Impact

Our Savior admonished His disciples in John chapter 15, encouraging them to walk in fruitfulness. We can find these words:
12 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.
14 You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.
15 No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.
16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.

We are His friends - He has loved us so much that we have been brought into His family; we are children of God and He desires to have intimacy with each of us.  Out of that fellowship with God, He bears fruit through us by His Holy Spirit.  If we are friends of God, then we, appointed to represent Him, can bear fruit to the glory of His name.  It's not a matter of what we can conjure up in and of ourselves, but of what we allow Him to express through us. 

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Jesus was preparing His disciples for His departure and their dispatch into the world to be witnesses for Him. In John 13, He offered these words of encouragement:
31 So, when he had gone out, Jesus said, "Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in Him.
32 If God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and glorify Him immediately.
33 Little children, I shall be with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, 'Where I am going, you cannot come,' so now I say to you.
34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."

Seemingly out of nowhere, a family from Louisiana that was involved in manufacturing duck calls became a national phenomenon.  Members of the Robertson family have become known not only for the Duck Dynasty television series, but for their devotion to ministry.

Recently, according to Movieguide, the wife of one of the sons of family patriarch Phil Robertson, Korie Robertson, shared her perspective on ministry with a member of the women's ministry from Prestonwood Baptist Church in Dallas.  

She recounted how she and her husband, Willie Robertson, married as teenagers and soon thereafter started a family - she was even making duck calls at home!  But, they also had a desire to be in ministry.  The article goes on to say:

Korie stated, “I think that’s what we’re all called to. We’re all called to ministry, and you know when we did start our show Duck Dynasty, I remember people asking us, ‘Well are they going to let you talk about your faith? Are they going to show that y’all are Christians?’ and I remember saying to them, ‘Well they can’t get around it because it’s who we are. It affects how we parent, it affects everything about our life. How we are as a married couple, how we parent, how we are as a family, how we are as employees and employers, and how we are with our friends.’ And so, to me it was just like well it is who we are. I think that that is what God has called us to.”

Willie and Korie have become involved in a new project, and CBN.com devoted a recent article to it.  The story states:

Willie told CBN’s Faithwire he was working on a book not long ago about sharing the Christian faith with others and found himself stuck. As he worked through the manuscript, he received a text message.

“I get a text from the director of this musical, ‘His Story,’ and I didn’t know anything about it,” he said. “And it was one of the songs, and I was just blown away.”

Willie quickly realized the musical was a unique way of spreading the Gospel — and his mind immediately opened to the possibilities.

“It was like I was hearing God saying, ‘There’s other ways to get the Gospel out,'” he said. “[I] told Korie about it, and I was hoping she shared in my enthusiasm.”

The CBN article goes on to say that this musical "is the couple’s latest effort to bring faith into the entertainment space, with the live production currently on stage at The Broadway Tent at Grandscape in The Colony, Texas. The show is described as a 'contemporary pop musical based on the life of Jesus.'” CBN also reports: "Willie and Korie have also been moving into podcasting and unscripted television through their production company, Tread Lively. They’re on a mission to focus on truth, love, and Scripture."  The article notes that a movie about the Robertson family, The Blind, is due out later this year. 

CBN also related:

Korie said the “Duck Dynasty” experience showed the couple the important role TV, movies, and other related projects play in culture.

“The scales kind of came off of our eyes, and we realized, ‘Entertainment is really shaping our culture for good or for bad,'” she said. “We just saw the impact of ‘Duck Dynasty’ and how people would come up with tears in their eyes and say, ‘Because of your show, our family is going to church now’ or ‘Because of your show, we pray together as a family’ — ‘Your show has saved our marriage.'”

Movieguide reported that she "...posted a video from the HIS STORY Revival Nights event, showing the cast of the show and the audience singing and worshipping together." The  caption: “@hisstorythemusical prayer and worship in the tent🙏🙌🏼 #hisstoryrevivalnights..."

In light of the experiences of Willie and Korie Robertson, we can ask the question: How am I influencing people around you and perhaps by so doing, impacting the culture?  If God has done a work in our lives, that is something that we not only should not, but ideally, can-not keep to ourselves. If Christ lives in us, then we can allow Him to live through us. 

As Korie says, essentially, being a Christian is who we are.  And, the presence of Christ in us should permeate all that we do - our decisions should be directed by godly wisdom.  How we relate to others can be governed by the love of Christ flowing through us.  As Jesus said, people will know that we belong to Him because of how we love each other.  The way we live reflects the degree to which He lives through us.