This past semester I took a course entitled "Church and the World," which was an examination of the relationship between the Church and modern culture, and spent some time dealing with the impact of secularization and modernization on the ministry of the Church. The professor, John Muether, gave us a piece of paper at the end of the semester with the headline "Resisting Modernity: a How-To Guide."

I thought of this just the other day because Luke Buehler has a recent post talking about the need to understand ourselves as pilgrims on a journey in a world which lives for the moment. This was a recurrent theme with Muether as well, and one that I have come to believe that Christians must recover. With that, I reproduce the how-to guide here for your consideration (keep in mind it is slightly oriented towards students at RTS). Also, I should note that while I appreciate most of Muether's insights, I disagree with a number of them (obviously #25, for one).

Somebody once asked David Wells, "If modernity is the problem, what's the three-step solution?" Wells refused to answer, claiming, much to the dismay of his interrogator, that the question itself was laced with the presuppositions of modernity. If we rightly understand modernity, we must regard "solutions" with suspicion. Still, it is possible to suggest some disciplines for Christians as they engage the culture as resistance-fighters.

Herewith, then, are some suggestions. I am not saying that we are called to do all of these, nor that I do, much less that failure to follow them is to sell your soul. The point is that we make concessions to modernity through all of our little choices, and we will challenge modernity only through rethinking these choices. So consider this food for thought.

1. Don't go to theme parks, and not because of their new age sympathies or their preferential option for gays. Don't go because they are temples of our culture of consumerism.
2. Do not think globally and act locally. That bumper sticker preaches nonsense. The only way we can think and act is locally.
3. Therefore, don't shop at malls or eat at chains: patronize mom and pop stores wherever possible.
4. Okay, #3 is nearly impossible, especially in Orlando. But resolve to take smaller steps, like not frequenting "convenience stores" between 8pm and dawn.
5. Above all, lay off fast food. The danger lies less in its fat content than in the way in which it reduces dining to fueling.
6. Stop watching television. It can be done. Really.
7. If you cannot do #6, then refuse to use the remote control. Remove its batteries. Remember John's warning against the "lust of the eyes"--he's not referring to pornography.
8. For the same reasons described in #7, do not subscribe to cable television.
9. At the very least, do not watch Christian television.
10. Don't listen to Christian radio, either. It is the new form of itinerant preaching, and thus it erodes or commitment to the ordinances of God.
11. Watch your tongue: language has a subtle way of shaping reality. Recently someone explained to me how he "consumes music," and another spoke of "exploiting opportunities."
12. When asked about your future ministry plans, try to answer without using the words "influence," "impact," "successful," or "efficient."
13. And resolve never to refer to yourself as a "busy pastor."
14. Learn how to cook and then practice hospitality.
15. Make dining a ritual of conviviality. Eat slowly and tell stories (it helps to serve wine).
16. Do not "super-size" the Church. Attend a small church, with a human scale whose ministries don't model industrialized patterns of centralization, bureaucratization, and specialization.
17. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Savor it as the market-day of the soul. Attend morning and evening service: it will help you sanctify the whole day.
18. Do what you can to discourage your church from heavy programming that fills up the week and promotes the politics of identity. One effective subversive tactic: if you are going to have Sunday School, make it inter-generational.
19. Support family values: abolish youth programs in your church.
20. Read at least a book a week.
21. Vary your reading. Read good fiction, read older books, read Christian devotional literature.
22. Read Pilgrim's Progress once a year.
23. Write with a fountain pen. Not because it is quaint and old-fashioned, but because it is the most natural way to write, and thus it will improve your prose.
24. With your fountain pen, write letters, and then send them through snail mail rather than email.
25. Until they invent a way of doing it with a fountain pen on paper, do not blog.
26. Guard the difference between spiritual warfare and cultural warfare. If you don't, you will generate an inordinate love for the things of this world.
27. The earth is not your mother. Nevertheless, practice stewardship of the created order.
28. Grow some food for yourself. It will give you pleasure, exercise, knowledge, standards, and sales resistance.
29. Be alert to the false promises and hidden temptations of the internet. Information is not a substitute for knowledge, which is not a substitute for wisdom.
30. Do not use a study Bible.
31. Read poetry. Pick one poet and make him or her the focus of sustained, even life-long study.
32. It's the church, stupid! Beware of parachurch organizations that usurp the role of the local church.
33. Explore ways to revive and sustain the health of your local community. Write letters to the local paper. Volunteer at the public library.
34. Abstain from modernity's vulgar standardization of forms. Maintain the distinction between the formal and the informal. Begin by considering how one should dress for worship.
35. Sing Psalms.
36. Memorize Psalms in the King James Version. This will improve your biblical literacy and cultural literacy simultaneously.
37. If you are a paedo-baptist, put your theology into practice. Conduct family worship.
38. Catechize your children. If necessary, catechize yourself first.
39. Be suspicious of "labor-saving devices," like microwave ovens. Remember, we were created to work.
40. Cultivate the discipline of delayed gratification. This is another argument against microwaves.
41. When considering your first call, remain open to the possibility that it is your last call. If you can't, then decline the call.
42. When you next relocate, plan it so that you can walk to work, and walk to shops, and walk to church.

Now, I think this is sufficient for generating some discussion. Thoughts, comments, challenges, suggestions, disagreements?