The gospel is not cool
A recent interview with Donald Miller helps shine light on another way the world is threatening the church:
There are many problems with trying to market the gospel of Jesus, not the least of which is that, in itself, it is not a cool or fashionable idea. It isn't supposed to be. It is supposed to be revolutionary. It's for people who are tired of trying to be cool, tired of trying to get the world to redeem them.Amen. You can't serve two masters.
I attended the Dove Awards and was brokenhearted. I saw all these beautiful Christians, wonderful people, with this wonderful, revolutionary message of Jesus, who, instead of saying, "Look, fashion doesn't matter, hip doesn't matter," were saying "World, please accept us, we can be just as hip as you, just as fashionable, only in a religious way."
I would say we need to choose our God, choose our redeemer.
posted by Milton Stanley at 8:03 PM
6 Comments:
So true that we cannot serve two masters... in THEORY. Or, until the rubber meets the road. Then, SUDDENLY, we DO try to find ways to serve two masters. One of the reasons a lot of worship leaders and pastor have deep-rooted angst about serving in their church is because "church culture" continually is trying to turn Jesus into something one notch above Coca Cola... some sort of life-bettering product. And the culture of "big church" is always trying to force the rest of us to become entertain-gelists as if the only way to lure people to Christ is by hip marketing or neat-o special effects, etc. When the REAL lure, Jesus himself, is passed over for "irrelevant to the culture."
Ugh..
Oh, my. Now THIS deserves a hearty AMEN.
Bang. You hit it there, Dan. "Something one notch above Coca Cola" -- that's a keeper!
Glad to hear it, Vicki. Mr. Miller really hit the nail on the head, didn't he?
I have puzzled over this phenomenon for some time in recent years. Christian people who serve almost have a "beautiful" or "cool" litmus test they must pass in order to go before others to "serve" them--the "marketable" seems to be chosen over the down-to-earth and plain spoken. It has been disheartening to receive Christian Book Store advertisements in the mail only to find that some of the descriptive phrases used to sell the merchandise includes "cool" or "hot" and other such lingo. Marketing extends from the store to the church culture. I'm not sure Jesus intends for us to be "products" we sell our culture, but people who care that have a life-changing message to relate.
Wendy
I know what you mean. Thanks for the input, Wendy.
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