I listened to an interview with the author of the book The Vibe Shift. He said people are realizing a gap between what we have been told is true and what is false. People are seeing the distance increasing between those two realities, and it’s creating a vibe.

This vibe shift is bringing together people of different attitudes and demeanors to work together to create a better future. The author was reflecting on the effect of a vibe shift in culture, but it is also a shift taking place within the Church. The author said the shifting vibe drew together what he called “co-belligerents.” This group is made up of people who may disagree about certain issues but are now working together.

To take this cultural vibe into the Church and move together spiritually as beleaguered followers of Jesus will require we work out the basics of our faith and have our opinions and preferences take a step back. To battle over the non-essentials of our faith will only create deeper divisions within the Church. The essentials of our faith were revealed in Creation before the Law came and at the birth of the Church on the Day of Pentecost where a Spirit-led encounter released us to move at the speed of our faith.

A vibe only wakes people up reminding them that a change is coming. What God wants to do is to use that vibe to release spiritual discernment. Those who can see past the sensory promptings of a cultural vibe and discover the spiritual intent of God will be the ones who will lead the Church in the coming season.

Isaiah wrote, “I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?” (Isaiah 43:19). To perceive something is to become aware or conscious of what is happening. Perception is different from a generic vibe of awareness that something is amiss. It goes deeper than the social vibe to discern the heart and will of God. That is part of our mission as the Church in culture. Truth will peel back the malaise of a numbing social vibe to reveal what God is doing with greater clarity. That revelation will be used by the Lord to reveal what is true and draw together fellow co-beleaguers to do remarkable things in the name of the Lord.