Welcome back to the Altars & Ashes Podcast. In Episode 024, we take up a tension most churches feel, but rarely ever articulate:
Is the church meant to be a refuge from the world or a base of operations for transforming it?
This episode isn’t meant to be about partisan politics or shallow culture war rhetoric, thought it covers much of that. Instead, it is something much deeper and more uncomfortable: When Christ changes a man, where is that obedience supposed to go?
The Core Tension: Inward vs. Outward Ministry
We spend a significant portion of the episode working through two dominant pastoral instincts shaping churches today.
Inward-Facing Ministry
Often described as a sanctuary or refuge model, this approach emphasizes:
* Personal holiness and spiritual formation
* Church health and doctrinal faithfulness
* Shepherding souls for suffering, endurance, and eternity
* The church as a pilgrim people in a hostile and passing world
Faithfulness here is measured by holiness, perseverance, and doctrinal clarity, not influence or visibility.
Outward-Facing Ministry
This model emphasizes Christ’s present kingship over every square inch of creation, and sees the church as a training ground for public obedience:
* Discipling men who shape institutions
* Christian engagement in law, economics, education, and public morality
* The cultural mandate as still operative
* Repentance that doesn’t remain merely private, but becomes public
Here, faithfulness includes responsibility, risk, and ownership of outcomes.
Both camps want obedience. Where they often seem to disagree, is how far that obedience is allowed to travel.
Theological Frameworks We Wrestled With
This episode doesn’t shy away from first-principles theology. Some of the major concepts we work through include:
Sphere Sovereignty
God has ordained distinct spheres of authority: the family, the church, and the civil magistrate. They are separate, but all are accountable to Christ.
We push back on the idea that Christianity can be faithfully practiced while remaining institutionally silent.
Theonomy & General Equity
We discuss how the moral principles of Old Testament law inform justice, equity, and civil order today without flattening Israel into America or turning Scripture into a policy manual.
The question isn’t whether law is moral, it’s whose morality gets enforced.
The Great Commission as More Than Soul-Winning
“Make disciples of all nations” is not merely an evangelism slogan. We explore whether discipling nations necessarily implies:
* Cultural transformation
* Generational obedience
* Institutional consequences
And whether reducing the Great Commission to private conversion subtly disobeys its scope.
Rejecting the Lie of Neutrality
A major throughline of the episode is our critique of the “two-story view” of truth, which is the idea that faith belongs upstairs (private, religious, subjective), while public life belongs downstairs (neutral, scientific, secular).
We argue plainly:
* There is no neutral legislation
* Every law reflects a moral vision
* Every society catechizes its people
The Bible is not a weapon for power grabs, but it is a light for public reasoning, justice, and order.
Same Bible, Different Trajectories
One of the most important clarifications in the episode is that we weren’t debating preaching styles. Both inward- and outward-facing pastors can preach Romans verse by verse. The difference is in their application.
* One aims obedience inward: endure, suffer, remain faithful
* The other aims obedience outward: build, lead, take responsibility
Same text. Same doctrines even. But, completely different vectors. And those vectors produce very different kinds of men.
Why This Conversation Matters
This episode is intentionally conversational, complete with stories from a hibachi restaurant and behind-the-scenes moments from the Founders Conference, but the stakes are anything but casual.
We are trying to press the Overton window of Christian conversation:
* Away from passive survival
* Away from privatized faith
* Toward responsibility, building, and generational obedience
Dominion isn’t a conquest fantasy. It’s obedience that refuses to stay hidden.
The Closing Question
We leave the episode with one unavoidable question:
When Christ transforms a man, where is that transformation meant to land?
Does it stop at:
* Personal holiness?
* Church health?
* Family order?
Or does it necessarily spill outward into:
* Culture
* Economics
* Law
* Responsibility
That tension isn’t going away. And it’s one worth pressing into carefully, biblically, and without fear.
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