Swimming Against the Tide: Growing Together in Love

Our culture says ‘scroll’.   Our culture nods to the ‘new’.  Our culture cries ‘consume’.  But what does it look like to swim against that tide? 

For, whilst our culture encourages an endless scrolling with our thumbs, the gospel calls us to stop, to interact, and to engage in love.  Whilst our culture perpetually encourages us to seek the new and exciting, Jesus calls us, with fires burning in our bellies, to see that the truest excitement is found in the creator himself.  Whilst our culture calls us to consume, the Bible calls us to serve, to love, and to be of mutual encouragement to those who are serving us.

So what does it look like for us to swim against this cultural tide, as content producers in the online sphere?  It means taking seriously the reality that for every ‘download’, ‘like’, ‘share’ or ‘follow’ there’s a person made in God’s image, with whom we are seeking to engage and serve in some way.  That the online sphere isn’t exempt from God’s call to love, but with the means, and within the limits the Lord has given us, we’re to actively pursue loving you, our neighbour.

This isn’t always easy. And we’re painfully aware of how susceptible our minds and hearts are to the tide’s swell. But crucially, this means that for every call to serve the algorithm, or boost our follower count, or fast-track our download rate, we’re to continually check ourselves against the Biblical mandate we’ve been given: are we seeking to love God and to love others, and to humbly serve, rather than seeking to be served?

All this means that what you receive from us - in your earbuds, in your inbox, or in your newsfeed, won’t always be flashy and new, but it is born out of love.  We’re prayerfully seeking to work hard to create content that you’ll enjoy, but most of all, we’re seeking to create content that honours the Lord, enabling us all to love Him and love others, like Christ. 

What does it look like for you to swim against this cultural tide as a content consumer?  Only you can examine your heart and answer that one.  But know this: for every word of encouragement, for every prayer, for every gift of partnership, for every proactive response - you are evidencing your desire to swim against the tide, as you seek to love God and love others in the online sphere.