There are many spheres of influence that shape and change culture and society throughout the world. Of these, seven have developed into major centers of influence. Whoever controls these foundations of culture shape and control what takes place throughout entire nations, continents, and even the world.

In 1975, Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, and Loren Cunningham, founder of Youth With a Mission, met for lunch. The night before, God revealed to them both that “If we are to impact any nation for Jesus Christ, then we would have to affect the seven foundations of culture which are family, religion, education, media, entertainment, business and government.”  God told them both that whoever occupies the high ground in these areas will reap a plentiful harvest and change the world.

These seven foundations of culture are described below.  In many ways they overlap and sometimes the lines between them blur, however, they each have reach into the day-to-day lives of everyone and as such are very strategic if we want to influence the nations for Christ.

Family

Through families, we are discipling the next generation of every nation on earth. Mothers and fathers are already discipling that next generation, for good or for bad. We can seek to establish Christian homes along biblical patterns that will shine as light in places of gross spiritual darkness. I know of one family living in a country totally hostile to the gospel, working in a professional field. Because of strict laws against speaking on religious matters, they are greatly restricted in their witness. But they have reported that even the manner in which the husband relates to his wife and children is having an impact on the people around them. People are being drawn to the light of Jesus through the role model of this Christian family in their neighborhood.

Typical attacks on family include redefining marriage to allow for homosexual families, divorce, domestic violence and abuse, pornography, addictions, gender issues, abortion, suicide, euthanasia, gangs, and others.

Religion

Through churches, we are to disciple the nations of the world. How do we do this? I don't believe we are to do it by staying inside the walls of the church and believing it is Christ's Kingdom on earth. Attending church should be like a pit stop for Christians. The race is going on out in the world. The Kingdom of God is in us, and we take it out into the world wherever we go. We come to church again and again to get our tanks filled, to be fed, revived, and restored, before going out again into the race to establish God's Kingdom in the world.

Attacks on religion typically come from within a church in the form of false teachings and departure from biblical truths.  They include allowing people leading a homosexual lifestyle to become leaders and teachers, teaching that there is more than one path to God, distorting or taking scripture out of context, etc.  But attacks are also other attacks such as laws forcing churches to allow gay marriages on their property, distribution of bibles with words changed to make homosexual acts not a sin, etc.

Education

From day-care centers and preschools, to graduate schools in the most prestigious universities of the world, the next generation is being influenced every day. This is a precious opportunity - an arena to shape the world for Jesus.

In Iceland during the ninth century, pagan Vikings came ashore and found a small population of Christian settlers from Ireland. The Vikings made the Irish Christians their slaves and gave them what they considered a menial job - taking care of their children. Within three generations, they shaped a country. In the year 1000, the people of Iceland voted to declare themselves a Christian nation.

Christians must be involved in every sphere of education: writing curriculum, teaching, and administrating. Some should remain as salt and light in public schools, while others lead in Christian schools. Parents are to be active, too - partnering with the teachers and delegating authority to the teachers to disciple their children.

Science and technology are also avenues for Christian service. These are categories which some Christians have avoided in the past. But true science and Bible Christianity are totally compatible. Not only that, science and technology desperately need the spiritual leadership of Christians. Never before has a society been able to work so many technological miracles, and yet been so unsure of its moral moorings. We need Christians who will enter these areas as their mission field.

When John Kennedy set the goal of putting a man on the moon before the end of the Sixties, his vision spun off into a knowledge explosion that we are still reaping the benefits of in everyday life. If the space race generated new devices, such as pocket calculators, laptop computers, and other microelectronic wonders, why couldn't the race to reach every creature with the gospel also expand new frontiers of knowledge?

Typical attacks include teaching of evolution as fact without mention of Creation or Intelligent Design, textbooks that marginalize Christianity and promote other religions, distortions of history including removal of Christian roots of our country, construction of special public school for gay students, suppression of religious expression for Christians but not others, etc.

Media

Media-bashing has become a popular sport lately. Everyone from right to left in the political spectrum, and many Christians as well, have become convinced that the media folks are conniving to rob them of their rights. But how many of us realize that this is a mission field of enormous proportions? According to a recent poll by Lichter and Rothman of 238 media elite, fifty percent claim to have no religious belief at all. Only three to five percent go to church or synagogue regularly.

This is a rate of unevangelized people equal to many so-called "closed countries."

Pick your least favorite newsman. Get his or her face firmly in your mind. Then realize that this is a person for whom Jesus Christ hung on the cross - this is an individual worth the sacrifice of the Son of God.

It is hard to overstate the importance of the electronic and print media in shaping our society. Why then have Christians ignored this arena, leaving a vacuum for the unrighteous to fill? We can't complain of the lack of truth in the press if we are not willing to go among them, carrying the One who said He was the way, the truth, and the life. Again, some will be led to penetrate the non-Christian media while others work in Christian networks and newspapers.

Attacks in the media include anti-Christian propaganda, liberal bias in stories, enequal treatment of Christianity with other religions, character defamation of prominent Christians, promotion of liberal agendas, extra focus on problems in churches and with religios leaders, etc.

Government

Have you ever said, "Don't get involved in politics! It's a dirty business - no place for Christians"? If you have, you have been voicing the will of Satan. You didn't mean to, but you were giving the devil's point of view.

Where did we get the idea that Christians should not run for political office? We certainly didn't get it from the Bible. We don't even have to turn to the heads of state of Israel, like David or Solomon. After all, they were leading a country that at least gave lip service to being God's people. Look instead at two other examples - men who served in government in heathen countries - Daniel and Joseph.

These two young men exercised godly principles and conduct and found themselves as prime ministers. Early in their careers, no political pollster would have given them any chance of gaining their positions. Daniel was a refugee, a foreigner, an outsider who didn't play by the rules of the king's court. Joseph suffered sibling rivalry of the worst kind, met a woman who had a fatal attraction to him, and found himself languishing in the dim recesses of an Egyptian dungeon. Not exactly the lifestyles of the rich and famous! Daniel, later in his political career, was thrown into a very small space where he was outnumbered by extremely large lions who hadn't had their lunch yet.

Can the godly win in the political arena? If it were possible in ancient Egypt and Babylon, it is possible today - in any country. But if a Christian seeks to serve the Lord in government, he or she will also have to face a modern den of lions. God will allow that to purge and build character, as well as to teach lessons that will later be applied in His style of leadership. Servant leadership. God is searching for men and women today who will to give up their rights and be raised to positions of national leadership. However, He will only exalt them after He has tested them to be sure they will not end up like King Saul - taken by the love of power, rather than remaining the servant of all.

Typical attacks in government would be passage of laws that affect the other cultural foundations in negative ways (gay marriage, abortion issues, stem cell research, drug and alcohol laws, family laws, etc.).

Entertainment

Whoa, you say. Surely this is the devil's own domain. Isn't "Christian entertainer" a contradiction in terms?

I don't know how I got this idea growing up, but somehow I became convinced that anything fun, anything exciting with movement and color, was probably sinful.

Example: Really godly people dress plainly; the holiest wear all black (or all white, depending on the group).

Example: A good joke has no place among truly spiritual people.

Example: Anything is more sacred if it is done soberly, without any emotion. When at all possible, use seventeenth-century language when you talk to God, like King James English. Better yet, prayers should be said in a monotone, without any degree of inflection in the voice.

Perhaps you share only part of those ideas, but by and large, this is the picture we have painted to the world of what it means to be godly. And what does this say about God Himself? Since He is the most righteous of all, He must never smile! He must be dressed all in black, speak in a strange monotone, and never even move. (Didn't we learn to show respect for God as our parents constantly reminded us, "Sit still! You're in the house of God!")

No wonder the idea of a Christian entertainer strikes us as odd. Again, look at the scriptures. Do we see a dull God, a colorless God, a lifeless God? The devil wants us to think fun is his department, but that just isn't true. Read the book of Revelation and you'll see. There's a rainbow of color around God's throne, and the Creator of all energy is not sitting there impassively.

One of my favorite scriptures, in Zephaniah, shows God singing and rejoicing over us! He celebrates because of the actions of those who love Him. The God who created us in His image experiences emotions and knows great joy as well as sorrow. He is the center of excitement, the author of drama, pageantry, majesty, and beauty.

Any territory which we abandon, Satan will fill. That has happened in the performing arts. Modem drama was born as a form of evangelism - the Church created morality plays to teach the truths of scripture to an illiterate public in the Middle Ages. We must recapture drama and every form of entertainment for Jesus, seeking Him for creative ways to show the world who He is.

Attacks in the entertainment world are plentiful and easy to see.  Films with extra portions of violence, sex and nudity, profanity, and such are all too commonplace.  Pornographic content on the internet brings filth into nearly every home in America.  The homosexual agenda is promoted and shown as normal and prominent to the masses while only a small percentage actually practice it.

Business

Filthy lucre. Climbing up the ladder. The rat race. Even the common terms of our language show that we basically believe making money is a dirty business. Can a Christian succeed in business? Does the Holy Spirit want you to win in the corporate world? Can a rich man enter the Kingdom of Heaven?

Jesus said it wasn't easy. He knew how hard it was to serve God when we are blessed with material things. 'When the rich young ruler approached Him in Luke 18, Jesus looked into his heart and saw that money, not God, sat on the throne. He told him to give all that he had to the poor and follow Him.

Was Jesus giving a pattern for everyone? Yes, if money is number one it is an idol. The Lord will test you, to see if money means more to you than He does. He may ask you to give away everything you have - more than once. But it may be God's will for you to serve Him as a missionary in the business world, blessing you with finances so that you can be a blessing to many others. John Wesley, writing two hundred years ago, gave us up-to-date advice in his tract called, "The Use of Money." He urged those who loved Jesus to "Gain all you can... save all you can... give all you can!" It's hard to improve on that advice.

Typical attacks include corporate ethics issues, misleading advertising, exploiting employees, shortcuts, unwise investments, etc.