February 4, 2026 • 28 mins
On today’s Bible Answer Man broadcast (02/04/26), Hank interviews Dick Staub on his book, The Culturally Savvy Christian.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome to the Bible answer Man Broadcast with the President
of the Christian Research Institute, Hank Canigraph. Our mission is
to equip you with answers to share the hope that
you have within you because life and truth matter. Why
because being armed with truth will equip you to counter
the corrosive worldviews at work in our world today, while
(00:30):
experiencing the authentic Christian life will make you a winsome
witness of the purpose of life, which is to experience
union with God and Christ, both for today and for
all eternity. For more information about CRII and the Bible
answer Man Broadcast, our phone number is eight eight eight
seven thousand CROI. You can find us online at equip
(00:53):
dot org. The following program was pre recorded and now
here's Hank Hannah.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Thank you very much, Randy. I want to start today
with a personal anecdote. In fact, I told this story
when I was writing my book, The Prayer of Jesus.
It's a day, quite frankly, I'll never forget. It's a
day in which Kathy, my wife, read me a story
from a book. I was in pain, I could hardly move,
(01:22):
and of course Kathy sensed the possibilities. She had a
captive audience, and so she pulled up a chair next
to the shallow waters of the tub that I was
soaking in, and she began to read from a book.
And the words were refreshing on the one hand, riveting
(01:45):
on the other. They washed over me quite frankly, like
the balm of Gilead, and within moments I was completely
oblivious to my pain. She was not reading stuff from
shallow people who splash around in surface things and then
(02:08):
attempt to write about the deep. It was not the
stuff of non peakers talking to non peakers about peak experiences.
These were the words of someone who had escaped the
shallowness of his own soul, someone who had plunged deep
(02:31):
into the ocean of God's immensity. And as my wife
read on, I was brought into an experience. There was
an experience of the author and his family. They had
traveled to the Great Barrier Reef. The father had come
to snorkel, the son had come to Scuba, and for
(02:53):
the rest of their lives both of them would tell
stories of their experiences with the Great Barrier Reef. But
only one of them had really come to know it.
And I think that's an appropriate analogy for what we're
going to be talking about in just a few moments.
(03:13):
Most people, well, they snorkel in surface waters. They succeed
only in burning their backs. They fail to comprehend that
deep is where the noisy, trashy surface of the ocean
gets quiet, it gets serene. It's where we give in
(03:39):
to the quiet of a relationship with our maker. It's
where we step out of the shallow tide pool of
our hearts and then step into the boundless ocean of
God's power in his presence. It's where we get beyond
surface things. That's where we plunge into a deep relationship
(04:05):
with our creator. And it all begins with a paradigm shift.
It involves a book called The Culturally Savvy Christian. It's
a manifesto for deepening faith, for enriching popular culture, and
it's a manifesto for these things in an age in
which this is needed, because we live in the age
(04:28):
of Christianity Light. The book is available. You can order
online at equip dot org. When you write me at
Post Office Box eighty five hundred, Charlotte, North Carolina, zip
go two eight two seven one, and as always, when
you talk to our resource consultants at Triple eight seven
thousand CRI. The author of The Culturally Savvy Christian is
(04:54):
online with me right now. His name is Dick Stobbin. Dick.
Its great to have on the broadcast.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
It is great to be with you, Hank. And the
last time I saw you, we were in a bus
in Israel I remember that. What a great experience.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
It was a great experience, and this is a great book.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Well, thank you. You know, I just got back from
New York where I was part of the International Arts
Movement and an event there. And you know, for twenty
some years evangelicals had been gathering a guy named Mako
Fujimora who's one of the world's leading the Hunga artists
and also a committed Christian. And he's an Evangelical who
has earned the right to be heard in the world
(05:35):
of serious art. And it was refreshing to see the
progress that we're making in terms of trying to rediscover
the depth of our faith, and how the deeper we
go on our faith, the more we're able to create
and bring to the world a richer expression of our
faith through the culture that we create and the art
and the books and you know, as you know, the
(05:57):
culturally Savvy Christian starts with the words in this intellectually
and esthetically impoverished age of Christianity Light. It is heartening
to remember that for centuries Christians were known for their intellectual, artistic,
and spiritual contributions to society. Bach, Mendelssohn, Dante, Doltievsky, Newton,
Pascal Rembrandt. These all desired to glorify God and offered
(06:20):
their work and service of others. And you realize how
far our culture has fallen in terms of its depths,
and we are, as you said, splashing in the superficial
waters in our culture. But the even more frightening phenomena
for people like you and me, Hank, is that unfortunately
American Christianity in many ways has often become a mirror
(06:43):
reflection of that superficiality. And so people with hungering souls
are not going to find their souls satisfied, and either
the culture or in the faith community often and as
you said, this book, the culturally Savvy Christian is a
practical kind of clarion call to get back to the
depth of our faith and to take seriously avoiding conformity
(07:06):
to a superficial and fallen culture.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Add to what you just said about the church, so
often we see big churches. It seems like these churches
are very successful. In fact, as you say, in many
cases they're mirroring the world and there maybe even on
par with secular media. But are they having a big impact.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Well, you know, I'll tell this story. I was in
China one time and we had the privilege of meeting
as broadcasters, a small group of us with a Chinese
pastor who had spent eighteen years in prison for his faith.
And for eighteen years he was told all he had
to do to be released was to renounce his faith
in Jesus Christ. And he refused, And he held out
his wrists and showed us the deep purple grooves of
(07:54):
the scars and his wrist, and he told us that
they had lied to him. They had told him that
his had taken his own life, that his wife had
renounced the faith. He was desperate, but he clung deeply
to the faith because he thought of the words in Philippians.
Jesus made himself of no reputation. He took upon him
(08:14):
the form of a servant. He became obedient, even unto
death and the Cross. And Paul said, you know, let
this same mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus.
And so this Chinese pastor clung to his faith. Well,
I got home from this trip literally a day and
a half later after being with this Chinese pastor, and
there was a postcard on the top of my mail
(08:36):
and it was from a local seeker sensitive church and
it said, please join us for comfortable stadium style seating.
We'll give balloons for your kids. They'll be face painting,
and we promised we'll never preach to you. We'll only
tell you things are going to make you truly successful.
And I looked at that card and I thought about
that pastor and I said, my goodness, am I looking
(08:58):
at a simply a different kind of Christianity? Or is
what we're seeing in American Christianity even Christianity at all?
And it was a sobering contrast. And as you know
Christian Smith's Study of Youth in America where he concluded that, well,
first of all, I served on Martin Marty's Public Religion Project,
(09:18):
and we discovered that in nineteen ninety eight of eighteen
to twenty two year olds only sixteen percent of them
had stayed active in the faith of their parents. Eighty
four percent of kids when they left their parents' home
had discontinued any active involvement in their parents' faith. And
then Christian Smith released his book in which he said,
and of those who stay, many of them have a
(09:42):
view of Christianity which is the equivalent of moralistic, therapeutic deism.
I think being a Christian is about being a nice person.
They think it's about having their needs met, and they
think God is like a parachute, you know, there in
a case you need him in an emergency. And of
course this is not the faith that we understand as
orodox faith. We have a faith where if God is
(10:02):
not central importance, God is of no importance at all.
And so we have a lot of large churches, unfortunately
that are kind of entertainment centers and therapeutic centers, but
they're not producing biblically literate Christians who have a depth
of walk and faith that will sustain them through the
(10:24):
ups and downs of life, and that will in fact
equip them to be able to share such a faith
in this broader culture. And if ever, there's been a
time in America where we can see the need for
renewal individual hearts and lives. It's now we're.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Talking to Dick. Stop and again. The book is The
Culturally Savvy Christian. You can order online at equipp dot
org a post office box eighty five hundred, Charlotte, North Carolina,
zip code two eight two seveny one. That as always,
when you talk to our resource consultants, triple eight seven thousand,
CRI will be right back in just a few moments
(11:01):
with more of the Biblance Men broadcast.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
In Romans two twelve, Paul writes, do not conform to
the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to
test and to prove what God's perfect will is. The
Culturally Savvy Christian by Dick Staub is a book that
will teach you to be serious about your faith, savvy
about faith and culture, and skilled in relating the two
(11:26):
according to God's will. When you support the Christian Research Institute,
we'll send you Dick Stobbs The Culturally Savvy Christian. And
remember that your gift, great or small, creates truth filled
resources that equip more Christians to become change agents in
our culture. To donate, contact us at eight eight eight
seven thousand CRII or go to equip dot org. The
(11:51):
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(12:11):
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Check out the benefits of membership at equip dot org.
Once again, that's equip dot org. As followers of the
(13:02):
Lord Jesus Christ, we must learn to think Christianly. To
do so, we need to steep ourselves in God's word
so that everywhere we look we discern the lives of
our culture against a backdrop of truth. Then we can
use what we know to speak to the lost in
a language they will understand. The Culturally Savvy Christian by
Dick Staub is a book that skillfully exposes the shallowness
(13:25):
of contemporary pop culture and shows how millions of Christians
have been led astray. But Staub goes beyond diagnosis to
healing prescription, laying out practical guidelines you can use to
safely engage our culture every day. As good ambassadors, we
must understand the world we live in and transform it,
just as Christ and his disciples did. Who order The
(13:47):
Culturally Savvy Christian for your gift to the ministry of
the Christian Research Institute call eight eight eight seven thousand
c r I, or go online to equip dot Org.
Speaker 4 (14:01):
Hank Hanigraph has dedicated his life to defending truth Because
Truth Matters, Yet an encounter with Christians in the underground
Church of China left Hanograph contemplating his Christian experience. They
were experiencing something beyond truth. They were experiencing life. Truth matters.
Life matters More by Hank Hanigraph is two books in one.
Because Truth Matters, Part one equips Christians to defend the
(14:24):
essential truths of the historic Christian Faith. In Part two,
Hank explains why life matters more and how we can
experience the height of human existence union with God. Prepare
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Life matters more, the unexpected beauty of an authentic Christian
(14:46):
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Outreaches eight eight eight seven thousand CRI, or visit us
at equipped dot org.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Once again, here is hand catigraph favor much Randy, and
I am so delighted to have Dick stop on the
broadcast with me. He's the author of the Culturally Savvy
Christian as well. Dick stob is an award winning broadcaster,
He's a writer, He's founder of the Kindlings. It's a
movement devoted to rekindle the creative intellectual legacy that we
(15:30):
should have as Christians, transforming culture. And one of the
things that you say, Dick, is that if we desire fresh,
cool water, we have to dig a deeper well. We
will not find pure refreshing water by digging a lot
of shallow wells. And that's precisely what we're doing, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
Yeah, that actually was triggered in my mind by Houston Smith, who,
as you know, is a scholar and world religions and
what started out as a Christian and then export a
lot of Eastern religion, and then he heard this parable
of the man who dug many shallow wells, and he
realized that the secret was to dig a deeper well
in your own faith. And that's what I think is
(16:14):
happening with a lot of Christians, you know, Hank. I've
moved to a place called Orchus Island off the coast
of the state of Washington, and part of the reason
I came here is there's a lot of artists here.
There's a very intellectual community here, but it's largely a
new age community where people are kind of splashing around
in shallow waters. And I wanted the challenge of being
(16:36):
able to try to communicate faith in that context. And
what you see is if you don't go deep in
your own Christian faith and really understand, and I'm talking
about a personal relationship with the Living God, not just
head knowledge, but that complete understanding that we have when
(16:56):
we look at both the Old and New Testament of
we love God with our mind, we love God with
our heart, we love God with our soul. We are
intellectually prepared, but we are also walking in a personal
relationship with the Living God. And these things don't come easily.
You know. We need to devote ourselves to going much
(17:18):
deeper in our own faith tradition, in our own relationship
with God. And it's only as we go deeper that
we will find the sicknesses in our soul addressed. Jesus
offers springs of living water. Jesus is the bread of life.
The things that leave us unwell and spiritually ill can
(17:38):
only be addressed through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit,
who brings Jesus christ fully into our life. And so
coming to a deep faith is the solution for becoming
a well person. And only people who are becoming well
are able to live out their faith in a winsome way.
In culture, and one of the problems that we have
(18:00):
right now as we relate to culture is that we
don't have a very complete or holistic approach to culture.
And I try to point out in this book that
as we become more deeply devoted to Christ and are
prepared to be a loving, transforming presence. We occupy three
different roles in this culture. On the one hand, we
are countercultural, like aliens. This world is an alien place,
(18:23):
it's a fallen place. C. S. Lewis said, the world
is enemy occupied territory, you know. And so we're not
supposed to be casual about the culture in which we live.
We shouldn't just be consumers of the popular culture. At
the same time, we have an opportunity to communicate in
this culture like ambassadors, and that's what we saw the
(18:44):
apostle Paul do in Athens, where he was quoting pagan poets.
He was helping people find common ground. He was teasing
them out to think about this statue they had to
an unknown God. And all around us our converse station
points an opportunity to share our faith. I've done a
show for seven years in a row now from Sundance
(19:06):
Film Festival, and this year a variety magazine, The New
York Times, all commented that this was the year of spirituality,
and I wrote a piece in which I outlined eight
films this year that were spiritual touch points. Conversation points where,
if we are truly equipped in our faith, have opportunities
(19:26):
to engage in conversation with ideas that the secular filmmaker
is drawing out and questions that they're asking. And that's
our role as ambassadors in culture. And so on the
one hand, we're aliens with a resistance and accountercultural attitude
about culture. On the other hand, we're ambassadors. But then
the third colony that we have is to be the
(19:47):
artist to create culture. And that's why I was excited
this weekend to be at the International Arts Movement where
people like Dana Joya, who was the former chairman of
the National and dominant of the Arts Christian a poet,
has you know, done serious work that has been accepted
broadly in the broader community and is raising spiritual questions.
(20:10):
So we have a great opportunity in this, in this
fallen age, to resist the fallenness, in living a countercultural life,
to engage in conversation about this impoverishment of American culture
through being ambassadors for christ but also then turning around
and doing something constructive about it, making better work, making
(20:31):
better films, making better art. We have an opportunity, and
I hope Christians who who want to get this big
picture of what's going on in faith and culture and
then want to be part of the solution, will will
take the time to read a book like the Culturally's
Having Christian and then apply it to their own lives.
(20:51):
And for parents, it's a great way to understand what's
going on in your kids' lives and to plant seeds
in your kids' lives as a way that they in
fact can play a role in this culture.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Have one more question for you, Dick, and that has
to do with the kids. I'm the father of twelve children,
so this is something that I have a very intense
and intimate interest in. The culture today has become the
teacher of my children. As much as I don't want
to admit it, it's true. I mean, the church has
(21:25):
them for a very short period of time. Every week
they do go to a Christian school, but by and large,
the culture has their ear.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
How do you compete, Well, I don't think we do
compete in a certain sense. Tank and I have four
kids and two grandchildren, and I the approach that my
wife and I have taken is, first of all, when
our kids are young, we very much controlled what they
would consume. We didn't feel bad about at all about
saying no. As O kids got into middle school and
into early high school, we engage them in helping them
(21:59):
know how to make choices, and we allowed them to
make some choices, and then we'd sit down and talk
to them about the movies that we watched them. We'd
watch them with them. If they wanted to bring home music,
we'd insist that we listened to it together and talk
about it. And then as our kids reached the end
of high school, we would begin to let them make
some of their own choices, because it's good for them
to make a few mistakes while they're still at home.
(22:21):
But it's this ongoing conversation. My son is I was
one of the creators of one of the most successful
games in history called myst and Riven, and he then
went on to Disney Animation and he was one of
the twelve leads Entangled. But I remember when Josh was
ten years old, he and his friend Ryan were having
this conversation about, you know, how they were going to
make lots of money, and I overheard in the back
(22:43):
you know, they were in the back seat of the car,
and I thought this was a teachable moment. And I
turned around and at that time, William Perry was the
most famous football player in Chicago. We were living in
Chicago at the time, and I said the refrigerator and
I said, Josh, who's more important, William Perry or Mother Teresa?
And I'll never forget. Ryan looked up and said, who's
(23:03):
Mother Teresa? And so the next weekend I took the
boys to see the Richard Attenborough film documentary on Mother Teresa.
And as we walked out of the theater, Josh looked
up at me and my son, he was ten years old,
and he said, Dad, there were a lot of people
crying in that in that theater And I said why
and he said, well, because they saw somebody that really
(23:25):
was trying to, you know, love and help people that
needed love. And there's nothing more important to do with
your life. And so we can we can have these
kinds of conversations. My kids have all would all say
that it's exasperating to them that I'll never let a
movie go by without saying, what do you think that
film means? What's it trying to say? You know, the
(23:46):
lyrics of that song that you're listening to what does
that really mean? And I'm curious and interested, and I
want them to become curious and interested because I don't
want them to just consume culture. I want them to
appreciate works of art, but I also want them to
think critically and to think christianly. And you know, we
are outgunned and outmanned when it comes to bringing about
(24:10):
a depth of faith in our kids' life that can
counter the culture. Because the culture, the best minds and
the most money in the world are being spent and
trying to bypass parents to get to our kids. So
we have to take seriously this responsibility of being culturally
savvy Christians and helping our kids know how to do
the same.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
Dick, thank you so much for writing the book, for
being on the broadcast, and for a life that's really
making a difference for time and for eternity.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
Thank you, Hank. It's great to talk to you.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
As always, God pleasure. My friend Dick Stobb has a book,
The Culturally Savvy Christian is available for your gift to
the ongoing ministry of the Christian Research Institute. It's a
worthwhile book to read. Get it, use it, give it
to your kids and believe this, we can start a
twenty first century Renaissance. It's not about giving up. It's
(24:59):
not about capitulating. It's not about saying the end is
right around the corner. It's about occupying. It's about being
fully and truly what God created you to be. It's
not just passing time. It's making a difference. It's being
a culturally savvy Christian who can make a difference for
(25:22):
time and for eternity. It's about a transformation that can
happen in the West, and sometimes transformations begin with one person,
sometimes with a group or nucleus of people. But we
can't give up. We can't throw in the towel. We
(25:45):
have to give an account for what we did. Remember
degrees of reward in heaven. Jesus Christ preached about that
a lot not common in modern day circles and certainly
not in modern day sermons, but certainly common in the
ministry at the Lord Jesus Christ, the culturally Savvy Christian.
(26:07):
It's available to the Ministry of the Christian Research Institute
in order online check it out at equip dot org.
So long for now, We'll see you tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Thanks for tuning into the Bible. Answer Man Broadcast. Our website,
equip dot org has an abundance of resources to sharpen
your discernment skills and help you grow in life and truth.
We provide books, videos, and informative articles. You can also
listen to the broadcast, download archived programs, get answers to
(26:35):
pressing Bible questions, or connect with us via social media.
All this and more at equip dot org. Again, the
address is equip dot org. The Bible answer Man Broadcast
is supported by listeners like you. We're on the air
because life and truth matter. As followers of the Lord
(27:03):
Jesus Christ, we must learn to think Christianly. To do so,
we need to steep ourselves in God's word so that
everywhere we look we discern the lives of our culture
against a backdrop of truth. Then we can use what
we know to speak to the lost in the language
they will understand. The Culturally Savvy Christian by Dick Staub,
is a book that skillfully exposes the shallowness of contemporary
(27:26):
pop culture and shows how millions of Christians have been
led astray. But Staub goes beyond diagnosis to healing prescription,
laying out practical guidelines you can use to safely engage
our culture every day. As good ambassadors, we must understand
the world we live in and transform it, just as
Christ and his disciples did. Who order the culturally savvy Christian.
(27:49):
For your gift to the ministry of the Christian Research Institute,
call eight eight eight seven thousand c r I, or
go online to equip dot org.
Welcome to the Bible answer Man Broadcast with the President
of the Christian Research Institute, Hank Canigraph. Our mission is
to equip you with answers to share the hope that
you have within you because life and truth matter. Why
because being armed with truth will equip you to counter
the corrosive worldviews at work in our world today, while
(00:30):
experiencing the authentic Christian life will make you a winsome
witness of the purpose of life, which is to experience
union with God and Christ, both for today and for
all eternity. For more information about CRII and the Bible
answer Man Broadcast, our phone number is eight eight eight
seven thousand CROI. You can find us online at equip
(00:53):
dot org. The following program was pre recorded and now
here's Hank Hannah.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Thank you very much, Randy. I want to start today
with a personal anecdote. In fact, I told this story
when I was writing my book, The Prayer of Jesus.
It's a day, quite frankly, I'll never forget. It's a
day in which Kathy, my wife, read me a story
from a book. I was in pain, I could hardly move,
(01:22):
and of course Kathy sensed the possibilities. She had a
captive audience, and so she pulled up a chair next
to the shallow waters of the tub that I was
soaking in, and she began to read from a book.
And the words were refreshing on the one hand, riveting
(01:45):
on the other. They washed over me quite frankly, like
the balm of Gilead, and within moments I was completely
oblivious to my pain. She was not reading stuff from
shallow people who splash around in surface things and then
(02:08):
attempt to write about the deep. It was not the
stuff of non peakers talking to non peakers about peak experiences.
These were the words of someone who had escaped the
shallowness of his own soul, someone who had plunged deep
(02:31):
into the ocean of God's immensity. And as my wife
read on, I was brought into an experience. There was
an experience of the author and his family. They had
traveled to the Great Barrier Reef. The father had come
to snorkel, the son had come to Scuba, and for
(02:53):
the rest of their lives both of them would tell
stories of their experiences with the Great Barrier Reef. But
only one of them had really come to know it.
And I think that's an appropriate analogy for what we're
going to be talking about in just a few moments.
(03:13):
Most people, well, they snorkel in surface waters. They succeed
only in burning their backs. They fail to comprehend that
deep is where the noisy, trashy surface of the ocean
gets quiet, it gets serene. It's where we give in
(03:39):
to the quiet of a relationship with our maker. It's
where we step out of the shallow tide pool of
our hearts and then step into the boundless ocean of
God's power in his presence. It's where we get beyond
surface things. That's where we plunge into a deep relationship
(04:05):
with our creator. And it all begins with a paradigm shift.
It involves a book called The Culturally Savvy Christian. It's
a manifesto for deepening faith, for enriching popular culture, and
it's a manifesto for these things in an age in
which this is needed, because we live in the age
(04:28):
of Christianity Light. The book is available. You can order
online at equip dot org. When you write me at
Post Office Box eighty five hundred, Charlotte, North Carolina, zip
go two eight two seven one, and as always, when
you talk to our resource consultants at Triple eight seven
thousand CRI. The author of The Culturally Savvy Christian is
(04:54):
online with me right now. His name is Dick Stobbin. Dick.
Its great to have on the broadcast.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
It is great to be with you, Hank. And the
last time I saw you, we were in a bus
in Israel I remember that. What a great experience.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
It was a great experience, and this is a great book.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Well, thank you. You know, I just got back from
New York where I was part of the International Arts
Movement and an event there. And you know, for twenty
some years evangelicals had been gathering a guy named Mako
Fujimora who's one of the world's leading the Hunga artists
and also a committed Christian. And he's an Evangelical who
has earned the right to be heard in the world
(05:35):
of serious art. And it was refreshing to see the
progress that we're making in terms of trying to rediscover
the depth of our faith, and how the deeper we
go on our faith, the more we're able to create
and bring to the world a richer expression of our
faith through the culture that we create and the art
and the books and you know, as you know, the
(05:57):
culturally Savvy Christian starts with the words in this intellectually
and esthetically impoverished age of Christianity Light. It is heartening
to remember that for centuries Christians were known for their intellectual, artistic,
and spiritual contributions to society. Bach, Mendelssohn, Dante, Doltievsky, Newton,
Pascal Rembrandt. These all desired to glorify God and offered
(06:20):
their work and service of others. And you realize how
far our culture has fallen in terms of its depths,
and we are, as you said, splashing in the superficial
waters in our culture. But the even more frightening phenomena
for people like you and me, Hank, is that unfortunately
American Christianity in many ways has often become a mirror
(06:43):
reflection of that superficiality. And so people with hungering souls
are not going to find their souls satisfied, and either
the culture or in the faith community often and as
you said, this book, the culturally Savvy Christian is a
practical kind of clarion call to get back to the
depth of our faith and to take seriously avoiding conformity
(07:06):
to a superficial and fallen culture.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Add to what you just said about the church, so
often we see big churches. It seems like these churches
are very successful. In fact, as you say, in many
cases they're mirroring the world and there maybe even on
par with secular media. But are they having a big impact.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Well, you know, I'll tell this story. I was in
China one time and we had the privilege of meeting
as broadcasters, a small group of us with a Chinese
pastor who had spent eighteen years in prison for his faith.
And for eighteen years he was told all he had
to do to be released was to renounce his faith
in Jesus Christ. And he refused, And he held out
his wrists and showed us the deep purple grooves of
(07:54):
the scars and his wrist, and he told us that
they had lied to him. They had told him that
his had taken his own life, that his wife had
renounced the faith. He was desperate, but he clung deeply
to the faith because he thought of the words in Philippians.
Jesus made himself of no reputation. He took upon him
(08:14):
the form of a servant. He became obedient, even unto
death and the Cross. And Paul said, you know, let
this same mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus.
And so this Chinese pastor clung to his faith. Well,
I got home from this trip literally a day and
a half later after being with this Chinese pastor, and
there was a postcard on the top of my mail
(08:36):
and it was from a local seeker sensitive church and
it said, please join us for comfortable stadium style seating.
We'll give balloons for your kids. They'll be face painting,
and we promised we'll never preach to you. We'll only
tell you things are going to make you truly successful.
And I looked at that card and I thought about
that pastor and I said, my goodness, am I looking
(08:58):
at a simply a different kind of Christianity? Or is
what we're seeing in American Christianity even Christianity at all?
And it was a sobering contrast. And as you know
Christian Smith's Study of Youth in America where he concluded that, well,
first of all, I served on Martin Marty's Public Religion Project,
(09:18):
and we discovered that in nineteen ninety eight of eighteen
to twenty two year olds only sixteen percent of them
had stayed active in the faith of their parents. Eighty
four percent of kids when they left their parents' home
had discontinued any active involvement in their parents' faith. And
then Christian Smith released his book in which he said,
and of those who stay, many of them have a
(09:42):
view of Christianity which is the equivalent of moralistic, therapeutic deism.
I think being a Christian is about being a nice person.
They think it's about having their needs met, and they
think God is like a parachute, you know, there in
a case you need him in an emergency. And of
course this is not the faith that we understand as
orodox faith. We have a faith where if God is
(10:02):
not central importance, God is of no importance at all.
And so we have a lot of large churches, unfortunately
that are kind of entertainment centers and therapeutic centers, but
they're not producing biblically literate Christians who have a depth
of walk and faith that will sustain them through the
(10:24):
ups and downs of life, and that will in fact
equip them to be able to share such a faith
in this broader culture. And if ever, there's been a
time in America where we can see the need for
renewal individual hearts and lives. It's now we're.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Talking to Dick. Stop and again. The book is The
Culturally Savvy Christian. You can order online at equipp dot
org a post office box eighty five hundred, Charlotte, North Carolina,
zip code two eight two seveny one. That as always,
when you talk to our resource consultants, triple eight seven thousand,
CRI will be right back in just a few moments
(11:01):
with more of the Biblance Men broadcast.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
In Romans two twelve, Paul writes, do not conform to
the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to
test and to prove what God's perfect will is. The
Culturally Savvy Christian by Dick Staub is a book that
will teach you to be serious about your faith, savvy
about faith and culture, and skilled in relating the two
(11:26):
according to God's will. When you support the Christian Research Institute,
we'll send you Dick Stobbs The Culturally Savvy Christian. And
remember that your gift, great or small, creates truth filled
resources that equip more Christians to become change agents in
our culture. To donate, contact us at eight eight eight
seven thousand CRII or go to equip dot org. The
(11:51):
Bible answer Man will return right after this. Bertrand Russell
famously said most people would rather die than think, and
many of them do not so with CRI Support Team members.
(12:11):
Support Team members are not only serious thinkers, but their
membership and CRI's Support Team helps to equip hundreds of
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Are you not a member, then you're missing out. Not
only do Support Team members form the backbone of Christian
Research Institute's outreaches, but they enjoy their selection of resources
(12:34):
from our Equipping Essentials library to discover how you can
make a difference twenty four to seven and equipping believers
at home and abroad to stand for life and truth.
Check out the benefits of membership at equip dot org.
Once again, that's equip dot org. As followers of the
(13:02):
Lord Jesus Christ, we must learn to think Christianly. To
do so, we need to steep ourselves in God's word
so that everywhere we look we discern the lives of
our culture against a backdrop of truth. Then we can
use what we know to speak to the lost in
a language they will understand. The Culturally Savvy Christian by
Dick Staub is a book that skillfully exposes the shallowness
(13:25):
of contemporary pop culture and shows how millions of Christians
have been led astray. But Staub goes beyond diagnosis to
healing prescription, laying out practical guidelines you can use to
safely engage our culture every day. As good ambassadors, we
must understand the world we live in and transform it,
just as Christ and his disciples did. Who order The
(13:47):
Culturally Savvy Christian for your gift to the ministry of
the Christian Research Institute call eight eight eight seven thousand
c r I, or go online to equip dot Org.
Speaker 4 (14:01):
Hank Hanigraph has dedicated his life to defending truth Because
Truth Matters, Yet an encounter with Christians in the underground
Church of China left Hanograph contemplating his Christian experience. They
were experiencing something beyond truth. They were experiencing life. Truth matters.
Life matters More by Hank Hanigraph is two books in one.
Because Truth Matters, Part one equips Christians to defend the
(14:24):
essential truths of the historic Christian Faith. In Part two,
Hank explains why life matters more and how we can
experience the height of human existence union with God. Prepare
to move past intellectually knowing about God to experientially knowing
God in Christ. To receive your copy of Truth Matters.
Life matters more, the unexpected beauty of an authentic Christian
(14:46):
life called eight eight eight seven thousand CRI, and make
a gift to support the Christian research institutes Life Changing
Outreaches eight eight eight seven thousand CRI, or visit us
at equipped dot org.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Once again, here is hand catigraph favor much Randy, and
I am so delighted to have Dick stop on the
broadcast with me. He's the author of the Culturally Savvy
Christian as well. Dick stob is an award winning broadcaster,
He's a writer, He's founder of the Kindlings. It's a
movement devoted to rekindle the creative intellectual legacy that we
(15:30):
should have as Christians, transforming culture. And one of the
things that you say, Dick, is that if we desire fresh,
cool water, we have to dig a deeper well. We
will not find pure refreshing water by digging a lot
of shallow wells. And that's precisely what we're doing, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
Yeah, that actually was triggered in my mind by Houston Smith, who,
as you know, is a scholar and world religions and
what started out as a Christian and then export a
lot of Eastern religion, and then he heard this parable
of the man who dug many shallow wells, and he
realized that the secret was to dig a deeper well
in your own faith. And that's what I think is
(16:14):
happening with a lot of Christians, you know, Hank. I've
moved to a place called Orchus Island off the coast
of the state of Washington, and part of the reason
I came here is there's a lot of artists here.
There's a very intellectual community here, but it's largely a
new age community where people are kind of splashing around
in shallow waters. And I wanted the challenge of being
(16:36):
able to try to communicate faith in that context. And
what you see is if you don't go deep in
your own Christian faith and really understand, and I'm talking
about a personal relationship with the Living God, not just
head knowledge, but that complete understanding that we have when
(16:56):
we look at both the Old and New Testament of
we love God with our mind, we love God with
our heart, we love God with our soul. We are
intellectually prepared, but we are also walking in a personal
relationship with the Living God. And these things don't come easily.
You know. We need to devote ourselves to going much
(17:18):
deeper in our own faith tradition, in our own relationship
with God. And it's only as we go deeper that
we will find the sicknesses in our soul addressed. Jesus
offers springs of living water. Jesus is the bread of life.
The things that leave us unwell and spiritually ill can
(17:38):
only be addressed through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit,
who brings Jesus christ fully into our life. And so
coming to a deep faith is the solution for becoming
a well person. And only people who are becoming well
are able to live out their faith in a winsome way.
In culture, and one of the problems that we have
(18:00):
right now as we relate to culture is that we
don't have a very complete or holistic approach to culture.
And I try to point out in this book that
as we become more deeply devoted to Christ and are
prepared to be a loving, transforming presence. We occupy three
different roles in this culture. On the one hand, we
are countercultural, like aliens. This world is an alien place,
(18:23):
it's a fallen place. C. S. Lewis said, the world
is enemy occupied territory, you know. And so we're not
supposed to be casual about the culture in which we live.
We shouldn't just be consumers of the popular culture. At
the same time, we have an opportunity to communicate in
this culture like ambassadors, and that's what we saw the
(18:44):
apostle Paul do in Athens, where he was quoting pagan poets.
He was helping people find common ground. He was teasing
them out to think about this statue they had to
an unknown God. And all around us our converse station
points an opportunity to share our faith. I've done a
show for seven years in a row now from Sundance
(19:06):
Film Festival, and this year a variety magazine, The New
York Times, all commented that this was the year of spirituality,
and I wrote a piece in which I outlined eight
films this year that were spiritual touch points. Conversation points where,
if we are truly equipped in our faith, have opportunities
(19:26):
to engage in conversation with ideas that the secular filmmaker
is drawing out and questions that they're asking. And that's
our role as ambassadors in culture. And so on the
one hand, we're aliens with a resistance and accountercultural attitude
about culture. On the other hand, we're ambassadors. But then
the third colony that we have is to be the
(19:47):
artist to create culture. And that's why I was excited
this weekend to be at the International Arts Movement where
people like Dana Joya, who was the former chairman of
the National and dominant of the Arts Christian a poet,
has you know, done serious work that has been accepted
broadly in the broader community and is raising spiritual questions.
(20:10):
So we have a great opportunity in this, in this
fallen age, to resist the fallenness, in living a countercultural life,
to engage in conversation about this impoverishment of American culture
through being ambassadors for christ but also then turning around
and doing something constructive about it, making better work, making
(20:31):
better films, making better art. We have an opportunity, and
I hope Christians who who want to get this big
picture of what's going on in faith and culture and
then want to be part of the solution, will will
take the time to read a book like the Culturally's
Having Christian and then apply it to their own lives.
(20:51):
And for parents, it's a great way to understand what's
going on in your kids' lives and to plant seeds
in your kids' lives as a way that they in
fact can play a role in this culture.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Have one more question for you, Dick, and that has
to do with the kids. I'm the father of twelve children,
so this is something that I have a very intense
and intimate interest in. The culture today has become the
teacher of my children. As much as I don't want
to admit it, it's true. I mean, the church has
(21:25):
them for a very short period of time. Every week
they do go to a Christian school, but by and large,
the culture has their ear.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
How do you compete, Well, I don't think we do
compete in a certain sense. Tank and I have four
kids and two grandchildren, and I the approach that my
wife and I have taken is, first of all, when
our kids are young, we very much controlled what they
would consume. We didn't feel bad about at all about
saying no. As O kids got into middle school and
into early high school, we engage them in helping them
(21:59):
know how to make choices, and we allowed them to
make some choices, and then we'd sit down and talk
to them about the movies that we watched them. We'd
watch them with them. If they wanted to bring home music,
we'd insist that we listened to it together and talk
about it. And then as our kids reached the end
of high school, we would begin to let them make
some of their own choices, because it's good for them
to make a few mistakes while they're still at home.
(22:21):
But it's this ongoing conversation. My son is I was
one of the creators of one of the most successful
games in history called myst and Riven, and he then
went on to Disney Animation and he was one of
the twelve leads Entangled. But I remember when Josh was
ten years old, he and his friend Ryan were having
this conversation about, you know, how they were going to
make lots of money, and I overheard in the back
(22:43):
you know, they were in the back seat of the car,
and I thought this was a teachable moment. And I
turned around and at that time, William Perry was the
most famous football player in Chicago. We were living in
Chicago at the time, and I said the refrigerator and
I said, Josh, who's more important, William Perry or Mother Teresa?
And I'll never forget. Ryan looked up and said, who's
(23:03):
Mother Teresa? And so the next weekend I took the
boys to see the Richard Attenborough film documentary on Mother Teresa.
And as we walked out of the theater, Josh looked
up at me and my son, he was ten years old,
and he said, Dad, there were a lot of people
crying in that in that theater And I said why
and he said, well, because they saw somebody that really
(23:25):
was trying to, you know, love and help people that
needed love. And there's nothing more important to do with
your life. And so we can we can have these
kinds of conversations. My kids have all would all say
that it's exasperating to them that I'll never let a
movie go by without saying, what do you think that
film means? What's it trying to say? You know, the
(23:46):
lyrics of that song that you're listening to what does
that really mean? And I'm curious and interested, and I
want them to become curious and interested because I don't
want them to just consume culture. I want them to
appreciate works of art, but I also want them to
think critically and to think christianly. And you know, we
are outgunned and outmanned when it comes to bringing about
(24:10):
a depth of faith in our kids' life that can
counter the culture. Because the culture, the best minds and
the most money in the world are being spent and
trying to bypass parents to get to our kids. So
we have to take seriously this responsibility of being culturally
savvy Christians and helping our kids know how to do
the same.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
Dick, thank you so much for writing the book, for
being on the broadcast, and for a life that's really
making a difference for time and for eternity.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
Thank you, Hank. It's great to talk to you.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
As always, God pleasure. My friend Dick Stobb has a book,
The Culturally Savvy Christian is available for your gift to
the ongoing ministry of the Christian Research Institute. It's a
worthwhile book to read. Get it, use it, give it
to your kids and believe this, we can start a
twenty first century Renaissance. It's not about giving up. It's
(24:59):
not about capitulating. It's not about saying the end is
right around the corner. It's about occupying. It's about being
fully and truly what God created you to be. It's
not just passing time. It's making a difference. It's being
a culturally savvy Christian who can make a difference for
(25:22):
time and for eternity. It's about a transformation that can
happen in the West, and sometimes transformations begin with one person,
sometimes with a group or nucleus of people. But we
can't give up. We can't throw in the towel. We
(25:45):
have to give an account for what we did. Remember
degrees of reward in heaven. Jesus Christ preached about that
a lot not common in modern day circles and certainly
not in modern day sermons, but certainly common in the
ministry at the Lord Jesus Christ, the culturally Savvy Christian.
(26:07):
It's available to the Ministry of the Christian Research Institute
in order online check it out at equip dot org.
So long for now, We'll see you tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Thanks for tuning into the Bible. Answer Man Broadcast. Our website,
equip dot org has an abundance of resources to sharpen
your discernment skills and help you grow in life and truth.
We provide books, videos, and informative articles. You can also
listen to the broadcast, download archived programs, get answers to
(26:35):
pressing Bible questions, or connect with us via social media.
All this and more at equip dot org. Again, the
address is equip dot org. The Bible answer Man Broadcast
is supported by listeners like you. We're on the air
because life and truth matter. As followers of the Lord
(27:03):
Jesus Christ, we must learn to think Christianly. To do so,
we need to steep ourselves in God's word so that
everywhere we look we discern the lives of our culture
against a backdrop of truth. Then we can use what
we know to speak to the lost in the language
they will understand. The Culturally Savvy Christian by Dick Staub,
is a book that skillfully exposes the shallowness of contemporary
(27:26):
pop culture and shows how millions of Christians have been
led astray. But Staub goes beyond diagnosis to healing prescription,
laying out practical guidelines you can use to safely engage
our culture every day. As good ambassadors, we must understand
the world we live in and transform it, just as
Christ and his disciples did. Who order the culturally savvy Christian.
(27:49):
For your gift to the ministry of the Christian Research Institute,
call eight eight eight seven thousand c r I, or
go online to equip dot org.
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