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EXPLORE AND EMBRACE THE CULTURAL MANDATE Educate yourself on the full story explanation of the gospel and become familiar with how the story (creation, fall, redemption, restoration) shows up in all of life and brings clarity to the Christian’s responsibility in a fallen world. Read Genesis 1 and 2 with this perspective in mind and investigate other writings that delve deeply into the topic. Read books by C.S. Lewis, John Stott, Os Guinness, Chuck Colson, Nancy Pearcey, Michael Metzger or Neil Plantinga for specific insight into the cultural mandate. TEACH ABOUT CALLING AND CULTURAL INFLUENCE Inspire people within your church to discover their callings and pursue them with excellence, while celebrating their successes. Educate those around you about how cultural influence happens. Find the people within your church who hold unique and influential positions throughout the seven channels of culture. Help them cultivate and create culture that serves the common good. Your interest in serving them will go along way in building their confidence in the church’s understanding of their opportunity for influence while reminding them of God’s provision. CONNECT WITH YOUR LOCAL COMMUNITY Ask yourself, “If your church were removed from the community today, would anyone even notice?”25 As an integral piece of your local culture, integrate a missional approach to the needs of your community. Add value to the culture, support local artists, businesses, and schools and serve the community with volunteers for good events that are redemptive in nature. Be an advocate for goodness and beauty throughout your surroundings so that if you ever left, you’d be sorely missed. LOOK FOR THE GOOD Become known as connoisseurs of good culture, able to recognize and pick it out in a fallen world. Instead of being offended when confronted with darkness, be provoked to get involved.26 Challenge yourself to find something good in all things and identify the redemptive nature of humanity and its place in creating a better world. CONVENE CONVERSATIONS ABOUT FUTURE-CULTURE Initiate conversations about the values of your community. Host them at your church or in a neutral location and drive the cultural conversation instead of simply responding to it. Raise issues of injustice and offer potential solutions. Be the first to praise the good culture being created in your community and inspire imagination around opportunities that support the common good, elevate beauty and align with truth. Most of all, convene the cultural leaders in your church to encourage and inspire them to renew their channel of influence.