Abstract: Below is a summary how leaders can help strengthen culture one church community at a time. The examples below assume that leaders creatively develop local resources while uniting in worship and prayer to develop a vision unique to the relationships in the local community. The unified worship and prayer begins in the Upper Room. This focus on the Lord should inspire communities to build time-tested models for church-based family, educational, economic, and judicial institutions in the boardrooms, courtrooms, classrooms, and family rooms. As secular institutions collapse under the weight of excessive debt and the challenges of untenable political power imbalances, the paragraphs below should inspire the development of Christ-centered solutions.

Restoring the centrality of Christ in the Upper Room. In his book, The Upper Room, famed 19th century theologian J.C. Riley reminds readers that the "upper room" was "the forerunner of every church and cathedral." Riley continues, "Here it was that professing Christians...first began to pray together, to worship, and to exhort one another." They focused on developing unified responses to the issues that God placed on their hearts. Such issues undoubtedly involved the family, educational, economic, and judicial matters that most concerned Christ.  

Restoring the centrality of Christ in the family room. Our kids need to know how to rebuild Western civilization – drawing on the wisdom of Calvin and the monks who rebuilt Europe one community at a time after corrupt leaders destroyed most of European civilization.  See, e.g., “Calvins Geneva by E. William Monter and How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill. During home-based Biblical education, parents can lead children through Bible studies that reveal Biblical solutions to all of the most challenging issues described in 21st century newspapers. Kids can see the importance of maintaining Biblical worship and prayer at the heart of communities with Christ-centered educational, commercial, and judicial institutions.  

Restoring the centrality of Christ in the classroom. The future of affordable education will revolve around local churches that emphasize mentoring and discipleship in the real world (drawing on wisdom from how churches historically have been involved in education).  Young men around us will get plugged into solid men’s groups at local churches that emphasize the 9 marks of the Biblical church (see www.9Marks.org and www.BiblicalPurpose.com)  Classic Biblical models describe affordable ways to give the young men biblical life-school integration whether they take classes online or at a Christian college like Biola (as part of the 30 units that must be earned at the “bricks and mortar” school in order to earn a degree requiring 120+ units.)  Most parents cannot keep paying $75K per year per kid (pre-tax) for the private school education experience, but they can afford and encourage the low-cost distributive education piped into local communities through the internet. Such community-based education can build the strongest relationships while cultivating skills and talents that will best serve the community.  

Restoring the centrality of Christ in the boardroom. God’s Word guides development of Spirit-led enterprise. A practical model is explained at www.WOTSMOST.com and www.BibicalBusiness.info. The model assumes governance based on Christian values that are taught and encouraged from the pulpits of churches with sound doctrine. Of course, this model will work best if institutions are not too burdened by excessive creditor demands or too much uncertainty caused by an unstable monetary system. To address these financial problems, and to protect Christians from the inevitable collapse of the Federal Reserve System, Christians should focus on building wealth inside tax-efficient vehicles that own many non-dollar investments as well as inflation-hedged hard asset investments (e.g., real estate that cash flows). The pension, insurance, and charity lobbies are strong enough that the tax benefits of pension funds, insurance policies, charitable foundations, and similar vehicles should remain good throughout our lifetimes.  

Restoring the centrality of Christ in the courtroom. Throughout Judeo-Christian history, the religious institutions resolved disputes. Since Christ, churches have maintained ecclesiastical courts to resolve a broad array of matters according to legal statutes and principles of equity. The robust case laws from church courts guided Blackstone as he wrote commentaries that established a foundation for English and American jurisprudence. While American courts were substantially Biblical for nearly 200 years, they began a drift toward secularism in the 1900s. Today many judicial decisions are based on expediency, relativism, and opinions of biased judges. Such decisions undermine relationships. Fortunately, however, Biblical systems of jurisprudence are now providing viable alternative methods of resolving conflicts. See, e.g., www.Peacemaker.net.