Tom Johnson is serving as our interim dean over this year and while his work at MHGS is mainly behind the scenes, you can still learn from his work through his blog at Christian Century.  In a recent post, Tom wrote about the call to be counter-cultural:

I was teaching an adult class at an area evangelical church when we fell into a discussion (diversion, rabbit trail) about how Paul was asking the Thessalonians to live counter-culturally. (See especially 1 Thes. 4:1-12.) I said that we Christians in America today may not feel this contradiction on a daily basis the way someone living in Thessalonika would.

Immediately one of the participants spoke up with, “Oh yes, we do! Why, this very Sunday a church just up the road is having a peace thing with Buddhists and Muslims and Jews and God knows who else. What kind of a witness is that? Talk about cultural compromise!”

“Yes,” I replied, “my wife and I are the greeters for it.” continue reading here…

Tom Johnson is the interim academic dean of Mars Hill Graduate School in Seattle and a former PCUSA pastor. He lives on Whidbey Island, Washington.