it could happen

I’ve blogged twice this week a rant that has turned too mean and ugly and so I stuck it back into a folder until it can be edited into some semblance of kindness. So I guess what happens here is that I blog backward. As if I have an answer to my ugly rant which you have not yet read. In fact, I don’t have an answer, but some fleeting glimpse of a vision of what impact our subculture could have on the culture at large if we took an active role. You’ve probably guessed then, that my ugly rant has to do with our failure to impact the culture because of our preoccupation with finding ways to lessen the negative impact the culture has on us while still enjoying all the things it has to offer.
The fleeting glimpse has come from a most unlikely source. I’ve been serving on a routine task force to evaluate one of the programs at school. In digging around through documents and interviewing students and alumnae, we’ve observed some interesting things and have been inspired to model some new ideas. One thing that may seem like just an encouraging statistic has deeply inspired me. One of our students did a very important and detailed study that was tied to his prison ministry. The bottom line of his finding (which caused a huge stir state wide) was that among prisoners (statewide) who became followers of Christ and were plugged into consistent discipleship programs while incarcerated, the recidivism rate was 0%. None returned to prison. This is in contrast with something like a 70% recidivism rate nationwide. Interesting that I opened this week’s New Yorker this morning and saw a cartoon with a sign hanging in a cell block that said, “Welcome Back, Recidivists”. The cartoon caused me to revisit the importance of the findings. Every year we spend badrillions of dollars on rehabilitation, counseling, education, skills training, and anything else we think might help keep folks from returning to prison. Here we have seen hard proof of the faithfulness of Jesus to keep His promises. Jesus claims the words of Isaiah, “… to proclaim liberty to the captives and to set the prisoner free”. This is literally being done. Jesus said, “as the Father sent me, I send you”. This works! How can society not notice that Jesus has accomplished what they’ve failed to do? In fact, they have noticed. They are asking for more bible studies, mentoring, and discipleship programs. This impacts the culture. It makes us a contributing factor to the larger culture rather than just a consumer and editor of the larger culture’s contribution.
This is just the impetus of my fleeting glimpse; I probably can’t say much more without reporting from a report that we haven’t presented yet. Suffice it to say that I think it is possible to go beyond simply baptizing secular culture and allowing it to mingle with ours. We so often mask the power of God by attempting to inject it into the world’s methods and procedures and philosophies. We spend our time, trying to figure out how our theology can accommodate them. If we truly believe that Jesus is relevant to the culture, then we can shape its methods, procedures and philosophies based on the impact that is obvious. If our love and caring and discipling changes peoples lives, the world will notice, and they will begin to see a source of relief for their hunger.
Well then, I will revisit this as I’m at liberty to share more of our ideas, and my fleeting glimpse becomes a concrete vision. I’m praying for that.