Lighthouse Community Church

It is Lighthouse Community Church's mission to "worship God through fulfilling the Great Commission in the Spirit of the Great Commandment." For five years, Lighthouse has been corporately committed to that simple yet powerful truth. Yet, while there is little doubt about what that Great Commission and Great Commandment mean, respectively, it is not always clear how we are to live them out. As part of our ongoing attempt to make our commitment to Christ the lens through which we see our world, and in order to assist in the daily pursuit of godliness, we offer the Illuminate Blog.

In serving with Connections, the church's greeting and hospitality ministry, we have been focused on connecting people to God, to believers, and the Christian resources. This web log is one of those resources, useful for both the believer seeking encouragement and insight as well as the unbeliever wondering about the Bible's perspective on issues impacting public and private life. These issues may be dealt with in posts concerning current events (political and otherwise), social issues, important and/or controversial films, theological questions, and devotionals. Additionally, book reviews, interviews with the church body, and even the occasional spotlight on a must-eat South Bay restaurant may populate this blog-anything concerning life and a life lived for Christ is fair game.

God has blessed Lighthouse with many who have the heart and the training to serve in this capacity, and we will be culling the riches of the church body for contributions. From time to time we may post the work of other Christian leaders and scholars, or link to other sites, all in the name of building up the body.

Before signing off, or going to post, or whatever one does with a blog, there is one question I want to address: the question of why we are taking time and church space to weigh in on politics and culture. Discerning the proper Christian attitude toward politics and culture has not always been easy for me, but I want to share my current conclusions.

As mentioned previously, our mission is to make disciples of nations (Matthew 28:18-20) by loving God first and our neighbor as ourselves (Mark 12:28-31). Being aware of, concerned with, and involved in our world serves two purposes: first, it helps us to be faithful followers of Christ, wherever that leads. If we are indeed to love the Lord with all heart, soul, and strength, we need to be committed to submitting every aspect of our life to Him. The culture of this world is antithetical to God, his truth being challenged in every area from technology to education to morality. Christian thinker Dr. Albert Mohler, in his book Culture Shift, argues that "those who do not think seriously about how Christians should respond to these challenges will find that the dominant culture will simply pull them into its vortex" and "they will simply fail to live and think as Christians."

Secondly, a watchful eye on the world helps us fulfill our evangelistic mission with the proper love for our neighbor. Care for the issues of our day should be connected to a care for creating the best possible situation for evangelism. While the call to evangelize does not change from culture to culture, we can love our neighbor by letting the world know what God says and what He would desire in this world. Though undoubtedly we need to constantly check our motives and prioritize involvement in "the City of Man," I agree with Mohler that "our Lord has left us here for a reason-as His people we are to be salt and light to a dying world."