Christian Counterculture

I took this great post from Douglas Groothuis' blog:

In John Stott's commentary to The Sermon on the Mount, he speaks to the need for "Christian counterculture." The way of Jesus is not that of the fallen world. Stott's book was written in the late 1970s, when the idea of counterculture had some salience (even if it also had some pejorative connotations).

But do we have any sense of "Christian counterculture" today? One wonders. The pressures of conformity are massive, given mass and niche media. Biblical illiteracy is high; biblical behavior is low. Christians are far too much like everyone else when they should be different.

What is required to be a Christian counterculture? Here is a short list to provoke thought and action.

1. Biblical knowledge (Psalm 119).
2. Spiritual disciplines: prayer and fasting in particular. See John Piper, A Hunger for God.
3. The restoration of the doctrine of calling. See Os Guinness, The Call.
4. Media awareness: how they often deaden us to biblical priorities for purity and spiritual power.
5. The courage to go against the crowd for Christ (Luke 16:15).
6. Accountability and community.
7. Careful, studied biblical preaching (1 Peter 4:11).
8. Repentance concerning materialism and consumerism. See Francis Schaeffer's sermon "Ash Heap Lives" in No Little People.
9. A greater concern for the world Christian movement, not just what Christians in America are doing. See P. Jenkins, The Next Christendom.
10. More sensitivity to the realities of spiritual warfare (Ephesians 6:10-18). See Gary Kinnaman, Winning Your Spiritual Battles.

We must be against the world, for the world, under the Lordship of Christ (1 John 2:15-17; Romans 12:1-2). Otherwise, the salt has lost is savor.