When I look at old yearbooks, I always can tell who probably had a cutting edge haircut and outfit during his or her time. How? Because often it looks ridiculously dated now, and what was probably viewed as the height of fashion and culture at the time, now seems more like a silly phase. I was thinking of this as I was looking into an event a friend of mine on facebook is attending at a local church. Basically this is a meeting of evangelicals who are fed up with “the American church” and, unlike anybody in the past, are finally going to do something “real.” They proudly avoid things like tradition or religion (showing that they actually misunderstand the definition of these terms, since I guarantee they are handing down information). So the name of the first meeting is something like “Are You Tired of all the Bull&^&*??”
When I went to this new church’s webpage, it was trendy all the way, with close-up black and white face shots of all the ministers. The main pastor, with a little patch of facial hair below his lip, on his profile mentions his smoking hot wife, his love of a trendy rock band (that I happen to like), and his hatred of PCs.
Do I agree that certain elements of contemporary evangelicalism are problematic? Yes. Will these meetings be interesting and even entertaining? Probably. Are these guys’ hearts in the right place? Likely (as if I could ever judge that!). However, if “re-inventing” the American church (whatever “church” means here) means ditching an older, outdated, trend for a newer, hotter, one, then I lack sympathy for their mission, because in 10 years this church will look just as out-of-date as the churches they are trying to move past. Moving from trendy development to trendy development is not the way Apostolic Christianity works; if anything, new “trends,” that depart from Apostolic Teaching, are what causes problems. I can say that these folks are probably going to do some positive things for the gospel, but I find it really hard to get past these trendy, and in retrospect, hokey, efforts at “doing church.” Also, I find claims of avoiding tradition to be naive, knowing the basic definition of the term.
David Bennett
Jennifer
asimplesinner
Fr. J.
Chad Toney
Jorge Flores
Jonathan B
carmelbennett
nicenehobbit
Jason S
jaybird68
papaz
Dave Hartline
September 6, 2008 at 3:44 pm |
This post reminds me very much of a church in Conyers, Ga called (no kidding) The Church in the Now. I had a post similar in sentiment to yours.
Its kind of like a joke that my friend used to use on his sister who is protestant. He’d ask her how she liked the “church of what’s happening now.”
September 7, 2008 at 4:48 am |
Take down my high school graduation photo! You do NOT have permission to use it!
September 7, 2008 at 5:47 am |
[...] Give Your Trend 10 Years, and Then Get Back to Me [...]
September 7, 2008 at 12:30 pm |
About a month ago I stopped to eat lunch in a tiny park on main street in my hometown. A man approached me and identified himself as a pastor of new church called “The Church of the Rock,” which was “cutting edge and charismatic,” and “youth oriented, with a great band.” They play ’80s’ Christian rock. It made em wonder what “rock” in “The Church of the Rock” stood for. The church is renting a building which, until recently, was a roller skating rink. i found myself wondering if the lights, disco balls, and obnoxiously loud sound system had anything to do with the church’s choice of venue.
September 7, 2008 at 3:05 pm |
I have a friend who is a grad student and barrista at a local cafe, quite intelligent, and generally conservative in beliefs. Her husband is Catholic but she goes to a local “mega-church”. One day when she sat down with another Catholic and me, I was commenting on how much I enjoyed our Mass that morning, the gorgeous hymns, the organ prelude etc. She sort of frowned and said, “I guess that old fashioned stuff is OK for people who don’t really know true worship. In our church we really ROCK…you know, hot contemporary worship music.” Then she added, “You know, none of that traditional churchy stuff that stifles God.”
Where does that idea come from…that “traditional, churchy stuff” stifles God? I have worshipped in a liturgical setting my whole life and have found my spiritual life enhanced by its ancientness, its depth, its beauty. “Contemporary” is just that…it may speak to the trendy and the “now”, but it has no ties to the Apostolic past, nothing to really offer the future. I’ll tell you where I believe this veneration of the trendy and now comes from…as much as I love my country, it comes from American attitudes. America seems to relish cutting all ties with the past and that carries over into religion. How many times have I heard Americans say, “History? Who cares? I only care about now and where I’m going.” Sad that we have become such cultureless boobs.
Oh, and my friend also added, in hushed tones…”We also have a GREAT coffee bar right in the sanctuary!” Sad…sad…sad.
September 7, 2008 at 3:33 pm |
Americans are superficial, so our religion goes superficial.
September 7, 2008 at 9:17 pm |
Irenaeus,
Yes, I agree; Americans have BECOME superficial. However, we weren’t always. Frankly, I think that the superficiality is the result of a watering down of our culture, a dumbing down (and yes, I blame our education system), and a breakdown of core values in the 1960’s until the present.
I think the Catholic Church could fill a real void here IF 1) Catholics begin really to call upon our centuries old artistic traditions, 2) use our parishes not only to teach the Christian faith to our children and others but to teach the highest and best cultural values, 3) our priests were better trained to present solid, orthodox homilies that reference the Fathers, the Councils, the writings of the Saints.
You know, many, many thoughtful Christians of non Catholic background have been streaming into the Orthodox churches these past years. When I’ve asked why Orthodoxy and not Rome, it really isn’t doctrinal differences that led them to Orthodoxy but a living beauty in worship (ritual, music, splendor) as well as a depth to Orthodox homiletics. I have been told repeatedly, “I WOULD have taken a closer look at the Catholic Church, but it’s as trendy and trite any more as the Protestant churches.” Sad, but often true. We need to sit up and take notice.
September 8, 2008 at 12:23 am |
NH,
You’re right about Orthodoxy vis a vis Catholicism re: worship.
I think the superficiality of culture really took off in the post-war period when every family got a TV. TV has made us stupid; cf. Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death, and, earlier, McLuhan’s The Media is the Message.
Irenaeus
September 8, 2008 at 2:16 am |
Nice use of cheeky photo! Well done!
Have you considered sitting in on the meeting? That would be worth a dozen posts in and of itself?
Also, this brought back some memories of college (a decade ago) when I hung out with some Evangelical friends who had a Wednesday night “praise session” I sometimes attended… Mostly rock n’ roll sort of praise songs and devotional sermons… I am curious what that group (if they are still around, the students are ALL different, I am sure) is doing these days…
September 17, 2008 at 4:18 am |
Nice photo, hehehe