Abraham Kuyper: A Short and Personal Introduction

by Richard J. Mouw

The church has an important responsibility in seeing to it that Christians not only understand their daily lives as Kingdom activity, but also seek out other Christians for mutual discernment in the face of the significant challenges we face in our efforts to be faithful to the gospel in the larger cultural arena.

Unfortunately, the approach of many of our churches is actually counterproductive in this area. They segregate youth - in worship and the arrangement of meeting spaces - in a way that deliberately separates the generations. This needs to be reversed. But it is especially important that one-to-one relationships be formed. An adult who is not related to a specific teenager can greet the young person at church - making eye contact - and ask what the adult can pray for in that teenager's life during the next week. And then a follow-up a week later: How did that test go? Did you win the game? Anything new in that relationship?

It should be clear from what I have been spelling out in these pages that Kuyper thinks that these options - withdraw or take over - constitute a false choice. There is a way for Christians to work actively to bring the concerns of our faith to the larger culture, a way that recognizes that we cannot have it all during this "time of God's patience." It is not only an interesting possibility to talk with Muslims about how we understand our public callings in our pluralistic world - it is an urgent matter.