Session One
We Create
andy crouch—Praxis partner for theology & culture
Andy Crouch discusses our role in creating and cultivating in this world.
The Praxis Course kicks off as Praxis Partner for Theology Andy Crouch discusses our role in creating and cultivating in this world. For the last 100 years, Christians have taken four postures toward culture, reactive models of how Christians have historically responded to the world, that have proven to be unhelpful. The only way to change culture is to create more of it: to create something that carries new possibilities, horizons, and aspects of human existence that didn’t exist before in a given sector or issue.
Andy delivered his talk to a group of next-generation entrepreneurs participating in one of our Praxis Academy programs.
HOSTING OFFLINE?
OPEN IN PRAYER
If your group has not watched the introduction video beforehand start here.
Watch (12 min)
Connect (20- 30 min)
Start with group introductions. Getting to know individuals in this group is a key part of this experience. Allow each person a chance to share, and listen attentively to one another. Go around the room and share the following:
Name and where you're from
How you spend your time and what you do for work
What was new to you or challenged you in the introductory video on Redemptive Entrepreneurship?
Tip: Give everyone a heads-up that you'll set the timer for 3 minutes per person. When the timer goes off, please wrap up, so others can share.
WATCH (19 min)
REFLECT (3-5 min)
Spend a few minutes in silence, praying and reflecting on the videos. Ask participants to jot down questions that were raised, significant key points, where they felt encouraged or challenged by the Lord, etc.
DISCUSS (40 min)
1. Andy quoted Ken Myers’s definition of culture — “What human beings make of the world — in both senses.” Consider a piece of culture (a Marvel Movie, WeWork, Instagram, your favorite restaurant, the building and room you are meeting in, your favorite family tradition, etc.) and answer the following questions:
a. What do you think the creators of the cultural object were trying to make of the world?
b. What was made more possible or less possible through what they created? Were any new forms of culture created in response?
c. Does their idea change the way you see the world? How so?
2. Andy said that we are tasked with creating (making new things) and cultivating (keeping things good). Name a unique cultural product or expression, no matter how small or private, that you are creating, and another where you are seeking to cultivate its good.
3. Andy described the four postures towards culture that fail to change the world:
Condemn - complain or dismiss culture
Critique - respond to what Christians should engage with in culture (don't drink, don't smoke). Offers nothing beyond analysis.
Copy - "wait for the world to do something interesting and then come along and add a Jesus layer to it"
Consume - accommodate to culture
We might take these postures in our media and entertainment habits, work and leadership culture, relationships, the church, and so on.
a. In your own life, which of these postures have you tended towards?
b. What are some things that you condemn, critique, copy or consume, yet nothing changes?
c. How would it change your approach if you were tasked to create culture on that specific element in Discussion Question 2, vs. condemn/ critique / copy / consume it?
4. What single action or practice could form you into the “kind of [person] that can actually change culture in the direction of shalom”? What stands in the way of you taking that action or adopting that practice?
PROTOTYPE (3 min)
Think of something you would like to change about your immediate surroundings and come up with a product, service, or habit that offers an alternative imagination to combat the status quo.
END IN PRAYER
FINISHED THIS SESSION?
INCUBATE
After every session, we'll offer a few activities for you and your group to develop a deeper understanding of this particular aspect of Redemptive Entrepreneurship. You'll find these listed in the templated follow-up emails we've created for each session.
PRAXIS Fellows Case studies:
Our community of practice contains a global portfolio of redemptive business & nonprofit ventures. Each week together as a group or separately at home, watch one or both of the following five-minute pitch videos. Discuss where you saw aspects of the week’s topic lived out in and/or through the venture.
Non-Profit Venture: Alter - Alter is a social venture on a mission to scale the entrepreneurial champions of the world's toughest places, such as Haiti, Myanmar and Afghanistan, to create jobs where they are needed most.
Business Venture: Livful - LivFul is a biotech company on a mission to save 200,000 lives per year from mosquito and bacterial borne diseases.
Activity:
Bible App reading plan: Called to Create, which features brief Scripture readings and stories from four prominent entrepreneur/creators (5 day plan).
Suggested Reading:
Andy Crouch, Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling, Part I: Culture