The Culture of God’s Word: Faithful Ministry in a Post-Christian Society
Digital Logos Edition
The word is sown. But God gives the increase.
Some fight to recover Christian culture; others abandon any hope of transforming culture. Both mindsets are at odds with the early church. The apostles weren’t seeking to convert cultures but people, because God’s word cultivates its own culture—the culture of the word. When the word is sown, the culture is grown. Our mission remains the same today: a stubborn commitment to proclaim God’s word.
In The Culture of God’s Word, Harold L. Senkbeil and Lucas V. Woodford reclaim the biblical approach to transformation and social witness. By returning to the apostles’ own example in the book of Acts, we are reminded of the power of the gospel. God’s word embraces broken hearts and broken lives and transforms them in Christ Jesus. The church is born of God’s word and grows by God’s word. The pursuit of relevance has failed. The culture wars distract from the mission. But God’s word cultivates a faith that endures in a chaotic world.
“Neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.” —1 Corinthians 3:7
Praise for The Culture of God’s Word
In an American culture that disapproves of Christianity, strategies for ministry that attempt to be ‘relevant’ to the culture are bound to fail. Senkbeil and Woodford help us see that this cultural moment merely highlights what has always been true: that clinging to the Word of Christ is not only the God-given means of salvation but the Spirit-given heart of the life of the church in its mission to the world. This little book, itself full of the Word of Christ, may help free pastors to cling to the Word rather than grope for strategies of relevance.
—Phillip Cary, professor of philosophy and scholar-in-residence at the Templeton Honors College, Eastern University, Philadelphia; author of Good News for Anxious Christians and The Meaning of Protestant Theology
Few things are better for the soul than reading Lutherans on the power of God’s word. Senkbeil and Woodford’s call to pastors and churches to give priority to the living word of the risen Christ in their ministries and liturgies is timely and welcome. Anyone who reads this book will walk away with renewed faith in the gospel, revived commitment to the church, and restored confidence in the Spirit of God rather than the spirit of the age.
—Brad East, associate professor of theology, Abilene Christian University, Texas; author of The Church: A Guide to the People of God
One consequence of living in a technique-obsessed age that is always chasing fads and ‘innovation’ is that it is easy to forget basics. Imagine a chef who has mastered an elaborate weird new cooking technique but has forgotten basic knife skills, how to season food properly, and cook on a stove. A great many American Protestant leaders of the past several decades have done something like this: Technological fads and church growth techniques occupy more of our attention than the Word of God. This has resulted in a diminished church which has not been properly formed in ‘the culture of the Word.’ If you are concerned about these things and seeking direction back toward those forgotten basics, this book will help to guide you back home.
—Jake Meador, editor in chief of Mere Orthodoxy; author of What Are Christians For? and In Search of the Common Good
Are you ready for a breath of fresh air amid the cacophony of voices that have dominated the landscape of the church for decades? Are you ready for a biblical framework amid the duplicitous programs that have failed to contextualize the gospel for decades? If so, this delightful little book is for you. With the Acts of the Apostles as our compass, Drs. Senkbeil and Woodford keep church and society in their rightful place. There is much here for the church to ponder—not only how we think and speak theologically, but more importantly how the church lives and breathes the mission given her at this very time. Refreshing.
—Bart Day, president and CEO, Lutheran Church Extension Fund (LCEF)
- Prologue: Planting and Reaping the Word of God
- The Church Is Created by the Word of God
- The Church Lives in One Transcendent Culture
- The Church Proclaims Christ Jesus
- The Church’s Worship Transcends Cultural Context
- The Church Lives in the World, Not of the World
- The Church Grows from the Culture of the Word
- Title: The Culture of God’s Word: Faithful Ministry in a Post-Christian Society
- Author: Harold L. Senkbeil & Lucas V. Woodford
- Publisher: Lexham Press
- Publication Date: 2026
- Pages: 176
- Format: Logos Digital, Hardcover
- Trim Size: 5.25x8
- ISBN: 9781683598930
Harold L. Senkbeil is executive director emeritus of DOXOLOGY: The Lutheran Center for Spiritual Care. His pastoral experience of nearly five decades includes parish ministry, the seminary classroom, and parachurch leadership. He is the author of numerous books, including the award-winning titles The Care of Souls, Christ and Calamity, and Dying to Live.
Lucas V. Woodford is president of the Minnesota South District of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod and associate pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Farmington, Minnesota. With Harold L. Senkbeil, he is the coauthor of Pastoral Leadership: For the Care of Souls.