GENERATING CHANGE: How We Impact Culture
Nicholas Anderson
Transcribed by PulpitAI (with edits)
And so even though I’m nervous, I’m excited about this young adult ministry. And so today what we’re gonna do is we’re going to take a look at the book of Titus. We’re gonna check out a little bit of the background on that book, some of the cultural contexts that were in it, and then we’re gonna see how that kind of gives us a roadmap into our future to generate change in our culture.
And so if you have your Bible, please turn to the book of Titus. If you don’t have a Bible, there should be a Bible someplace underneath the seat in front of you. This is—you know, check that one out. This one—I’ll be reading from the New Living Translation. It’s a more of a thought-for-thought rather than a word-for-word. It’s good in this time of my life right now. And also you have your phone, so please maybe download the Bible app. And so let me go ahead and read from chapter 1.
This letter is from Paul, a slave of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ. I have been sent to proclaim faith to those God has chosen and to teach them to know the truth that shows them how to live godly lives. This truth gives them confidence that they have eternal life, which God—who does not lie—promised before the beginning of the world. And now at just the right time he has revealed this message, which we announce to everyone. It is by the command of God our Savior that I have been entrusted with this work for him.
I am writing to Titus, my true son in the faith that we share.
May God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior give you grace and peace.
I left you on the island of Crete so you could complete our work there…
Background on Titus
Little bit of background on Titus. He was a Greek Christian. He was not Jewish; he was a Gentile. He was a Greek Christian who was a faithful friend and trusted worker with Paul. 2 Corinthians 7:6 talks about when Titus was able to finally meet back up with Paul, he was an encouragement and a joy to have there. He was left on Crete by Paul for two reasons: one, to appoint elders in all of the cities on that island, and also to root out some crazy doctrinal problems that were happening and really kind of causing a muck in the churches on Crete. So corrupt Christians creating a terrible testimony. And verse 14 of chapter 1, I believe it says that (or it’s 16) “such people claim they know God, but they deny him by the way they live,” which is so interesting. So not compelling Christianity; poor reputation in the public square.
Cretan Culture
And so the culture of Crete was known as treachery, violence, and sexual corruption. So not a super great—like, in the ancient world, that’s what people thought of when, “Oh, I’m from Crete.” “Oh, you’re one of those people. Okay.”
Zeus—the people of Crete claimed that the god Zeus was born on their island, which means he was a man who became a god, at least in their mind, and he was known for two things—lying and a seducer of women. So not a super good role model to have.
During the reign of Tiberius in Rome, they used Crete as an island to banish the people that even the Romans didn’t like. So once again, probably not a super great influence on society. And in fact, the Greek word kretizo, which means to be a Cretan, is also same thing. It says, “to be a liar.” And so the classical philosopher and poet of Crete, Epimenides, says, “The people of Crete are all liars, cruel animals, and lazy gluttons.” And Paul is like, “Uh huh, that’s what they are.” For sure it’s probably hyperbole, but it’s just not a super great culture on the island of Crete.
And so in this letter to Titus, there’s a lot of clues that say that Titus and Paul really studied the culture and understood the culture. And we’ll get into that in just a second.
Just so you can see—Crete. We have a Rome right here, and we have Greece right here. And so this is definitely a port island. There’s a lot of port cities on this island, and so Paul saw that as a place—a very very advantageous place—to be planting churches and then being multiplied into the world.
It was a very mountainous island with very little evidence of Roman roads, and so it would be a lot of physical challenges on the island of Crete.
And then Titus 1 verse 2, that little part that says, “… which God—who does not lie,” is a pretty clear, you know, attack on the god of Zeus, who is a liar. And so Paul is using the language and using the culture of Crete to address, you know, some of these things.
Also, the word “savior” is used a lot in the letter to Titus. And on the island of Crete, there’s been manuscripts found that talk about how these men who became gods became our savior. So another way that Paul is addressing the culture.
And so what I saw when I was studying this book is that there’s some evidence that shows that—it’s not necessarily, “We’re just gonna come into a culture and we’re gonna just do our thing.” It’s like, “No, no, no, we understand the culture, And then we’re gonna address the problems of that culture to then bring them to Jesus and the life that he has.”
Emerging Adults
And in the same way, what we’re trying to do with this young adult ministry is the same thing. We’re trying to study this culture—Millennials, Gen Z, Alpha—and come up with a plan to really love and disciple this generation well.
So let’s talk a little bit about some young adult stats. So it’s 18 to 29. It’s not 47, okay? And it’s known as the “emerging adults.” And so as—so I’m a millennial, and the phrase “millennial” is going to stay with me for the rest of my life. That’s something that moves with me. But “emerging adults” is kind of like a teenager. You go through that stage of life. And so the reason why this is happening is because there is an early start/late finish thing happening, which is a little bit confusing, so let me talk about it.
Because of technology, the Internet, media, pressures from parents, pressures from colleges, there is an earlier start to adulthood, where you are expected to know what you want to do, know what college you’re gonna be at, you know, dress a certain way, whatever it might be—teenagers are having an earlier start to their adulthood. But then there’s also this weird thing where there’s endless possibilities now in the world because of ease of mobility and exploration, financial instabilities, makes finally getting to what’s “adulthood” really hard in this generation. And so you have this later finish—earlier start, later finish.
So check out some of these statistics.
The lengthening of adolescence is shown in the delayed timing of five traditional demographic markers of adulthood (leaving home, finishing school, getting married, having children, and becoming financially independent). In 1960, in America, 66% and 77% of women had completed all five of these milestones by the age of 30. But in 2010, only 28% of men and 39% of women have done so by age 30.
So I’m gonna go back a slide. It’s not necessarily wrong; it’s just different. It’s just different. It’s not necessarily wrong that people aren’t making these five milestone markers. We’re just living in a different age, a different culture.
Reasons for a Young Adult Ministry at Salem
And so why are we as Salem Covenant deciding to make this young adult ministry? Six reasons that we have right now:
1. Providing a strong support system.
2. Creates a sense of community and belonging.
So have you ever felt alone in your life? Have you ever felt as if you weren’t being supported in what you wanted to do, where you wanted to go? Those are rarely good times in someone’s life, and so we want to create consistent and stable community.
3. Fostering intergeneral… intergenerational (I practiced that word so many times) intergenerational relationships.
4. Training up future church leaders.
Discipleship is at the heart of what we want to do as a church, what we’re doing at Remedy, what we’re doing in Anchored, and what we want to do here. But we don’t want to necessarily just create a bubble of young adults. It kind of makes sense for Anchored; it kind of makes sense for Remedy. But even in those, we want to have intergenerational relationships because that is something that I think the church has that most of society doesn’t have. The wisdom that someone older than me has that can give to me—that’s priceless. And I have some wisdom that I can give to people below me, but it needs to be something that we’re all doing. So we don’t want to just kind of create this bubble and say, “Hey, we’re the young adult ministry! And no, get out. We don’t need you.” We need everybody.
5. The young adults usually have a passion for biblical justice and outreach.
6. Keeping the church culturally relevant.
Can we agree that sometimes youth and young adults can get a little bit more excited about things than the older generation? Can we admit that us as the older generation—yes, I’m including myself in that—can’t quite keep up with all of the crazy things that are happening in some of the younger generations? Can we admit that we need help? Right? And so having the youth and having a ministry to really cultivate all of that is gonna be so good.
And talking about the public square for biblical justice and outreach and keeping the church culturally relevant—in the civil rights era, during the marches that they had there, the church leaders, the clergy, were the people who were at the front of those marches. And recently, with some of the different marches that have been going on—I’m not gonna get into the politics of what those marches are or anything like that, but I’ve heard that church leaders have been asked to step to the back. They can still march, they can still be there, but it’s not necessarily the church that is leading. It’s other people. And so the church’s reputation in the public square is starting to wane. And Titus gives us, you know, a good roadmap on how we can address that.
Goals of Young Adult Ministry
But before we get to Titus, what are some of the goals that we are hoping to achieve with this ministry?
Number one is, we want them to be rooted and grounded in love. Our first goal is to foster the personal and communal growth and education of young adults towards a relationship with Jesus Christ, leading to Christian maturity. We wish to see the consistent growth and Fruit of the Spirit in lifestyles like the beatitudes, and this includes biblical literacy and dependence.
Another goal we have for them is good works. Through healthy relationships, we want to invite young adults to embrace the mission of Christ, and this means promoting the building of the Kingdom of God in the world today, and thereby bringing about the transformation of society. Titus 2:14, 3:14, and 1 John 3:18 talk about good works, which has been really interesting as I’ve been studying this. We’ll get to that.
Another goal is the community among believers. Christian relationships will nurture and strengthen their faith, creating communities of support. Social events, small groups, and mentoring programs like that will help facilitate these connections.
And then finally, service at Salem. We aim to make contact with young adults and invite them and welcome them into participation in the life and mission of Christian community. Galatians 6:10 talks about how we should be doing good to everyone, but especially to those in the family of faith.
How Do We Do This?
And so, how are we gonna do this at Salem? How are we going to impact culture and young adults through this ministry? And I’ve talked about it a little bit before, but everyone must help.
In the book that we’ve been reading, Growing Young by the Fuller Youth Institute, it talks about—they did a four year study on youth and young adults, and part of their study revealed that the vast majority of denominations and congregations are shrinking in the U.S. today. But what they did is they studied congregations that were growing, and they were just like, “Why? Why is this happening?” And they found a great paradox in this study. And essentially what that paradox showed is that, oddly enough, an overemphasis on youth and young adults actually revitalizes the entire church as a whole. Young people add great vitality to their faith communities by increasing their church’s service, passion, innovation, financial resources, and overall health.
And so my question is, how do we do this? And so if we go back to Titus—so now that we’ve looked at this young adult ministry and what we’re hoping to accomplish and some of the reasons, let’s see how Titus can give us a roadmap onto that.
In chapter 1, verse 1—the second half of that—it talks about how Paul has a mission “to proclaim faith to those God has chosen and to teach them to know the truth that shows them how to live godly lives.” And in chapter 2 it talks about how that’s going to happen within a Christian household, and chapter 3 talks about how a believer in public ought to act. And so let’s dive into those two chapters.
I’m not gonna read it word for word, but basically, Titus 2—how are we gonna do this as a Christian household? Older men, are you exercising self-control, are you worthy of respect, and are you living wisely, filled with love and patience? Older women, are you living in a way that honors God, not slandering or heavy drinking? Are you doing what is good? Are you teaching younger women to love their husbands and children, to live wisely and to be pure, to care for their homes, and to do good? Young men, are you living wisely and being an example to do every good work? Workers and slaves, are you obeying your boss and doing your best at work, not talking back, stealing, and being trustworthy?
So super quick, Paul brings up the issue of slaves. I’ll just touch on that super, super briefly. In Paul’s churches, slaves were considered equal with their masters. They still worked for their masters, but they were equal in Paul’s churches. But if a slave used that equality to disrespect their slave and talk back, they could be then equated with slave rebellions, which would then further discredit the message of Jesus Christ. So Paul is trying to walk a really, really fine line with that topic in their culture. So that’s a little digression on slaves that I just wanted to pull up.
So the gospel must prove itself in the public square.
Living in Eternal Life Now
So let’s talk about chapter 3, and I’m gonna read verses 1–7. And this is for individuals and how individuals can impact culture. So let’s read chapter three.
Remind the believers to submit to the government and its officers. They should be obedient, always ready to do what is good. They must not slander anyone and must avoid quarreling. Instead, they should be gentle and show true humility to everyone.
I think we’re all going to need those few verses in this political season.
Once we, too, were foolish and disobedient. We were misled and became slaves to many lusts and pleasures. Our lives were full of evil and envy, and we hated each other. But—
When God our Savior revealed his kindness and love, he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit. He generously poured out the Spirit upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior. Because of his grace he made us right in his sight and gave us confidence that we will inherit eternal life.
So Titus 3–4 [ed. note: Titus 3:7] says we will inherit eternal life. 1 John 5:12 says, “Whoever has the Son has life.” John 17:3 says, “How can we have eternal life? To know God and Jesus.” 1 Timothy 6:12 says, “Hold tightly onto the eternal life.”
And so the Hebrew word olam—so first of all, Jesus adapts the phrase from his Hebrew scripture. Eternal life, everlasting life, are things that he talked about a lot. And so olam is the Hebrew word that refers to age. It says “age.” And this refers to a period of time, past or future, with some type of length, but it has unique characteristics.
And so as an example, we have the Roman Age, and we also have the Iron Age. They can overlap as well. So someone who’s in the Roman Age is also someone who can be in the Age of Iron. Another silly example, but I think it makes sense—we are in the Age of Salem Covenant Church, right, and that age goes from about 134 years ago until now, and all of us are a part of the Age of Salem Covenant Church. But we’re also in, let’s say, the Information Age, which has only been going on for about, let’s say, 30 years or so. I’m thinking like the digital information age. But we are in the Age of Salem and also the Information Age.
The ages that Jesus referred to often were the Age of Death and the Age of Life. And we are in the Age of Death. In the Garden, Jesus gave them the option, “Hey, just eat from the Tree of Life, and you will be in eternal life.” But unfortunately, Adam and Eve took from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Bad, and they plunged us into the Age of Death, in which we are now living, which—you have all experienced the Age of Death. Through whatever has happened in your life, whatever choices you have made, you have experienced death. The king, the psalmist, David, talks about how after he killed one of his friends and slept with, you know, that man’s wife—not a good decision, a decision of the Age of Death. He felt rotten in his bones. His bones were rotting within him. But Jesus, as we go through the story of the Bible, he comes and he offers us a way to live in the Age of Eternal Life through his death and resurrection on the cross. And this is—the Age of Eternal Life is something that we can experience now. And oftentimes we think about, “When I die, then I will have the Age of Eternal Life,” but we can live in both of the Age of Death now, but by our choices, through living out the Beatitudes, by exhibiting the Fruit of the Spirit, by becoming more like Jesus Christ, we can choose to live in eternal life now. And some of us—most of us—have experienced that. When we’ve experienced what it’s like to live in the Age of Death, it just totally destroys everything. But through Jesus, we can choose to live in eternal life now. And we’ve experienced how, when we admit our sin, when we apologize to a brother or a sister, when we choose to give to this or to that, and we see someone on the street and we’re like, “I need to help you,” we experience eternal life now.
The Bible Project says:
The church should become an agent of transformation, not through culture wars or assimilation, but through wise participation in culture. Devotion to Jesus and the common good will show the beauty of the message about our saving God.
Paul was so convinced that Spirit-powered faithfulness to Jesus and his way of life will be so convincing to the world around us that they will just see and they’ll know that we are living in a different age. We are living in the Age of Eternal Life, and that is how we can impact our culture.
And I’m just thinking about how Evans Paul and Alex and Melanie Viana—they are our missionaries to Haiti and Mozambique, respectively. They—like, most of their ministry is just helping people, making sure that they have a place to live, making sure they have medicine, making sure that they’re taking care of orphans, just teaching people. And in Mozambique, they’ve planted over like 500 churches. It’s incredible. They see that they’re living in the Age of Eternal Life, and they want to be a part of that.
Keep Fanning the Flames
And so one of my favorite verses is Galatians 6:9–10. And I’ll just go to that really quickly. It says:
So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.
And so my wife and I, we recently went to Hayward camping. It was the first time that we had ever been camping together. It was a success. It was a great time. And so when we first got there, I didn’t really realize that there wasn’t gonna be a whole bunch of firewood or anything like that. And so—let me just show you a quick picture. And so we had to buy the firewood at the store. And there were big chunks, right? Who has ever built a fire before and, like, done it successfully? Okay? Yeah, okay. So I knew that we had to get kindling. We had to get really, really small sticks. And so we walked around the campground looking for just small sticks so we could start this fire. We couldn’t really find anything because, if you know Hayward KOA, it’s like, it’s picked clean. There’s nothing. And so in my mind, I’m like, okay, I’ve seen those logs that are just like filled with wax and fire starter, and you light them, and they just go for like two hours by themselves. I’m like, “Okay, let’s just go buy that and then we’ll be good to go.”
So we go to Walmart, and I find that, but we had to go to the fireworks because it was the 4th of July. So I didn’t want it to go for three hours because I’m like, “Well then I’m gonna have to put it out and then it’s gonna be a waste.” So I find these like smaller ones. And so we come back to the camp and I get everything positioned in that little fire pit, and I’m like, “Okay.” So I put like three of these little balls in there and I light it, and I’m like, “Okay, this is gonna work.” And it says that it would go for like eight to ten minutes or so. I’m like, “Okay, eight to ten minutes, that might be enough to like make a full log go.” No, no, it did not work.
And so underneath it, it was starting—the coals were starting, and I’m like, “Okay, I know what I have to do here.” And so I get on my hands and knees, and I start blowing… to, like, make this thing work, and it started to—and me doing that actually started the embers to go hotter and hotter and hotter, and I could see kind of flames coming up eventually. And I’m like, “Oh man.” And I wasn’t smart enough to, like, get a piece of—like a towel, or a piece of cardboard, to do that. I’m just on my hands and knees. And I’m like, “There’s got to be a better way to do this.” And so my friend Brandon let me borrow this. And so let’s go ahead and play that video.
Not much flames.
…
There they come. There they come.
…
There’s the flames.
…
But watch what happens when we stop.
…
And there they go away.
In the Bible, in 2 Timothy 1:6, the Apostle Paul is writing to Timothy, and he talks about how—are you fanning into flames the spiritual gift that God gave you? And so when we were there and I experienced that, like—so this is a bad example of what Paul was talking about. Because this is easy, right? This is easy. Fanning into flames, getting on your hands and knees and blowing over and over and over again—if you’re not super smart like me—or getting a bellows, or, you know, a piece of cardboard, and consistently, consistently, over the course of minutes and minutes, over and over again, over and over again. And if you stop, you saw how quickly those flames went away, right? So if you do it over and over and over again, all of that hard work produces the fire.
And so with impacting culture as Salem Church, all of us together, and then more specifically with this young adult ministry, I’m asking you, the congregation, to do some hard work for the Kingdom of God. And we’re excited to see how that’s going to play out in September when we officially start this, but what are you doing to use the spiritual gifts that God has given each and every single one of you? Because that’s how it works. It’s not just Christo who’s really good on the guitar. It’s not just me who really likes video. Right? Every single one of us has a spiritual gift that we need to work to fan into flames. And I’m so excited to see how, if we put into practice Titus 2 and 3, how we are going to impact our culture here and also the culture in Duluth.
