The "Church" Takes 5 Steps Back

Those of you who have been readers of mine for a while know that I possess quite a few self-diagnosed "issues" with church. Issues that are particularly fueled by the current state of the church as it pertains to my generation. In an attempt to "reach" my generation, churches like to throw around the phrase "culturally relevant". Thinking things like: "If we can just be more culturally relevant then that will bring those kids back to church." What should be a brilliant and effective idea, often times turns out to be a train wreck! "What do I mean?" you ask...well let me show you...pause the music to the lower right hand side and watch this video. Then I will continue to explain.

For those of you who thought that the previous video was genius and cutting-edge, please feel free to stop reading now. And for the rest of you...here we go....

SERIOUSLY?!?! Did you see that? The church just took 5 major steps back! There is a HUGE misconception that being "culturally relevant" is to embrace pop culture from the platform. WRONG! How does a display like this one engage me? How does this guide me to a life-changing encounter with the Creator of the universe? How does this make me 'want' to associate with church? Truth is...it doesn't. Maybe 10 or 15 years ago this was radical and cutting edge, today not so much.

I think I have tackled this one before, but in my opinion cultural relevance has very little to do with the current top 40 hits. What I feel churches fail to consider is the social, economic, technological, etc., changes in today's culture. Being educated and aware of such changes is to be culturally relevant. (Again, only my opinion) The essence of my generation's culture has so much more to do with the ease of access to information and networking, than it does "secular" (you know I hate that word) music. Most of us don't remember life before computers, Internet, texting, etc., instant information is what we are accustomed to. This is not to say that we should all sit in church on Sunday and have the pastor text message us the sermon while sitting right in front of him, but simply means to tell us the truth instantly. Since we are able to find answers so quickly, it is not appealing to go to a church on a Sunday morning where tough questions we have are glossed over because they may be uncomfortable. So, churches, please don't just assume that playing Coldplay as part of your Sunday morning service will "reach" us...please don't reduce our intelligence to such a low level, we have much more substance than that. Thanks.

Serious stuff aside...I did find this video absolutely hilarious. lol. :)

[Big thanks to Matthew Paul Turner for sharing this video]