Last week, I briefly introduced Andy Crouch’s insights regarding postures and gestures from his book, Culture Making. We tend to assume the postures of condemning, critiquing, copying, and consuming rather than utilizing them as gestures. For clarification—in the context of these posts—a posture is an entire stance or perspective whereas a gesture is something I might do from time to time with my hands to point something out.

I believe there are times we ought to condemn what culture does. Or critique certain aspects of one’s work. Or copy something that is a great template rather than “reinvent the wheel.” And sometimes when served a new dish in another culture I don’t ask any questions—I simply consume it! I do have one “critique,” however, of Christians “copying” when it comes to the pursuit of relevance. Much of our attempt to be “relevant” with the gospel appears to be little more than playing catch-up to the world. This leads me to my next point.

According to Crouch, we ought to assume the two Biblical postures of creating and cultivating (see Genesis 2:15, 19–Adam and Eve are tasked with cultivating a garden and creating names for animals). What if instead of attempting to be relevant (or “like the world to win the world”) we instead were known for creating something new and better? Or encouraging and nourishing toward wholeness (“cultivating”) the aspects of our culture and work that need redemption? We are called to be creators and cultivators—those should be our postures.

There’s a huge difference between assuming a posture and using different gestures from time to time. In fact, rather than maintaining a condemning, critiquing, copying, or consuming posture, we ought to turn them into gestures and primarily assume the two biblical postures of creating and cultivating. I believe that when we create and cultivate, our work is worship. We become marketplace witnesses when we create good things with our work. We’re also serving society when we create more jobs so people can support themselves and their families. Furthermore, we create numerous opportunities to disciple our employees and align them with the “grain of the universe”—cultivating if you will!

We become marketplace witnesses when we create and cultivate, building on that which is already good in our society. Our work is worship!