Engaging Culture or Creating Subcultures

Yesterday someone gave me the address to this website and I have enjoyed reading lots about "culture" in reference to both "youth culture" and the everyday world we all live in. I was impressed with the number of articles including a section devoted to "faith and culture," which was of particular interest to me. Many of the articles seemed to come back to the questions, "how do we relate to culture as Christians?" "Do we integrate or separate ourselves from our culture?" "How did Jesus' relate to culture?" While these questions are not necessarily new to my community of faith, I found them helpful to reflect upon again in light of my recent consideration of "youth culture." If anyone has anything to add to these questions or ideas, I would enjoy hearing other comments.

The articles are from Center for Parent/Youth Understanding. Here are excerpts from two I read last night.

Why I Don't Live in the Bunker -
Reflections on the Youth Worker's Place in Culture
by Walt Mueller

"The extent to which we influence or don't influence our students and their culture depends on how, as faithful followers of Jesus Christ, we choose to approach culture. The approach we choose must be based not on personal preference, but primarily on its faithfulness to the Scriptures and secondarily on its helpfulness in engaging and reaching emerging generations. That's why I encourage youth workers to live the will of the Father that Jesus prayed (John 17) the night before his death—that we are to be in but not of the world. We are to go where our students are, living among them and learning about them as we interact with them while observing and processing everything that's part of their world—even to the point of reading what they read, listening to what they listen to, and watching what they watch. That's also why I encourage youth workers to avoid the dangerous and disobedient path of living life in the bunker."

The Spirituality of Everyday Life
by Kary Oberbrunner

"Is this our mission? Is our goal reached when we participate in every aspect of the market by providing a Christian alternative? It seems to me that all these alternatives collectively produce one common outcome. It seems they create a subculture that separates us further from the very people we are trying to reach. I don't recall God giving us the option to create an alternative subculture that retreats and hides out from the world."