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9

Counterculture

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Howard A. Snyder

Jesus could have left a book of instructions or set up an organization. He could have created a ready-made system so that when the thousands of converts appeared, the church would have known exactly what to do.

But Jesus worked at a more fundamental level. He gathered a community of believers, working intensively with them so that they would understand who he was and why he had come. God, through Jesus Christ, had such confidence in the Twelve that he left it to them and their fellow disciples to figure out organizational questions. They could handle the problems as they came up, guided by the Holy Spirit and following Jesus’ teaching and example. In the Book of Acts we see believers using their own intelligence but guided by the Holy Spirit in nurturing the growth of the church.

Here is a vital lesson about church life and structure, about wine and wineskins. It is easy to look at Pentecost and see the spirit but miss the structure. It is easy to be amazed at what was new but blind to what was old. At Pentecost the disciples clearly got a taste of new wine. But Jesus also provided the basis for new wineskins in the community he had formed – wineskins created not out of thin air but from patterns, customs, and understandings derived from centuries of God’s acts in history. As he delights to do, the Ancient of Days did a new thing. Jesus drew on centuries, even millennia, of God’s work in forming his new community – and then baptized the little group with his spirit at Pentecost.

And so the first disciples did what Jesus did. As Jesus had been with them in small groups, and as they had met together outdoors and in homes, so did the first Christians. The early church took shape primarily in the homes of the believers. Its life was nourished in homes in two ways. First, the church was built through normal family life, drawing on the strength of the family in that day. Second, it was fed through koinonia groups, cells of people who met together for prayer, worship, and the Eucharist and who passed on Jesus’ teaching by example and word of mouth.

As the church developed and spread through the Roman world, its experience of community was complemented by the sense of being a distinct people. The Epistles reveal a strong countercultural consciousness in the early church, a consciousness that developed and deepened as the church spread across the empire. Initially Jewish Christians saw themselves simply as Jews who accepted the Messiah. But as the church grew and spread, it learned that God’s plan was not just for the Jews. It was for the Gentiles, for all peoples, nations, and classes. The Book of Acts shows the gospel spreading beyond Jewish confines and the church beginning to develop a consciousness as a new people.

This consciousness dawned gradually; it didn’t come all at once. Through the ministry of Peter, Paul, Barnabas, Philip, and others the church came to see that it was a new community and people. The Holy Spirit was poured out equally on Jew and Gentile (Acts 10:44–47; 11:15–18; 19:5–6). The believing community was not just a sub-community among the Jews but a new work of God in history. Christians began to think of themselves as a third race: neither Jew nor Gentile, but something new transcending both. They were the new Israel, the new people of God fulfilling Old Testament promises and expectations, but as a new social reality transcending the separate identities and allegiances of Jew and Gentile, slave and free, male and female. The church became not just a subculture within the dominant culture, but a new counterculture, a contrast community in the Greco-Roman world. Christians were “neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female,” but “all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28; cf. 1 Cor. 12:13; Eph. 2:14; Col. 3:11). This was not merely spiritual renewal. It was social revolution. . . .

In his study of the Sermon on the Mount, Christian Counter-Culture, John Stott writes, “If the church realistically accepted [Jesus’] standards and values as here set forth, and lived by them, it would be the alternative society he always intended it to be, and would offer to the world an authentic Christian counterculture.” Instead of doing this, the church throughout history has too often developed clever ways of explaining why Jesus didn’t really mean what he said or why his teachings are not to be applied to the present time. Fortunately, there have been prophetic exceptions to this pattern of unfaithfulness.

As applied to the church, being a contrast community possesses both a positive and a negative aspect. Perhaps the negative side is more obvious: The church takes its stand against surrounding culture. The Christian community must be in some sense “other than” the world around it, maintaining fundamental points of antithesis.

On the positive side, the church offers a genuine alternative to the dominant culture. In fundamental ways, it claims to be not only other than but also better than the world’s culture. In offering a clearly delineated, visible alternative, the church pushes society to self-examination, self-criticism, and very often self-defense. Hidden or only dimly perceived questions rise to the surface. In this way it has a significant social impact, good or bad. . . .

In what sense should the church be a contrast community? Is the fidelity of the church to the kingdom a matter of a countercultural existence? Or is this an unwholesome, negative way to picture the church’s life?

The answer depends on the biblical image of the church. Does the Bible picture the church counterculturally? Five portions of Scripture help answer the question.

John 15:18–19 —In the world, not of it. This passage shows that Jesus’ disciples must maintain a critical tension: in the world but not of it. Christians are neither to withdraw from the world nor to become one with it. Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36), but he made it plain that it is in the world (Luke 17:21). Jesus plants us in a place of tension. We are to maintain that tension against the strong pull to a more comfortable position either out of the world or totally of the world. This is the tension of incarnation, and it requires the church to be in some sense contrary to the broader culture.

Romans 12:2 —Conformed to Christ, not the world. The church is to be a community of people who are conformed to the pattern of Jesus, not to the pattern of the world’s culture. Is this merely another way of saying that we are to be in the world but not of it? Certainly Paul’s statement here presupposes what Jesus said in John 15 and 17. But we find an added note: Jesus calls us to be conformed to himself, to be like him. Jesus’ disciples are not of the world just as Jesus himself was not of the world (John 17:16). We are to be conformed to the image of God. We are “in all things” to “grow up into him who is the head, that is, Christ” (Eph. 4:15). So here conformity to Christ means nonconformity to the world’s culture. The church is not only “other than” but “contrary to” the world.

Luke 12:29–32 —The flock of the kingdom. Here Jesus pictures his disciples as the flock of the kingdom, the kingdom community. What an amazing contrast of weakness and strength – a flock and a kingdom! You are a little flock, Jesus says, but in your very weakness and dependence on me you will inherit the kingdom of God, no less! (cf. 2 Cor. 12:9). The church pledges its allegiance to a sovereign different from that of the citizens of this world kingdom, the dominion of darkness. This goes beyond what has been said already, adding two more elements. First, the church’s distinctness from the world is not merely a difference; it is warfare, a world struggle. A battle is raging between the kingdom of God and the powers of the enemy. Second, in this warfare the church must be faithful to its King and Lord. It must be faithful to the new covenant. As a covenant community, the church has pledged itself to live by the values of God’s kingdom and to renounce the values of the world’s culture. This is the basis for its concern with justice, truth, reconciliation, and God’s new order.

John 17:18 —Sent into the world. Many scriptures teach that Christians are sent into the world as Christ’s witnesses and ambassadors. In his prayer recorded in John 17 Jesus says, “As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.” We are sent to be witnesses and to make disciples in all nations. In other words, the church is to be engaged aggressively with the world in winning the allegiance of increasing numbers of people away from the world and to Jesus as Lord and King. Its task is to win people not just to the church but to the full kingdom and economy of God. This comes about through the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit in human lives. We are called to make disciples, not just converts, and disciples of the kingdom, not just of the church. The church is not merely to be in the world; it is to pursue the mission of God in the world. It is the agent of God’s kingdom in bringing all things under the headship of Jesus Christ (Eph. 1:10).

Revelation 21:23–27 —The glory of the nations. We may not understand all this passage means, but one thing is strikingly clear. The holy city – the consummated kingdom of God – will include “the glory and honor of the nations.” This suggests a positive evaluation of cultural diversity and of human cultural works. All that is good in human works – whatever is pure, lovely, true, honorable, and harmonious – will be brought into the city of God. Everything false, ugly, and distorted will be rejected. God will somehow gather all our cultural works, purify them, and use them in his kingdom. This means Christians themselves have a positive contribution to make to culture. The church can legitimately be engaged in cultural works that add beauty, harmony, and ecological health to the world. This also is kingdom work. When we speak of the priesthood of all believers and the ministry of all God’s people, we must understand that kingdom ministry is not confined to religious things or church work. It includes all good work in the world that holds potential for glorifying God.

The danger of a countercultural model is that it may lead inward, away from worldly engagement. The antidote to this danger is a deep consciousness that the church exists for the kingdom. The notion of a contrast community is essentially negative, despite its positive possibilities. It is therefore an inadequate model by itself. But as part of the total picture of what it means to be the church in a hostile world, it is an important perspective. The church can be free for the kingdom only if it is sufficiently detached and distinct from the world’s culture to maintain obedience for the kingdom.

The key fact, then, is the church as a kingdom community. In most cultural settings, a faithful church will be a contrast community. The more important point, however, is simply that the church be faithful to the kingdom, whatever this means for its position in society. . . . If the church poses no threat to the enemy, its allegiance to Jesus Christ is deeply suspect. We are, after all, involved not merely with a religious organization but with the people of God, the community of the Spirit, and the kingdom of Jesus Christ, our sovereign Lord. ◆