I am pleased to hear the prophetic voices heralding a call to the church (world-wide, but especially in the west) to objectively examine its lifestyle. Just this week I have come across some very thought provoking statements that hopefully will help move us from simple dialogue into revolutionary reformation.

In his book, “Snakes in the Temple,” David Orton brings a challenge to a prevailing mindset in the American Church.

“Instead of living as a kingdom counter-culture, we have become another Western sub-culture, trapped in our Evangelical and Pentecostal ghettos of cultural irrelevance. And in a pathetic parody of our prophetic witness we pronounce judgment on the world, forgetting that it begins in the house of God.” (page 153)

In an article concerning the issue of wineskins, Don Atkin writes, “Kindom culture is not a sub-culture. It is a counter culture. A sub-culture is mostly like the prevailing culture with just a few differences. A counter-culture is completely different from the prevailing culture, with just a few similarities. We are “called out” from worldly cultures into the culture of the kingdom. We must then be purged of our former culture and formed into our new culture. It is one thing to be removed from a particular culture; it is another to have that culture removed from us. It affects our way of thinking until we are transformed by the renewing of our minds.”

“Your kingdom come. Your will be done. On earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10)

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