In the world but not of it

This is paraphrase of what we find in Jn. 17:14-18. We are left in this world for a time to represent the King and His Kingdom until He returns for us. While we wait, He has sent us to his enemies as ambassadors, proclaiming to them the terms of peace.
As such, we live in two cultures - the Kingdom culture and the culture of this present age. The Kingdom culture is the one that is outlined for us in the scriptures and its influence upon us grows as we embrace the scriptures and allow it to shape our life patterns. We are a sampling of the great Kingdom culture which will eventually be the dominate one.

We are to cultivate the Kingdom culture and redeem the current culture
Cultivating the Kingdom culture means that we at Harvest are cultivating an environment that encourages and stimulates the values that the Bible speaks of: holiness, goodness, wholeness, faithfulness, masculinity, femininity, hard work, selflessness, etc. at the same time as working for the good of the city around us so that Christ’s love is seen. We are not merely promoting a moralism but loving our neighbors and our city with Christ’s love – making this a better place to live rather than preaching at it or against it like Jonah while hating the city. It means learning as much as possible, staying in touch with the culture enough to understand its yearning so that we can show them how Jesus meets the deepest longings of their hearts.