Is it just me or does the Christian call to ‘be in the world but not of it’ often seem to teeter dangerously close to fostering a sort of split-personality approach to life? We want to be relevant without losing our distinctiveness; we want to be distinctive without being culturally inconsequential; we want to uphold purity without retreating to withdrawal. The tensions are manifold and growing up I often found myself yo-yoing from one extreme to another in a desire to be authentic.
Discerning between what is to be affirmed and what is to be creatively subverted in our culture, means asking difficult questions. We have to face the tension. Ignoring it or minimising it is just no good. At least, I’ve never found that coherent or soul satisfying; it just feels fake – like I’ve stuck my head in the sand and am hoping the tension will quietly evaporate.
Signing up for the Leadership Programme was, in a way, my attempt to be intentional about trying to work out what faithful pursuit of this calling looks like in the here and now. And I can tell you, the Leadership Programme is definitely not for ostriches!
From day one I found myself facing the tension of ‘being in the world but not of it’ head on, week after week. How do we decipher the stories embedded in our cultural institutions and practices? What kind of people does our culture want us to become? What structures dishonour God, dehumanise people and harm creation?
And how do I respond?
That was what I kept coming back to. You can analyse, criticise and come up with theoretical models for engagement but people need something tangible; faith, hope and love have to be lived. Don’t they?
Participating in the Leadership Programme didn’t supply me with all the ‘right’ answers. But it did challenge me to be convinced that God’s act of reconciliation offers the hope of a different way of being human. It encouraged and equipped me to wrestle in anguish with the depth of the pain in the world, assured that Christ is present and expectant that love, forgiveness and healing are possible.
Author Profile
Hi, I’m Katie McAvoy, the Associate Director of the Institute for Faith and Culture run by CARE. I’ve been involved with the CARE Leadership Programme since 2008.
The Programme equips the rising generation of Christians (that’s you and me!) to be leaders in the world of public policy and wider culture. If what I’ve been talking about excites you then you can find out more about the Programme by visitingwww.care.org.uk/leadershipprogramme.
The application process for the 2012-13 intake is now open and the application form can be accessed online.
