Future Church Brisbane
Join Luke Kennedy and friends at Future Church in Brisbane, Australia.
Talks from our gatherings as well as deeper discussions and Application panels around the practicals of Following Jesus.
Future Church Brisbane
Bold Renewal AKA Earth 2.0: Why Your Faith Could Transform Culture, Not Flee From It
"Bold Renewal" challenges us to reconsider how Christians engage with culture by exposing a fundamental misconception many believers hold. The idea that "Earth is not my home" has quietly shaped how Christians interact with the world around them—often leading to disengagement and a lack of purpose.
What if heaven isn't primarily a future destination but a present reality—God's space intersecting with ours? What if Jesus' resurrection inaugurated a new creation that we're called to participate in? This reframing changes everything about our cultural engagement. Rather than waiting for escape, we're invited to join God in the renewal of all things.
The cultural mandate in Genesis calls us to be co-creators with God, taking the raw materials of creation and transforming them into places of flourishing. As culture creators by nature, Christians are called to bring kingdom principles into every sphere—business, education, art, and community. This requires both humility to acknowledge our imperfections and boldness to overcome our fears of rejection.
Throughout history, Christians have transformed culture in profound ways—caring for the sick during plagues, elevating the status of women in patriarchal societies, and standing firm in faith despite persecution. These examples inspire us to consider what our impact could be today when we approach culture engagement with prayer, community, and sacrifice.
The podcast concludes with a stirring call to keep dreaming even amidst life's daily challenges. Without a compelling vision of how God might use us to renew all things, we lose heart. But when we understand our role in God's renewal project, we find purpose that transcends our circumstances and courage to engage culture with both conviction and love.
Are you ready to join in bold renewal? Find a community of dreamers willing to pray together and take risks for the kingdom. The future of our culture depends on it.
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I want to talk today about bold renewal and I want to give a little framework on engaging culture as a Christian engaging culture. A few weeks ago Tim talked about hospitality, formation, getting spiritually stronger in community, and then Nathan spoke. I thought Nathan did a great job, by the way, first time ever preaching Amazing, it's going to go up from here. Mate Talked on the Holy Spirit and the role of the Spirit. I thought it was fantastic. Last week Tim again shared wonderfully again on formation and hitting a wall and then breaking through a wall when you hit a wall in your spiritual journey. I thought that was really profound and would love to hear more of that.
Speaker 1:And today I want to talk about what is the effect of the church in the world. So this is kind of like the end of that kind of streamline of preaching what is the result of the world in church? I really believe that there's a deep longing for God in our culture. We see this pop up in many different ways, but there's a deep longing for something more to life than simply where we're at. We see this in the angst and the anxiety of our young people, in the angst and anxiety of our young people, just the vast multitude of coping mechanisms that we indulge in. There is a search for something deeper in our lives and I just want to say our view of what theologians call eschatology. I just want to say our view of what theologians call eschatology, but it's basically our view of heaven, or our view of the end, really does shape carefully the way that we live today.
Speaker 1:I saw a young man walked into our church and he had this tattoo on him and the tattoo said Earth is not my home and I thought that's an interesting statement that has been widespread amongst Christians, that became popular in recent centuries, that I don't belong here on Earth, this is not my home, that one day I will fly away from this evil place called earth to a beautiful place in the sky called heaven, in a disembodied reality where I will float around and maybe, if you've seen some artwork, maybe I would be dressed as a baby and play a harp, and that just sounds not very exciting at all to me and that just sounds not very exciting at all to me. But there's this separation it's actually called Gnosticism where the physical is bad and then the spiritual, somewhere else, is where I'm actually at home. The problem is, this kind of thinking really does affect the way that you live. It was no surprise to me that that young man was deeply struggling with a lack of purpose in his life and I thought maybe these two things go together. If I think that my job is to exclude myself from the world, pull away almost like a hermit kingdom, to separate myself from the world in a hope that one day Jesus will return and save me from this evil place and take me to the happy place, if that is my operating system don't dismiss it too quickly, because many of us have been taught this in subtle and clear ways then the way that I engage the world will be greatly affected. Why would I care about the planet if it's all going to burn up anyway? Why would I care about the way I engage the world if it's all doomed anyway and one day I'll just be in heaven with my mates? Why would I engage the world? I think that we need a different operating system when it comes to this.
Speaker 1:I think this is NT Wright in his book Surprised by Hope. This should be required reading for every Christian, I think. If you haven't read this book, he says heaven is not a future destination but a present reality of God's space, wherever God is. This is heaven, which intersects with our space, and one day heaven and earth will be fully joined in a new creation. This changes everything. If heaven is not an escape route but a very present reality of the kingdom of God coming to earth, then we are called to be active participants in that renewal. We are called to be part of that. Somehow, god takes my life and your life and uses it on his renewal project to renew all of creation, and one day that will be complete. But somehow God uses our lives to be part of this. This brings great purpose to my life, and if you think about Scripture, we're going to go back into it in a minute, but let me just read Revelations 21.
Speaker 1:Some of you are scared of this book. It's brilliant, it's an incredible book. Verse 1, it says Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. And then I heard a loud sound of the throne saying Look, god's dwelling place is now among his people and plan to dwell with us, not in a spiritual faraway place, but here in new creation that God is renewing. That began the day that Jesus rose from the dead. That was the inauguration of new creation. We are living in the unfolding of God's work, working towards the renewal of all things, a much different vision of what it means to be a human alive and in the purposes of God. Much more exciting. We are to be co-creating with God.
Speaker 1:Some theologians call this the cultural mandate Genesis 1, verse 28,. Let me just set just a little foundation for us to stay with me while we get just a little bit theological, and then we'll get practical. Okay, be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground. The wonderful late theologian Tim Keller said it like this it is rearranging the raw material of God's creation in such a way that helps the world in general and people in particular, thrive and flourish. God has given us the world not to destroy but to build, to take the raw materials and make it into a place of flourishing filled with the presence of God and the goodness of God. That is our call.
Speaker 1:As a human being, whether you recognize it or not, you are a culture creator. It's what we do. You can't escape it. Everywhere humans go, they create culture. They create what's called our normal. Hello Lawrence, it's lovely to see you today, mate. We needed a little referee there. Come on, let's be honest, wherever you go, mate. Creating culture, changing culture, so, and that culture could be beautiful creating beautiful art, infrastructure, social safety nets for people who are struggling, relational homes, homes of families we create, it's what we do, but also it can be for destruction.
Speaker 1:I remember sitting on the rubbish dumps in New Delhi with fire burning. It's literally what Jesus described when he was talking about hell fires that never stop burning, with children living on them. People also built that. So what are we building? What are we building? I want to talk to you today about being in the world, not removed from the world, but in the world, but not of it. This is what the Bible tells us to do In the world, but not of it. The church has. The Bible tells us to do In the world, but not of it. The church has always wrestled with how to interact with the world. Do we retreat or do we conform to the world, or do we transform the world? Do we co-create with God towards a future that is his kingdom?
Speaker 1:Tim Gillard talked about this idea of there's two cities in every city and they're almost like overlapping, but in competition. There's a city of God and there is a city of the world and it's almost like what Jesus said in his famous prayer our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom, come on earth the same way that it is in heaven. That's what we're trying to do here. That's my deep prayer is God, let earth be like it is in heaven, not hallowed be your name, please. It is in heaven, not how would be your name? Please take us to heaven. You don't really see many prayers in the scriptures saying let's go to heaven. There's a lot about bringing the kingdom of God, are we okay?
Speaker 1:So Henry Van Til, the great thinker. He said this culture is religion externalized. The word culture comes from this concept of tilling the ground, cultivation, which comes from this idea of there's a central thing or person or idea, almost like a religion, and then out of that thing, when it's cultivated, things grow and what grows out of it becomes the culture. Think about if you plant seeds in the ground and then what grows out of that is plants and fruit and vegetables, and all the fruit of that came from, what was the seed in the ground? So whatever we worship becomes the central culture-making thing that all of our lives spring out of. So if God is at the center of our lives, the culture that we will create is a culture that looks much more like the kingdom of God. Is this making sense? This is why Christians cannot retreat in the world. If we are to be part of new creation, we need to take what is inside of us, the Spirit of God, and go and plant it into every industry, into every family, every culture, every street in Brisbane, and we need to let it flourish so that this city can taste and see the kingdom of God is good. That's a vision for the future that I can get pretty excited about, for the future that I can get pretty excited about. So the question is not if we will shape culture, but what kind of culture will we create If the church retreats and we just simply allow every other god small g be the center of every culture-making factory in this city? That will be the future and that is not something that we are going to stand by and watch.
Speaker 1:Jesus called us to be salt and light. You know this verse Matthew 5, verse 13. I'll have you know I have no scriptures from the book of Luke today. I worked hard on that. You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world. A city on a hill can't be hidden. Don't try to hide it. What is in you is desperately needed in the world. Salt is something that preserves or conserves. Light is something that preserves or conserves. Light is something that shines the light towards progress. It's almost like a conservative and progress almost like Christians are called to do these things. That could be a word for a different country that goes through to the keeper.
Speaker 1:Some of you feel deeply passionate about social change. Deeply passionate about social change? Awesome. My encouragement to you is be a person of prayer. Become a person of deep prayer so that your activism towards change is not birthed out of selfish ambition or pride or foolishness, but out of a deep awe of the presence of God, the Spirit of God and what he is doing in us and the Scriptures. Does that make sense? We need to be people of prayer if we're going to make change in the country. Here's my framework, okay? Number four humility and boldness are a framework for cultural engagement.
Speaker 1:Humility and boldness. Humility keeps me from arrogance and self-righteousness, and boldness keeps me from fear. We need both. The church has got things wrong. We need to be humble. We don't get everything right. Even as the people of God, we are broken signposts. We don't get everything right. The humility is needed. Self-righteousness is not of God. God loathes it. In fact, it says he resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. Our humble approach is important, but also, what I've seen, more so in recent, is the church being afraid afraid to share the kingdom of God out of fear of maybe being cancelled or just a simple disapproval of the people around us. And boldness is required humility and boldness.
Speaker 1:The early Christians were hated for their message but loved for their lives. Their lives were amazing. People hated the message because they claimed the exclusivity of Jesus as God, but their lives oh man, their lives. They looked after the brokenhearted. They brought in everyone that the world rejected the early church was incredible. I wonder if there's a lack of confidence in the church in Australia today. There's a lack of confidence, and we were having this discussion with some of our leaders recently. What is the lack of confidence that we have about sharing Jesus to the world? I think one of them was a good point.
Speaker 1:I'm not sure that Christians really even know what we believe. Point is that I'm not sure that Christians really even know what we believe. Like, I want to talk about Jesus, but I'm not even really sure what I even know about Jesus. What do I believe? And is that right? I'm not sure. How can I even know it's right? This is important. This is why the early church took time to write down carefully and thoughtfully, with the whole church together that was growing exponentially. They thought you know what? We better take some time to write down what Christians believe. This is called. There was a few of these, but one of the key ones is called the Nicene Creed. The Nicene Creed is a statement of beliefs that all Christians for all time have believed. It's not controversial. This is the summary of the Scriptures. It's the foundation of what we believe as Christians.
Speaker 1:So I thought this has been a little bit too one way. So let's have a little group participation and we're going to read this together. Is this okay? This may be for the first time even seeing this, but this is our roots for almost 2,000 years now. So could we take some time? Could we read it together? Have you ever been in church and read something out loud together? This is it. Okay, nice and great. That's not in the nice and great, that's what it's called.
Speaker 1:Okay, and I think there is a oh. This is not going to work, is it Because it's not? The screen size is wrong, couldn't take that, can I? I memorized, I memorized it, you memorized it. Come on up then you reckon we can get it to work, because I could circle back. If we can. It would be great to do it together. We could say a line Okay. We could say a line and repeat it together yes, okay, and it's sad because it's only about half a line. Okay, we could say a line and repeat it together yes, okay, and it's sad because it's only about half a word that we're missing. It's actually we believe, okay, not just believe. All right, we may not get there. Let me start, let me start, and then we can read it together. This could be like a repeat after me, if you've ever done one of those prayers where the preacher goes for a long, long repeat after me.
Speaker 1:Prayer Okay, Okay, we believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty Maker of heaven and earth. We believe in one God, the Almighty Maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen. Of all that is seen and unseen, we believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, god from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten not made. True God from true God, begotten not made. Of one being with the Father through all things were made. One being with the Father through all things were made For us and for our salvation. He came down from heaven, was incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and was made man. Oh yeah, not gonna. Okay, no worries.
Speaker 1:On the third day he rose. Sorry, I missed a line. Don't forget this part. This is kind of key For our sake. He was crucified under Pontius Pilate. He suffered death and was buried. On the third day he rose again. In accordance with the scriptures, he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.
Speaker 1:We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who, with the Father and the Son, is worshipped and glorified, who has spoken through his prophets. We believe in the one holy Catholic and apostolic church. We believe in the one holy, catholic and apostolic church. That doesn't mean you're Catholic. Catholic is the universal church. Okay, just so you know. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
Speaker 1:You want to respond by baptism? Yes, we look for the forgiveness of sins. You want to respond by baptism? Yes, we look for the resurrection of the dead. That's it. And the life of the world to come. Amen, we did it. We made it. Okay. Who wants to be a follower of Jesus? One, two, three, some of you don't have your hands up? Okay, we'll pray for you. You do you okay? You okay with this?
Speaker 1:This is what Christians believe. This is the foundation of faith we need to know. If we're going to go to culture, we need to know what we believe. This is not something we just picked up from chat GBT. This was established and has been established in every generation that has preceded you. This is a strong foundation to stand on. Much of our culture today has come up with ideas five minutes ago and is now putting the entire weight of a culture on it. It will crumble. This will not. That is the truth we can be sure of that.
Speaker 1:The impact of the church has been great and powerful all through history because of these strengths. When it comes to the early church, there was plagues that went through the nation of Israel and the whole Roman Empire, and Christians were the ones who took care of the poor. Christians were the ones who stood no-transcript, incredible things. The way that we treat women today was birthed in the church. The value of women in the Greco-Roman world was so brutal. For women, female infanticide was very common, and women were often treated as property. Christians subverted this culture and flipped it, honoring women and calling them into central places of the gospel. This is what Jesus did, this is what the early church did, and I've honestly got so many stories, but I'm not going to keep you all day.
Speaker 1:James, the son of Zebedee, was executed for his faith, not because he was a jerk, but because of his faith. Simply because of his faith, he was beheaded in Jerusalem. His unwavering faith, though, actually caused his executioner to convert to christianity. Who was then? It was then executed. These stories, uh, I have. I have 10 of these stories, but I can't read them all today, otherwise we might be here a while.
Speaker 1:There's so many of these stories, christians have stood for their faith, not in self-righteousness, against, as like pious, not that but in conviction that Jesus is the hope of the world and we have seen him, we have touched him and we cannot go back. And if that means I die, then that means I die. Why are we talking about death so much? Why are we talking about Christian martyrs so much? Luke, calm down. Well, maybe it's a good thing to remember the next time that your workmate gives you a stink eye about being a Christian. That's the worst. You're getting Many Christians throughout all of history and even today, 3,000 Christians were just beheaded just in the last weeks. This is still happening today. We are not being persecuted in Australia. Don't think that you are. Facebook comments are not persecution, okay. We need to be tougher than that. Honestly, we need to be more secure than that. Be strong in your faith.
Speaker 1:Bonhoeffer was a man who helped bring down Hitler, a brilliant theologian. I think there's a movie coming out of him recently. I don't know if it's good or not, but brilliant World War II theologian, incredible work. I know that's one of the young guys who's reading his life story right now. Brilliant work. One of the doctors who witnessed his final beheading. He was beheaded, he was executed. One of the doctors said I saw Bonhoeffer kneeling on the floor praying fervently to his God at this place of execution. He again said a short prayer and then he climbed up the steps of the gallows, brave and composed. In the almost 50 years that I have worked as a doctor, I hardly ever saw a man die so entirely submitted to the will of God. What an incredible life, an inspiring life. A man whose impact is generational and intergenerational, incredible, knows what he believes in, knows what he stands for. I'm going to wrap up in a moment.
Speaker 1:What can cultural impact look like for us today? Okay, I think one of the things that we're going to have to do if we're going to make cultural impact is we're going to have to do it together. We cannot do this by ourselves, guys. We're going to have to do this together. We need to find a group of friends who are dreamers. You're going to have to find a group of friends Hopefully, in this community it's going to be a seedbed of this but a group of people who are going to be dreaming about cultural impact for the sake of the kingdom of God and who are willing to sacrifice something to get there. Jesus did this. Jesus took a lot of criticism from all sides in his cultural engagement, criticism from all sides in his cultural engagement. He took a lot, but it starts in prayer. It's going to start in prayer.
Speaker 1:I remember being 18 years old, moving from Toowoomba shout out to Tokyo, and Lisa and I were there together. Son of a bit of Lisa, and Lisa and I were there together. Son of a bit of Lisa. We were there together when we were 18 in Tokyo, at a brand-new church plant in a city that everyone said was a missionary's graveyard could not be done, and we went in there not knowing anything about that, which, thank God, we didn't and I don't know who let us do all those crazy things that we did on the streets of Tokyo, meeting all those young people causing trouble. But hundreds and hundreds of young people came to faith in that year when we went there into Tokyo.
Speaker 1:It did something, but you know what it took a group of young people to actually give their lives to something. It wasn't their whole lives, it was for a year, where they set aside a year and said I am going to pour out my life absolutely submitted to the will of God, powerful things can happen when a group of friends who will pray and are willing to take a risk and sacrifice to go and do what God has put them out to do Powerful, really powerful, and I pray that is the seedbed of this church is together. I see people in this church doing it today. I see it. I know there's people in this church who are getting business guys together and talking about how to win in business using the kingdom of God, using principles from God's word. That is happening in our church.
Speaker 1:It's not a church thing. It doesn't need to be a church thing. You are the church. Get a group of friends together. Start praying for renewal in your workplace. Start praying for your school together. I remember being in year 12 and going to my high school every Saturday morning with three of my friends and walking around the grounds of the school and praying God, save our school. Harristown is so messed up that we need something to happen and I remember seeing hundreds of my friends come to faith that year. Hundreds came into my youth ministry from that group of friends.
Speaker 1:I'm not saying that because I'm special. I'm saying this is the kingdom of God. This is what the kingdom of God does when you give yourself to it, and I'm calling our church to do that. It's my conclusion. Jesus said I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Our operating system cannot be fear. We need boldness in the church. So here's my prayer for us today.
Speaker 1:I believe there's some of us here and you're hearing me speak and you're like Luke I'm just trying to survive, man, I'm just trying not to get my kids to kill each other. I get that because that's also my world. But you know what we can. I love this thought. It comes from Jack Welsh. We can dream while we eat. Some of us have stopped dreaming because we're so focused on getting through the day, and I understand that. You understand why.
Speaker 1:But my call is let the Holy Spirit is within you. If you know him, if you don't invite him, the Holy Spirit, god's Spirit, will come inside of you and will stir dreams and visions inside of your lives. While you're working, while you're scrambling to pay the rent to your young person and you're just trying to make things work, or you're in nappies I mean, your kids are in nappies You're just trying to make it work, or you're job hunting, and it's a challenge. Or you're working overtime to make things work, and it's a challenge. In the middle of that, the Spirit of God will speak to you about dreams and visions for the future, because without a vision, people perish.
Speaker 1:If there is no hope for the future, if we do not have a vision of the future that is compelling, there ain't much reason to keep going in the day. We've got to stir that up, guys. Stir it up, keep dreaming In Jesus' name. All right, let me pray for us, god. Holy Spirit, we invite you, come and stir our hearts, come and take a hold of our hearts, god, release us of our apathy, release us of our desire to run and hide in fear. But I pray for a spirit of humility in this church and I pray for boldness, boldness to dream of what could be. Let our boldness be birthed in prayer. Call us deeper to prayer, god. Call us deeper. Call us deeper to your scriptures, god, to know you. I pray for confidence in this church, god, that it not be just a wishy-washy faith where we attend future church, god, but I pray for a deep conviction of knowing you and joining you in co-creation of the renewal of the world. Open our eyes, god in our hearts, and I pray that you would fill us with inspiration.
Speaker 1:Dreams. Like the prophet Joel said, you will dream dreams and you will see visions. Young people see visions. Your older people will dream dreams. I pray that would happen. Pour it out, god amongst us. I pray for those who don't yet know you, god. Give them a hunger to know you. Hear their prayers today. Hear the ache in their hearts. Come and fill them today with your goodness. Show them that you love them and I pray they would also today surrender their lives to the goodness and bigness of God. In Jesus name, amen.