Ready or not, Christianity has been pushed to the fronts lines of culture clashes – from gay marriage, to abortion, to religious liberty. As believers, how do we live out our faith with courage, conviction, and compassion in an ever-changing culture? 

Dr. David Platt expresses the need for Christians to engage today’s culture with compassion and truth from his book .

“When I wrote read this book just a couple of years ago, so-called same-sex marriage was not legal and authorized in a sense by the supreme court, transgender discussions were not even happening for the most part, but now you see just rapid change on those issues in our culture.”

“We’ve got to be able to respond rapidly, so to speak, with the way we think about these issues and the way we respond to these issues in the culture around us.”

There are many issues and injustices around the world today; it is easy to feel overwhelmed. David says that a good starting point is just to do something, as opposed to doing nothing. He encourages every follow of Christ to ask ourselves, what can I do?

“The whole point is we can’t sit back and do nothing. Now it can be paralyzing to think, I’m a stay-at-home mom, or a college student, etc., there is the global reality of poverty, abortion, sex-trafficking, unreached people in the world, religious liberty and persecution… what can one life really do?

To help us understand the tremendous impact one life can make, David elaborates on the collaborative effort of the body of Christ.

“This is where God, in His sovereign creativity, has given each of us unique opportunity to address certain issues. Not one of us is going to address all these issues in our life, but we each have a part to play.”

We need to think through our individual role as a follower of Christ and respond accordingly. At the very least we can all respond in prayer.

How can this affect the way that I pray? That is something we can all do right now. We have a tendency to underestimate that, but we’ve got to believe in Scripture. According to scripture, our prayers matter. In prayer, we are participating with God and what He’s doing around the world. He’s ordained our prayers, so we’ve got to take advantage of that opportunity.”


Dr. David Platt, President of the IMB and founder of Radical, is deeply devoted to Christ and His Word. David’s first love in ministry is making disciples, sharing, showing, and teaching God’s Word in everyday life. He has traveled extensively to serve alongside church leaders throughout the United States and around the world. He is the author of  .

Christianity and culture
Also on this edition of Neil Stavem
Wayne Pederson from Reach Beyond ministries