Most Christian books that deal with the subject of modern culture assume that Western culture is "our culture". In other words, no matter how much the writers might object to the greed, secularism and even relativism of the prevailing culture around them, they continue to include themselves.

The reality is that accepting the lordship of Christ means accepting a radically different culture. That is, if "culture" refers to our way of life, our worldview, our values, our symbols and rituals, our beliefs and our morals.

One of my major contentions in these pages is that Christians should adopt a cross-cultural missionary stance towards our friends, relatives and neighbours who don't yet know Jesus. Not because that sort of approach might work better, but because it better expresses the reality of our relationship. We are citizens of a heavenly country, preaching a Gospel that is more and more foreign to the members of Western society.

Does that mean we should change the Gospel? No. Of course not! It just means that we have to understand the principles of cross-cultural communication. We have to build bridges with people. And we have to understand both their culture and ours.

Refusing to accept modern Western culture as "our" culture does not mean cutting ourselves off from our friends and relatives, setting ourselves up in some ivory tower. It doesn't mean that we become arrogant or judgmental. Rather, it gives us a vantage point from which we can demonstrate a different kind of life. If, as Christians, we are no different from the world around us, then we have no Gospel at all, no message of hope, and no reason to get involved in evangelism!

Our culture, as Christians, should be very distinct. Often, it's not, and that's exactly the problem. But identifying with the culture of the world will not help. At least if we get into the habit of identifying "our culture" with Christian culture, rather than Western culture, we will continually remind ourselves exactly who we really are serving.