This week I had an opportunity to chat with Andy Crouch, one of our Senior Fellows here at the Institute, about his new book Culture Making .  Andy has been a wonderful source of wisdom, ideas, and inspiration to IJM. He has traveled to experience our field work in Africa and India and frequently uses his wide-reaching influence as a writer and speaker to encourage others toward seeking justice for the oppressed. He also blesses us with his gifts in spiritual leadership at our Global Prayer Gatherings that happen each spring.  His official bio can be found here in the Senior Fellows section of our website. For more information and archives of all his writings, be sure to check-out Andy’s website at www.culture-making.com.

I am going to post a few highlights from our conversation. Due to length, I will separate the highlights over several posts. The full transcript will be available in our upcoming Resource Reservoir—or, if you to join the Institute, I will send you a copy on Monday.

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BETHANY:  Andy, thanks so much for taking the time to answer a few questions about your book.  To begin, what led you to write this book in the first place?

ANDY: Well, I had been doing a lot of thinking and writing and speaking, specifically about consumer culture and the way that our culture lulls us into what I’ve come to call a “posture of consumption.” We expect fulfillment in life out of what we purchase.  This [critique] really came about as I would look around me at Christians in our culture—not to mention people who aren’t followers of Christ—and, increasingly I felt that, while the Church was shaping certain aspects of [Christians’] hopes, dreams, fears, and goals, consumerism was doing a much more effective job of conveying a whole picture of how our lives should look… where we derive meaning… where we should find meaning… what is important for us to devote our lives to.

More and more, though, I felt like we should have something to replace this culture of consumption.  Any kind of fully developed cultural system is like a lifeboat.  It carries you through the rough waters of this beautiful, terrible world that we live in and gives you a sense of meaning and direction and orientation and safety.  To simply ask people to jump out of one boat without providing another vision of what our lives should be about, it was clear that was not going to cut it. I really think that the challenges we face as Christians just in our daily discipleship are so much a matter of these very fundamental structures, cultural structures that surround us, that define for us what I’ve come to call the ‘horizon of the possible.’ We can’t imagine anything outside of that world.

BETHANY: So, how do we go about replacing our culture of consumption?

ANDY: Well, I’ve started asking, what is it that we’re really meant to do on this planet—if consuming is not the main thing, what is the main thing?
Really, the antidote for consumption is not just more well-informed critiques of a culture of consumption, but to actually embrace creativity as a fundamental part of who we are.  And so that’s how I came to write the book.  Only a book that is ultimately about creativity and that taps into this fundamental purpose that God has for us—only that vision could be strong enough to counter the gentle rocking motion of the consumer machine that puts us to sleep to our deepest human capacities.

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Up next: What does replacing a culture of consumption have to do with pursuing justice for the oppressed?  And why does Andy claim that “we can’t change the world”? If this is true, then where is our source of hope? How do we actually live lives that bring transformation?
Please feel free to offer any initial thoughts in the “comments” section.