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TrueWitness
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 'Cool Christianity' Relevance or Compromise? by Andrew Strom

Before I start to write on this rather controversial subject, I just want to say a little bit more about myself and my own background. As you may have picked up in the Introduction to this book, I would probably not be considered a closed-minded or 'conservative' Christian. In fact, I am convinced that radical measures are needed to bring today's church into the kind of state that will truly impact the world and bring glory to God. I not only believe in the desperate need for true repentance and Revival in the church, but also of a thorough 'Reformation', so that today's church might become the kind of threat to the devil that she was always meant to be. I am a modern, long-haired musician, and I believe that the original message of the gospel really must be made "relevant" to each new generation.

However, having said all of this, I must also add that I have become deeply concerned in recent times, that much of what we call "relevance" in the church today, is really little more than 'hip' worldliness, compromise, and a desperate attempt to impress the world on it's own shallow, hedonistic terms, rather than anything godly. In 1993, the
well-known evangelical preacher John MacArthur put out a book entitled 'Ashamed of the Gospel' (subtitled, "When the church becomes like the world"). Obviously, because it was written by a known Conservative, many modern leaders may have found it easy to bypass this book's insights and warnings. But when I read it for the first time recently, I
found it an incisive and devastating expose of much that is now occurring in Christendom. In it, MacArthur writes: "Traditional methodology - most noticeably preaching - is being discarded or downplayed in favor of newer means, such as drama, dance, comedy, variety, side-show histrionics, pop-psychology, and other entertainment forms... In the past half-decade, some of America's largest evangelical churches have employed worldly gimmicks like slapstick, vaudeville, wrestling exhibitions and even mock striptease to spice up their Sunday meetings. No brand of horseplay, it seems, is too outrageous to be brought into the sanctuary. Burlesque is fast becoming the liturgy of the pragmatic church."

Many Christians reading this may well be asking, "What is wrong with that? What is wrong with entertaining people in order to woo them into the kingdom?" These are seemingly valid questions, but I would like to raise some others that I believe to be even more pertinent:- What effect does it have on our gospel, our overall message, and the lifestyles of Christians, when we begin to center our meetings on entertainment, rather than on sharp-edged spiritual truth? (Obviously, it is the youth who are most affected by this today). And what effect does it have when we begin to use marketing techniques and musical hype rather than historic gospel truths to "sell" Jesus? Is it just harmless fun, or is it part of a trend that is undermining just about every gospel truth that Christians have fought and died for over the centuries? (Please remember, I am writing this as one who has been involved in all this from the inside).

In many churches today, it is seemingly no longer 'positive' enough (in the modern TV-marketing sense of the word) to emphasize the cross, deep repentance, holiness, "death to self" and all the other meaty elements of basic Christianity which the New Testament emphasizes again and again. And so we change everything (even the very essence of the gospel itself) to fit the spirit of the age in which we live. "People don't want to hear about all that negative 'sin' stuff any more," we reason. "We'd better preach things that win them over in a positive, modern way." Thus, the epidemic of preachers who seem to sound more and more like television commercials every week: "Come to Jesus, He will make you happy, He will fulfill the desires of your heart, He will comfort you, He will satisfy you, etc, etc." There is almost no difference here to the sentiments expressed in your average toothpaste commercial, but the most alarming thing of all is that many preachers seemingly wouldn't care even if there was. They cannot see what an enormous effect this 'marketing' approach is having on the very nature and content of the gospel they preach, and thus on the lives of the Christians all around them. Their attitude often seems to be:- 'Whatever brings them in the door is OK by me.' This is the very attitude that has led to what I believe is a crisis of colossal proportions amongst today's Christian youth.

As I have said, today much of this error is flooding into the church under the guise of "relevance". In the name of 'relevance' we are rushing around desperately trying to make our music "cool" and our leadership style "cool" and our gospel "cool" and our youth events "cool", etc, etc,- all in an effort to attract the world on it's own terms. None of this is of God at all. It relies almost entirely on the 'arm of the flesh'. It is really nothing less than worldliness and compromise in a new and very subtle (yet deadly) form.

Instead of "holier than thou", it seems like we are now expected to be "cooler than thou". Our whole effort is aimed at proving to the world that Christianity is just as cool, just as much shallow fun, just as much of a party, as the world has to offer. And so, to prove all this, we have to entertain and entertain and entertain. We feel we have to become just like the world, in order to impress the world on it's own terms. Thus, we now need to be seen in fashionable (or better-still, 'hip' or alternative) clothes. And our youth events become an excuse for a "party". And our presentations become entertaining multi-media extravaganzas. All in an effort to equal or "out-cool" the world. (Which is why you now see 'moshing' heads, slam-dancing and stage-diving at our youth concerts - matching the world on it's own mindless, hedonistic terms. "Lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God"). Like I said, cool pride, worldliness and rebellion - all in the name of "relevance". JUST LIKE THE WORLD IN EVERY SENSE. Does this sound like God to you?

Of course, many of those promoting (often unwittingly) this "cool" approach have only the best intentions in doing so. They see that Christianity is no longer the force in society that it is meant to be, and that the church is largely mocked and ridiculed as being of little account or value in today's world. So they sub-consciously try to address this by making their Christianity "cool" in worldly terms. Unfortunately, many of these 'cool' Christians do not realize that in order to impress the world on these terms, they have to compromise some of the most vital elements of New Testament Christianity. Like me, they often do not realize this until it is too late. And by then, the world's values have flooded in through the doors. The fact is, it is the things that are DIFFERENT about Christianity that make it so attractive (if the church is doing it's job properly), not the things that are the same as the world. But from what we see occurring in the church at present, we have to conclude that more and more, the spirit of this age is utterly dominating the message of the church. And this simply cannot be allowed to continue.

As history clearly shows, if the devil cannot bind or deceive the church by pushing her to extremes in one direction, then he will gladly push her as far as he can the opposite way. If he cannot bind her with legalism and spiritual pride (ie. the leaven of the pharisees), then perhaps he will have more success in pushing her to the extremes of spiritual "license", the casting off of restraint, etc. It is my belief that this is exactly what has occurred in much of the Western church over the past fifteen years or so (particularly in evangelical, Charismatic and 'Third Wave' circles). The 1970's was a period of very heavy, authoritarian leadership and legalism in many churches (with the 'covering - submission' teaching, etc). But in the 1980's and 1990's, the dangers of legalism, heavy pastoral domination, and spiritual pride have been so thoroughly exposed in much of this branch of Christendom (particularly in the youth area) that there has arisen the opposite danger. (Which is just as deadly, as history clearly demonstrates).

It is my belief that in recent years, many of our Christian youth leaders have essentially reacted against the old 'straight-laced' style of Christian leadership, and have instead gone right over to the other extreme (ie. they have become over-accomodating and completely anti-authoritarian, wanting to be seen as modern, open-minded, 'hip', and dynamic. Thus "authority" has become a dirty word). As always, this has created a huge vacuum of real authority, which the devil has been quick to exploit. As I said before, the fruits of this modern "cool" Christianity are: Worldliness, rebellion, compromise, soulishness, carnality, etc.

The Scripture, "they sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play" has, in recent years, become very applicable to large sections of the modern church. Many of our young people in particular have never known anything else but a kind of shallow, "good times" Christianity. They can often be found 'raging it up large' at modern youth events and concerts, not because they are just so passionate in their deep worship of God, but rather because they really enjoy riding the shallow "buzz" of the music, etc. It is very clear that this whole "cool" thing comes from the 'spirit of this world', not from God.

 2019/4/19 8:56Profile





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