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“There are crocs absolutely everywhere”: A reflection on cultural engagement and personal transformation · The Daily Article

• 0:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's Thursday, March the 12th, 2026, and this is Denison Forum's Daily Article Podcast.
• 0:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm Chris Elkins, their writer.
• 0:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: Today's Daily article is authored by friend and cultural opologist Dr. Jim Denison.
• 0:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: Note, Iran has apparently conducted a significant cyber attack against a U.S. company, eight first since the war began.
• 0:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: As more as known, I will provide an update on the war and a biblical response in an article on our website later this morning.
• 0:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you live where I live, you waited for the rain to end yesterday for hours on end.
• 0:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: But it could be worse, people in the northern territory of Australia.
• 0:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: are being warned to stay out of rain-fueled rivers in their area because as one official put it, quote, there are crocs absolutely everywhere.
• 0:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: Social media in the region is filled with images and videos of crocodiles floating down streets and galloping across roads.
• 1:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: Residents are told to quote, Assume any waterway, make and dane a crocodile.
• 1:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: There's your devotional thought for the day.
• 1:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you pay much attention to secular culture, you might feel the same way about the moral issues of our time.
• 1:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: It seems you cannot watch a television show without meeting LGBTQ characters normalizing LGBTQ ideology.
• 1:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: Advocates for, quote-unquote, reproductive health care, i.e.
• 1:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: abortion, are active on every platform.
• 1:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: Not even jellicles view evangelicals in decidedly negative ways.
• 1:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: One response is to align our beliefs with our critics, adopting the liberal theology we've been discussing this week, and taking personal positions on moral issues that our secular society will firm, or we can embrace biblical truth and seek redemptive ways to engage our fallen culture for the advancement of the gospel.
• 1:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: So, how do we choose the latter?
• 1:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: In a perceptive recent article, mere orthodoxy editor-in-chief Jake Metter identifies or types of Christian cultural engagement to summarize his nuanced and thoughtful analysis, Metter lists one, populism, making disciples who make disciples in a multiplying movement that eventually influences the culture for Christ.
• 2:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: who, separatism, raising up individual believers who care for other individual believers in pure Christian communities with no aspiration towards cultural transformation.
• 2:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: 3.
• 2:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: Ravenciss.
• 2:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: Seeking influence with significant institutions to influence culture for Christ.
• 2:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: and or reformers participating in the life of the community and nation by promoting the common good through partnerships aimed at specific goods.
• 2:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: Here's my point, each of these types of cultural engagement can be biblically appropriate in particular context, but each can also be a distraction from our missional purpose.
• 3:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: The Apostle Paul, for example, illustrates all four.
• 3:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: Populism, he reminded the Ephesian elders in Acts 20, verse 20, that he spent time with him, quote, teaching you in public and from house to house, illustrating the populist emphasis on personal disciple making.
• 3:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: Separatism, hall-wrote letters to leaders and churches focusing on issues within their particular faith community rather than the larger culture.
• 3:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: Three, Ravankus.
• 3:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: He spent more time in Ephesus, Corinth, and Rome some of the leading cultural centers of the day than anywhere else.
• 3:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: And for reformers.
• 3:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: He partnered with Missionary Associates and Churches to advance his mission and the Kingdom of God.
• 3:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: However, Paul refused to allow one approach to keep him from adopting a different model when appropriate.
• 3:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: He made disciples in homes noted in Acts 21, 2020, but he also proclaimed the gospel publicly before Jewish and Roman leaders to his personal peril recorded in Acts
• 4:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: He spent time in cultural centers, but also focused on less prominent communities, as seen in Acts 17, verses 10 through 15.
• 4:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: He partnered with fellow believers, but also embraced opportunities for individual proclamation and persuasion, referencing Acts 17, verses 16 through 33.
• 4:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: For more on Christian cultural engagement, please see my latest website article, should we be cultural warriors or cultural missionaries?
• 4:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: I say all of that to say this.
• 4:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: When we submit every day to God's Spirit, asking him to lead us into our most effective engagement with our culture for Christ, he will use us in ways we might not expect, but should always embrace.
• 4:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: Our most significant witness today might be a brief conversation in the elevator or at a colleagues desk, or it might be our public stand
• 5:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: All testified in 1 Corinthians 9, verse 22.
• 5:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: I have become all things to all people that by all means I might save some.
• 5:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: His example is recorded in Scripture as God's invitation to us today.
• 5:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: To embrace it, let's take these practical steps informed by Jake Metters Analysis.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: 1.
• 5:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: Identify your spiritual gifts, best talents, and personal passions.
• 5:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: These are often, though not always, the resources God will use in fulfilling your kingdom assignment today.
• 5:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: For more on this, please see our online spiritual gift test, and my wife's latest blog, you have a kingdom purpose.
• 5:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: Find links to both in today's podcast episode notes.
• 5:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: to prioritize personal relationships that encourage personal discipleship.
• 5:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's been said that every believer needs a Timothy, someone they're discipling, a poll, someone who is discipling them, and a Barnabas, someone who is encouraging them.
• 5:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: 3.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Embrace spiritual community.
• 6:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: The discipleship advances through shared accountability as iron sharpens iron, according to Proverbs 27 verse 17.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Or, seek your highest place of cultural influence through personal and professional excellence, then model the character of Christ with the lives and activities you impact.
• 6:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: and five, partner with like-minded believers to advance the kingdom through gospel proclamation and engagement.
• 6:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: The American writer, Edith Warden, observed, there are two ways of spreading light to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it, in quote, Jesus is the light of the world as proclaimed in John 9 verse 5, but we are privileged to reflect his light to our fallen culture.
• 6:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: The darker the room, the more urgent and powerful the light.
• 6:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: To reflect the light of Christ effectively, let's remember that we must be the change we wish to see.
• 6:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: In reflections on the Psalms, CS Lewis spoke some truth I need to keep in mind daily.
• 7:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: A man can't always be defending the truth, there must be a time to feed on it.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: How will you do both today?