recognizing that, us being four, the people in our lives mean we're gonna listen even when it's hard. And our kids are gonna say things and our grandkids are gonna say things that scare us and that's okay.

We want to be open and we want to be winsome and out of love for them. We want to hear them because once we actually hear them, then we have a place to start. And so instead of being scared of things or what if they bring up something, I hear this all the time, what if they bring up something that I don't know how to answer? Can I give you a quick bit of advice? Say, honey, thank you for being honest with that. That is a great question. Let's look into it and find that answer together.

You don't have to have the answers on every piece of culture. But here's what we do need to know that Jesus is God. The Bible is true, the resurrection is a historical fact, and Jesus is passionate about a relationship with you. And if we come in with that strong foundation, then all the weird pieces, they usually go back to one of those. And so don't be afraid.

to start those spiritual conversations because I might not have the answer. It's okay if you don't have the answer, but start them because you love them too much not to start the conversation. And so that's our posture. And now we wanna understand and pay attention. I'm sorry. What's point two? I just jumped in.

Sorry, is he giving me the microphone and I get excited to go on to the next point? I think that is what we, as we transition to point two of like, where do we start? That second point of understand and pay attention to today's cultural issues. I think you've talked about this already with the men of Issachar and I've talked about this with Paul in Acts 17. And I just think you're gonna see this over and over again throughout scripture if you look for it. There's an understanding of what's going on in that culture.

before there's a writing of how to move forward in that culture. And the same thing is true for you and maybe not as much for your family, because maybe you are very familiar with your family's culture, maybe not so much outside family members, but definitely with your neighbors and with your community abroad, get to know where they stand, what they believe, what they think about different things of life. And you do this just by having conversations. Asking questions. Asking questions, yes.

As you've probably heard multiple times, people love talking about few other subjects more than themselves. When you're genuinely interested, when it seems like I'm asking you a question so I can get to a point to invite you to church and that's clearly your motive, not a concern for them at all, then that also becomes clearly noticeable to them as well. But if you are actually interested in getting to know who they are,

what they believe, what their background is. So you begin to ask questions at what we call those crescendo moments. The crescendo moments are- Crescendo moments. Every conversation's kind of like a musical symphony and there's these different parts that come along, but then there's these crescendos and there are these moments in conversations when someone tells you something significant about their background or about their history or about their family. And those are the things that you get to take and kind of sit in your pocket, stick in your pocket for the next time you talk to them.

and say, hey, the last time we talked, you mentioned this, I'd like to hear more about this. And that's how conversations progress. And they feel valued. They feel heard. They feel seen. And then they're going to be much more open. I love that. That's so good. that's just one on one. That doesn't even mean that doesn't even talk about like understanding today's cultural issues. So let's talk a little bit about that. think, again, some people are very intimidated by all the cultural noise. And there is so much noise.

And so how do we separate some of the bigger issues? Like, do I have to be an expert on this and this and this and this? And where do I start? And I feel overwhelmed. And I'm going to say, a deep breath and pay attention to just a few things. So here's an easy one. Global pandemic on loneliness.

Everybody's feeling it. feel a lot of people feel alone. so picking up being aware of that and picking up on something as simple as a few of those cues allow you to step into a pain point to talk about a savior who never leaves you or forsakes you the mental the mental health crisis of a generation of the young generation.

They talk openly about their mental health issues and their concerns. so listen and engage in a God who wants to step in and not only help you deal with all the depression and these issues, but then he wants you to thrive. And so even just being aware of some of the cultural, the big global issues are opportunities for the gospel.

And so instead of being intimidated by them, read a few articles on the loneliness, on mental health issues. And when a generation wears their wounds, what a beautiful point to find an entryway to show concern, love and point them to a Jesus who loves them dearly. Yeah. So I don't think we need to be intimidated by knowing all the of culture. Yeah. But we can start somewhere.

Yeah, I agree. And when you talk about wearing wounds, that's one of the most beautiful opportunities we have with Gen Alpha and Gen Z and to an extent, older millennials wear, or I should say younger millennials, wear, they do wear. They have no problem at all talking about the mental health crisis. have no difficulty talking about the stark rises in anxiety and depression that are rampant throughout our culture today.

And what an opportunity it provides for you to be able to move into that conversation with the healing of Christ. so, yeah, understanding and paying attention, paying attention to the individuals surrounding culture, like where they come from and what their interests are and what their background is. That's really important. Understanding the broader cultural issues at large. What's what's pervasive in culture today and how can you use that to move a conversation forward?

That's a really helpful apologetic. It moves into how the Bible has answers for that, but it's also a really helpful move from an evangelistic standpoint on how to simply just talk about how Jesus speaks into that. That's really helpful. The next, the third one here is to determine or discover where you have influence. Influence. Yeah, and so.

I'm influencer? that you're telling me? Everybody is an influencer in some way, shape or form. Somebody's watching you. You have influence over somebody. I know that's a buzzword, but explain why it fits so perfectly here. Yeah, well, because the reason why it fits perfectly here is because you have a culture that you have the opportunity to change.

I love that and I was startled when I saw the outline and you said that because I wouldn't necessarily have put this in and the more I thought about it the more I thought how true it is. It's an empowerment. We want to empower you to light your candle and so if that's a small candle and you are in a facility a care facility right now recovering from surgery light your candle. If you are in a

If you or kids are on sports teams, light your candle, mama, daddy, light your candle and be winsome and appealing to people that are watching you. And so when we think of various cultures and we put it into practical story form, we're also going to say you have more influence than you would begin to know. Yeah. And so I'm just going to challenge you to ask the Lord where

can ask the Lord, is my influence and where do want me to speak up? Because some of you are in education. We know that is a dark and tough field today. Light your candle, be bold in your influence. Others of you at vocations, man, we need strong Christians in every field from insurance to politics to the movies to entertainment to podcasts to anything.

where God has put you, man, be bold and step in and ask the Lord where your influence is and then say, Lord, what's my next step? How do I step into that with a broader voice that helps people see Jesus clearly? Because that's the point. So I love Ephesians 2 10 that says in eternity past, God created good works that we would walk in. In eternity past, God put you in this generation, in this culture for a reason.

Engage it, my friend, engage it and engage it boldly. So I do believe that we have little cultures and I do believe that we have more influence than we know. And bigger cultures affected when we play our role with faithfulness and honesty and winsomeness and clarity to see Jesus clearly anyway.

That was I got off on a little rabbit trail there. No, I think it was right in line what we were talking about there and we're talking to all audiences Some have more influence than others and we need to be we need to address all of them So I think that makes perfect sense You are where you are because God created an eternity past that you would be here. So ask him what good works you have Wherever you are at this chapter of your life, and it's just a chapter be faithful. Yeah be faithful

Yeah, and that being faithful part of being faithfully present has, as has been said, kind of moves into the last last point of of just these starting points of number four, just being no, no, your limits when you're when you're can't change big culture overnight. Unfortunately, there is no change culture button. But but we we are called to be faithfully present where we are and to be on mission for Christ. But one thing that we can never control is the outcome.

of our efforts. God is the one who determines the outcome of our faithfulness for Him. When we're on evangelistic endeavors, only He's the one that changes a heart of stone to a heart of flesh. When we're on apologetic endeavors, only He's the one that opens a mind to understand the concepts that are being explained. And so it's a reminder just to know our limits and to be faithfully present wherever you are.

But to not be discouraged when you seek to make an impact for Christ in the cultures that surround you and there's not an overnight difference or people just don't stand up and give you a standing ovation for finally being bold for Christ. Wouldn't that be nice? I will say that when I say those kinds of things, people can tend to retract and be like, oh yeah, so the opposite is going to be faithful. Be faithful, be bold.

There's this thought that when I talk to my neighbor about Christ, they're going to start throwing things at me and shut the door in my face or go get the shotgun. There are two things from a great book of Sharing Jesus Without Freaking Out. That's the title? That's the title. I haven't heard. And phenomenal resource where he said, here's the two things that I see that happen when I talk about Jesus. People come to Christ or people are thankful for what you've shared.

Those are the two most common reactions that that he said that he saw and those are the two reactions that I see when I encounter people and I talked to them about Jesus people that I think would be combative so Yes, know your limits and that God controls the outcomes absolutely But also understand the reality of the situation that as you step in to culture to be for culture for its ultimate good The general response that's seen is people are interested in

hearing more about the answer to what's going wrong with the world today. And as you talk more about that, the very, at the very least, they see you as somebody with integrity, somebody who's sincere, somebody who's genuinely concerned with them. I remember when I talked to a couple of friends about some Mormon missionaries that were coming to their house and said, Hey, here's my concern. Here's what Mormons believe. And these are two atheists that, that, that, that we knew as like, here's what Mormons believe. Here's what they hold to.

he could have very easily have been like, oh, you're so judgmental. But because I approached him from a heart of concern and my genuine concern was for him, I was like, hey, I know religion can be a sticky subject. And so I don't want to come across in a difficult way that harms our relationship, but I need you to know that that's true about Mormonism. And he stopped and what he said was, Brock, the only way you come across to me is somebody who's concerned about me and that you care about me. And that meant the...

world to me that he responded in that way. But I'm telling you that's the average response that you're going to get. So know your limits, but that doesn't mean don't step out boldly. Just understand that you don't have the ability to change a heart from stone to flesh. Only God can do that. You don't have the ability to open minds to understand. Only God can do that. What you can do is be faithfully present in the cultural context where God has placed you.

I can't it's yeah that was really, really good and such encouragement I know that was great like okay yeah it's fantastic so that's those are the four things that we want to talk about an actual next steps and in someone is listening to this while they're running on the treadmill do you want to repeat them just real quickly the four yeah the four rundowns yes

So the first thing you want to do is consider your gesture and your posture and make sure they're aligned. Remember, your gesture is what you do and your posture is why you're doing it. if you're going some and caring, yes. So if you were going to seek to put on a display of good Christian behavior for the purpose of winning other people to the gospel, make sure that your actual authentic concern is for that person. And then the second thing is to understand and pay attention to today's cultural issues.

just like Paul understood what was going on in Athens before he started engaging and asking questions of those in the culture around him that began moving the conversation toward Christ. We wanna do the same thing. We wanna understand both. It's entry points to the gospel. Yeah, it's entry points to the gospel as we talk to people in their cultural context and as we understand the broader cultural context that bring up perfect topics of conversation to discuss how Jesus speaks into those.

The third is to determine where you have influence. The little culture you have influence over, the bigger culture you have influence over, where do you have influence where you can begin taking faithful, bold, prayerful steps toward encountering others with the arguments for Christianity, if you're aware some of those, some of the apologetics for Christianity, or just with an evangelistic approach of just helping people take one step closer to Jesus.

That's those so know know where you have influence to do that write those down and begin praying in the direction of those people that God would open the door of opportunity to begin Conversations there and lastly to know your limits know what you can and can't do you can talk boldly You can start conversations. You can be winsome. You can be authentic You can't change a heart of stone to a heart of flesh You can't open minds to understanding and most importantly what you can do is be faithfully present in the cultural context work

where God has placed you. Be faithful and leave the results to God. That would be a way of saying that. up, I'm gonna make a shameless plug for josh.org. josh.org, our website here. Because if questions come up that you're not sure how to answer, man, we have some great, great tools that will help you answer that or gain some more understanding on some different topics. So that's not a shameless plug. It's here to help you and to equip you.

to be faithful in the spiritual conversations God gives you. So when we meet up again for the next podcast coming up in we've gotten through everything that we said we wanted to go through. And we are now moving to transitioning to previewing the next podcast transition, which is coming in February, which is transition music. We do now because you just did that. But in February, traditionally the month of love, Valentine's Day.

We're going to talk of course about hopelessness. Wait, wait time out. did we wait? The month of love. We're going to talk about it. Well, here's your hook for next time. I'm not sure it's worth it. Here's why you'll want to number one, like I said, the beginning, add this to your library of podcasts. If you're the kind of person interested in taking cultural apologetics and evangelistic concepts and applying them to your context and just having a really great and

helpful, fun conversation. Yes, we guarantee it will be and it's always going to be fun. Even when we talk about hopelessness. But the reason why we're cornering that is because the heart is that the heart of hopelessness is misplaced loves. And so it ties it in. Yes. And it's not what's smooth. We end up being hopeless when we when we search for a love.

that is not true eternal everlasting love. A love that fails, a love that falters, a love that can be taken away or corrupted. So where is true love found? How can I point others to it? And that brings that practicality to it that you're gonna wanna be at the next podcast to hear the practical next steps of how can I take this rampant trend in society today of hopelessness and show how it's because of misplaced loves and then

point people to the love that truly fulfills and that never diminishes. That's very, very sweet. I look forward to it. I look forward to it too. Thank you. I pray us out? You're going to dump. Sorry. I wasn't even going to pray. That's so spiritual. I'm sorry. Maybe this isn't appropriate. It's not inappropriate at all. think, I think as a Christian podcast, it's a good idea to include prayers. I think we talked about a lot and so letting it just again, go deep within us. So father, God, thank you.

for this really fun conversation and important conversation because we want to be people. We want to be your people who engages culture well with the right attitude, with genuineness and helping this world and the people in it see you clearly, Jesus. And so that is our heart. So for every person who's listened, would you stir in them, Holy Spirit, their next steps and how they can apply this and engage in the relationships closest to them.

And so Father, take these truths, make it go deep. If something we said wasn't of you, may it blow away and anchor the rest. And we'll see each other again next time. And we pray this all in the mighty, matchless name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Thank you all for joining us. We will see you next time.