"Wileyism"

Ways to Culturally Engage as Christians

Growing up in a non-denominational church, I thought practically living out my Christian faith consisted of doing two things:

1.     Asking my friends to come to church.

2.     Becoming a missionary in a foreign land.

And number 2––you must understand––was for the super-Christians and not to be attempted under normal circumstances.

When the rubber met the road, this is what I thought. These two things are good things, but recently I’ve been brought to a deeper and wider understanding of the things we can do to win ground for God’s kingdom, which we should be praying to come. So how do Christians take action to accomplish Christ’s kingdom on earth? We do so by taking dominion.

When it comes to taking dominion, I’ve become a subscriber to what I’ve named “Wileyism”. This term comes from the author C.R. Wiley––the author of many books dealing with the subject. In an article Wiley published in Plough about his book called In the House of Tom Bombadil, Wiley talks about what dominion means through the characters of Bombadil and Goldberry in The Fellowship of the Ring:

“Now, I know what you’re thinking––” Wiley says, “domination is bad. But the word dominion shares a common root with the Latin word for home, domus, from which we get the word domesticity. Tom Bombadil’s dominion is not over other people but over his own home domain…But [Bombadil and Goldberry] work in a harmonious and complementary way, enjoying light and love and the guests that find their ways into their home…If we’re going to go home again, we’ll need to learn that music. Our ancestors knew it. We can relearn it.”

In other words, taking dominion of the world God gave us is a powerful dance that stems from the home and takes account for the natures God gave us as they’re revealed in His word.

So besides being missionaries and inviting our friends to church, what public arenas should we be filling as Christians? Answer: In every way, and in every arena, as long as it’s under the direction and authority of scripture. In the words of Churchill, we are “to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give”––not just against the Nazis, as Churchill was preoccupied with, but against all the evil forces of the world. Our time and actions here matter, every second counts, and all things are meaningful during our time in this universe. Before Wiley’s books and articles, I was looking out into the world of Christian engagement through a peephole, but his books and content opened up the door.

While the arenas Christians engage in should include everything, I realize it might be helpful to be a little more specific about what those arenas are. Ultimately, God defines the arenas and the rules to the game. After all––not everything in the world is good because we’re fallen creatures. So, to be specific, here are four ways for Christians to engage to win the world: taking dominion, focusing local, building strong families, and leaving behind.

Dominion vs. Domination

Taking dominion requires the willingness to do the things people don’t want to do. In other words, it requires getting your hands dirty.

When I was a cook I learned there were two types of chefs: chefs that were in the weeds with their employees and chefs that weren’t. The weeds refer to things like cooking during the rush at Sunday brunch or mopping up late at night after dinner service.

A kitchen is a chaotic environment, and needs strong leadership to hold things together. If there is no organization, hierarchy, and leadership, things go wrong very quick. When things go wrong people receive the wrong food, employees get hurt, waitresses and waiters miss tips, or a customer gets sick. A good chef takes responsibility for what goes on in their kitchen and doesn’t sit in an office all day. They delegate tasks and should never ask anyone to do something they’re not willing to do themself.

A bad chef (and I’ve had both) comes in late and leaves early. A bad chef does the fun part––writing menus and cooking new dishes––then leaves the grunt-work to the cooks. A bad chef sits in his office while others work. This chef doesn’t know the cooks and is out of touch with what’s going on in the kitchen. This leads him/her to arbitrarily make dictums without understanding the practical realities of what’s going on, and people don’t want to obey because respect hasn’t been earned.

Part of taking dominion of the earth is like being the good chef. Christians should be the heads of families, churches, organizations, and be holding positions in the government. We should wield the power of these positions––not by demanding respect––but by earning it through our actions.

The example of the bad chef has no respect, but only tentative power over those beneath him. We need to stay away from this kind of leadership at all cost.

Apart from the way we lead, dominion is about taking the things you have control over and making them better than when they came to you. Everyone has control over something––whether it’s a room, a bike, a car, your words, or a 160ft yacht. Take responsibility for the things you can and follow God’s example: after the creative act of making the world, he stepped back and was able to declare it good. Use and create things in a way to be able to declare it good.

On the other hand, domination seeks to tyrannize. A dominator puts himself in place of God, which is the opposite of how God created us to be. Dominators devour others––just as Herod killed all the children under three years old, or served John the Baptist’s head up on a silver platter.

Taking dominion feeds others––just as Jesus modeled by feeding the five thousand.

Localism vs. Globalism

In today’s world, Christians should focus locally. Taking dominion can mean something as small as mowing the lawn or changing the breaks on your bike. David was a shepherd before he killed Goliath. If you can’t make your bed or do the dishes, what makes you think you can change the world? A person should only be given more responsibility when they’ve shown they can be faithful with the ones they have. Dominion works outward from local to global.

In the book of Timothy, it says to aspire to “lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way” (Tim 2:2 ESV). The Christian ideal doesn’t always look like someone embroiled in controversy or preaching to a crowd from a podium. As G.K. Chesterton said, “The most extraordinary thing in the world is an ordinary man and an ordinary woman and their ordinary children.” It stands to reason that the most extraordinary of all Christians may have lived their lives in quiet, obedient godliness, 100% unknown to history. We can afford to live our lives without fame or greatness, because we are seeking greatness in God’s kingdom, and the greatest in His kingdom is the servant of all.

Things like foreign missions are a special and distinct calling, but Christians are, in large part, to win the world by acting local. Christians look to missions work and people like Billy Graham as the ideal––but they are not the ideal for all. The ideal looks different to every Christian, depending on what function they play in the body of Christ.

God’s kingdom comes slowly over long periods of time like yeast working through a loaf (1 Cor 5:6 ESV).  It takes time, and we can afford the time it takes since we are eternal beings. Zeal for God’s kingdom is a virtue, but we can also afford to be patient. We don’t need to usher in God’s kingdom now, or even in the next 10,000 years. It’s completely up to God, and we are meant to serve him in obedience and joy. For Western Christians in today’s culture, many would be doing more to win the world for Christ by making their beds then flying halfway around the world.

This meme I found on Twitter hits close to home:

The enemy to the church in the Western world is secularism, and it’s reared its ugly head. We need to build, reform, and support local churches instead of focusing efforts overseas. The church needs to be salty again. We find our saltiness by becoming blessed, and Psalm 1 says the blessed man,

“is like a tree
    planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
    and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.” (Ps 1:3 ESV)

So then, (1) be planted. Find a place to put down roots and accomplish meaningful work. (2) Yield fruit. Find or start a healthy community of believers and cultivate virtues described as the fruit of the spirit in Galatians 5:22-23 by living under the complete authority of the scripture in all things, and (3) don’t wither. Do not grow tired of doing good (Gal 6:9).

The Family

The best way to be counter-cultural as a Christian is to start and raise a God-honoring family. To do this––and I think C.R. Wiley would agree––the purpose of a family needs to become more broadly defined.

Today, people see their family or their spouse as those responsible for keeping each other emotionally satiated. The culture is obsessed with the romantic aspect of love, and if your wisdom ends at what you see and consume on the television you would think this is the end and the purpose of marriage.

In truth, every modern institution finds its beginning in the family. Hospitals, schools, law-enforcement, commerce, etc. all started as a function of family and––if society were to break down and the world fall into anarchy––these institutions would naturally continue inside families. The institutions I described bring order to society when they are functioning properly, but many have become untrustworthy in today’s western world.

If the family is the bedrock of all institutions, then Christian families––whenever feasible––need to take back the control they can from the institutions to avoid the corrupting influence of the modern, secular state. We shouldn’t retreat from culture and become hermits, but we also need to engage from a place of strength. We need to take dominion. This can mean private school and homeschool for children. But another thing adults can do to maintain strength and influence is to make the family the center of commerce again. This is done through buying and working our own productive property rather than someone else’s.

What is productive property? Productive property is something you own, that makes money for you. This can be intellectual property like books or a business idea, or it can be real property like house rentals, a bunch of vending machines, or a side gig like flipping old furniture. When you work for someone else, you’re working for their productive property. Therefore, if you work for someone else––no matter how much your salary is––you are making more money and value for them then they are paying you. Any business that pays their employees more than they are worth to the company is not a sustainable model. When you own or create your own productive property, then all the value (besides taxes) goes to you, your kids, and your future progeny. It may be more difficult, but what you invest is yours.

Historically, working in and for your home with your family has been the standard, but the modern world has separated commerce from the home, further ostracizing families from each other’s lives until it’s normal for two parents to have full-time careers and all their kids at daycare.

The spark of romantic love that starts a relationship is a good thing, and keeping that element alive in your marriage should be fought for, but marriage and family is so much more. A marriage is between a man and a women becoming one through a covenant they made before God, and they have a purpose and job to raise children and further God’s kingdom through their fruitful labor on earth.

Building and Leaving

People should look to leave generational wealth for those who come after them. As Christians, we should never be thinking in terms of only our lifetime.

But leaving generational wealth isn’t necessarily monetary. Faithfully serving God and passing on a legacy of virtue is more important than passing on material wealth. Providing for your family, giving money to charity, and not leaving your family destitute after you die are legitimate ways to serve the Lord. Owning productive property is a way for Christians to gain ground in the culture war and leave something behind that will continue to provide blessing for others once they’re gone. Of course, not everyone will have the same opportunities to do this, but everyone can live their lives in a way that’s focused on those around them, and what you want to have given to others once you are gone.

Conclusion

C.R. Wiley, among others, opened my mind to the venues Christians have to engage the world for Christ. Here I’ve given a brief outline of the principles of dominion, localism, the family, and leaving something behind worthwhile as a result of my reflection on Wiley’s work. This helps us understand our design and the meaningful projects we can engage in for the kingdom, which aren’t limited to inviting your friends to church or engaging in foreign missions. Christ has something to say about every aspect of life, and everything you do throughout the day. Our job is to bring every task under the authority of God. As Abraham Kuyper said, “There is not a square inch in the whole of creation over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: ‘Mine!’” What would the world look like if we acted like it?