who's really countering the culture?

I was away in Katoomba last week on a writing retreat. Katoomba is a great little mountain town about 90 minutes out of Sydney, and lots of 'alternative' and creative types live in the area. Last Saturday, they held the Winter Magic Festival in the main street, featuring music, market stalls and a big parade of local groups. It was loud, fun and vibrant and a great thing to be a part of on a sunny winter Saturday.

But as the long parade surged up the street, it dawned on us that there was no obvious display of Christian participation - well not that my mum and I could see. Amongst the revellers there were big banners with suns painted on them for the winter solstice; a local school group dancing around a big dragon they had made; a belly-dancing group; the Pagan Association; and a long segment of Chinese Falun Dafa protestors/demonstrators... but no church groups, even though the parade passed by three big churches on the main street.

Yet they were there. St Hilda's Anglican was running a great art exhibition out the front of the church, face painting by the youth leaders, music performances in the church itself, and were offering free tea and coffee as well as a chat to passers-by. I wonder how many of the visitors to the Festival actually noticed the church was there at all amidst the witches and fairies and drummers in the street outside.

How do you stand out in a situation like that? How hard is it to stand up in a context where so many have deliberately turned from Christ and where you have a very real chance of being ridiculed or persecuted? Not unlike evangelising on our uni campuses, I think.

I went to church at St Hilda's the day after the festival and the parishioners were excited about the estimated hundreds of people they had spoken to. They prayed that those people would be moved to think about their relationships with Christ. I'm sure most of the alt-types and avowed pagans outside thought they were the ones going against the mainstream, but to me, it was obvious who was really being counter-cultural in that context.

I pray that God would always give us the courage to be counter-cultural, to show hospitality and Christ's love to everyone, no matter what subculture they come from.