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The Church as Counterculture
What is a culture? These days, it signifies society in general — the beliefs, values, and practices of a particular people at any time and in any place. The words culture and cultivate are related: Just as farmers cultivate crops in their fields, so culture suggests the growth of people in a realm that has the power to influence the character of those planted there. This is why the word culture is tossed around so much these days. If people are the product of their culture, then we ought to be interested in what kind of culture we have. Many in the media and in the pulpit like to call the ongoing battle over the shape of American life the “culture wars.” Another term that describes our situation even better is multiculturalism. American culture is not simple, uniform, or easily steered but is a vast and complicated organism composed of many cultures, each espousing diverse and competing values and practices. The question we must ask, one of critical importance to our youth, is just what it means to be a Christian in a culture like ours. Once it was assumed that American culture was Christian by definition, that it was sufficient to represent and advance Judeo-Christian values throughout society and cultivate a godly citizenry. If these assumptions were ever really true, they are no longer. Christians are now realizing like never before that rather than being a friendly and trusted ally in our quest to cultivate virtuous citizens, this culture is, in unprecedented fashion, doing just the opposite. As important as it is to ask how the church might influence a culture like ours, a more fundamental question must be asked first: Should not the church itself be a culture in its own right? If the church is to have a positive influence on a multicultural world, it will succeed only to the degree that it is already a culture capable of cultivating its own virtuous citizens. We cannot continue in the misguided notion that secular society will, or even should, be the primary agent in doing what the church itself is called to be and do in the world. If the church can shape the character and habits of Christians so they can resist the powerful, and often corrosive, pressures of American culture, then we will be in a position to genuinely influence the culture around us.
Diminished churchOne big problem for many Christians today is that they cannot fathom that the church might be a culture, much less a counterculture. Most Christians have been trained by the modern world to think of the church as a small compartment within the culture. They think culture is concerned with the real world, while religion is about saving souls and getting folks to heaven. In this scenario, the church is mostly irrelevant to real-life issues like politics, education, medicine, the arts, economics, and entertainment; it is merely relegated to the “personal” and “private” opinion of the individual. The sad result of this modern philosophy is that the church is diminished from “being” to a “building.” It’s somewhere we go, rather than something we are. When we read Scripture afresh, however, we begin to recover the idea of the church as a culture called out of worldly cultures in order to witness of God’s true culture. Abraham’s story, for instance, begins by being called out from his old life to become the father of the faithful. He is to be a blessing to the whole world, but he has to leave in order to bless. Abraham leaves — not alone but with his family (Genesis 12). Note that Abraham’s faith is personal, but it is more than personal. From this point on, biblical faith is always born and sustained within community. Later, Israel is called out, too. Exodus names the story of how Yahweh is the God of a people destined to be a holy nation. But if she is to follow God and become a “peculiar people,” a “kingdom of priests,” she cannot stay in Egypt (Exodus 12—19). In the wilderness, this newly redeemed Israel is now commanded. She learns that every aspect of her life is to be ordered by the will of God — not in private but as a publicly embodied way of living in the world.
Called-out communityIsrael is not a new system of personal salvation but a new community whose very existence bears witness to the full scope of God’s salvation. Israel is not a religion; she is a nation. As she submits to God, she becomes a people capable of resisting the cultures of Egypt (her past) and of Canaan (her future) in order to be a culture herself (Leviticus 18). The very language that describes Israel in the Old Testament is used to describe the church in the New. We too are a “holy nation,” a “peculiar people,” a “priestly kingdom” (Exodus 19:6; 1 Peter 2:9). Like Abraham and Israel, the church is called out of the world in order to be a people competent to address it. The word church originally referred to an assembly gathered to discuss the business of a city. In other words, church in its Greek context was not really a religious word but a political one. And church is not the only New Testament word used to convey the social dimensions of God’s people. We have forgotten how thoroughly political words like kingdom or gospel or even worship sounded in the ears of that first generation. These words have lost their social and public character over the ages and are now sadly domesticated.
Recovering the cultureAs both witness and foretaste of God’s coming kingdom, the church is a cultural phenomenon, a social reality gathered and ordered around the lordship of the crucified and risen Christ. This cross-shaped community does not merely provide a new way of thinking or believing for persons, but is in fact a new way of being in the world. Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount is a good place to start to recover the kind of culture God has in mind for His people. Here we find the politics of Jesus and the way of His kingdom (Matthew 5—7). To accurately live this message, we must become what the apostle Paul called “transformed nonconformists” in the world in order to reach it (Romans 12:2). The question “What does it mean to be a Christian in a culture like ours?” must begin with the admission that we are already citizens of another kingdom, a “city on a hill,” a culture intended to cultivate us into people able to resist, confront, and transform the culture around us. But what if this city has forgotten that it is one? What would it mean for us to rediscover, restore, and rebuild? These are interesting questions. Can we let go of our personal interests long enough to submit and be accountable to God’s people? Can we let go of our private assumptions long enough to rethink what a public faith might look like? Can we come together and imagine what it would be like to be a “city on a hill,” a “holy nation,” a culture once more? Jason Overman lives and ministers in Jasper AR, with his wife, Stephanie, and their two children, Tabitha and Isaac. Photo: comstock.com The Bible Advocate Press grants the user permission only to download and print this article. If the user wishes to make multiple copies, permission must be granted by the Bible Advocate Press. |
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Changing society begins with changing Christians. by Jason Overman
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