Without realizing it, we can build very nice boxes to live in and then function in ministry happily ever after. The box is safe. It protects our culture and way of life. It protects us from “worldliness”. But God didn’t put us in this world to live in a box. He created us to be salt and light in a dark and pagan society. Our box may be comfortable but it is irrelevant to the Great Commission of Jesus Christ.

We should step back and take a look at what has happened to our homes, churches, and institutions over the past three or four decades. Our kids have grown up in boxes; sheltered homes, sheltered schools, sheltered colleges, and sheltered seminaries. When they attempt to enter the world, they are incapable of functioning outside the protective box – their “safe house”. And then we lose them. We lose them to repeat the same thing for their children – and often we lose them from Christianity altogether.

The need is to live and serve God “in the world” as salt and light.  Yes, it is possible to be current with our culture and not contaminated by it. Jesus did. He was a “friend of sinners” and still holy. How many “sinner friends” do you really have? Would sinners feel as comfortable coming into your home or into your church as they were in coming to Jesus? It’s something to think about.