The Vision

The Center for Christ & Culture is the teaching ministry of S. Michael Craven that seeks to recapture the relevance of Christianity in culture by equipping individual Christians with a thoroughly intelligent Christian approach to matters of culture. The vision of this ministry is not to “moralize” society or culture but rather to demonstrate the relevance of Jesus Christ to every aspect of life and culture. It is our contention that in the absence of this relevance; the Gospel story becomes less and less plausible and therefore the resulting culture becomes a formidable barrier to the reception and integration of the Gospel.

The contemporary Church has been deeply and rightly concerned about issues such as pornography, sexual promiscuity, legitimization of homosexuality, breakdown of families and more recently the redefinition of marriage itself. However, the Church’s reactions to these seismic shifts in morality have often only addressed the symptoms and rarely the root causes or worldviews that produced these changes.

Therefore when, in the words of Abraham Kuyper, “the vast energy of an all-embracing life system assails us, then also it must be understood that we have to take our stand in a life-system of equally comprehensive and far-reaching power.”  It is with this understanding and purpose that Michael established the Center for Christ & Culture.

Michael challenges Christians to think “christianly” about culture and trains them to employ intelligent biblically-based reason and gentle persuasion in their efforts to press the Lordship of Jesus Christ into every facet of life – to demonstrate and live out a comprehensive life and worldview that adequately and accurately addresses life’s challenges and opportunities. Culture does not represent a separate sphere of life for the Christian into which he or she occasionally ventures; culture is the context into which we advance the good news of Jesus Christ and the all-encompassing understanding of life and reality set forth in Scripture.

Cultural separatism and apathy on the part of the Church have only marginalized the Church and its message; the most important message ever given to the world! Therefore it is the belief and vision of this ministry to serve the Church as an instrument of renewal by assisting Christians in the recovery of a more thoughtful and missional approach to culture. This includes how we understand and engage the political, economic, educational, artistic, scientific and moral institutions of our culture.