This Week at Asbury Kentucky

This week an article in the Wall Street Journal made the rounds on the internet, and I resonated with it.  It mostly talks about how churches are trying to attract a younger crowd by being cooler in various ways.

His argument, and the part of the article that resonated with me, is that the more similar the church tries to make itself to the culture, the less it really has to offer people my age.  They can go to cooler concerts, hear more provocative speakers, and hang out in nicer buildings in places other than church.  By trying to imitate the culture, the church is kind of shooting itself in the foot by de-emphasizing the thing that makes it great, which is what it has to offer that the culture doesn’t.

Well, the next day I came across a blog post which took issue with the Wall Street Journal article.  It said that everything we experience we experience through the lens of culture and we can’t really escape it.  There’s no sense in clinging to outdated cultural trends, because even though they’re older, it doesn’t make them any better than current cultural trends.  I’ve got to say, that made a lot of sense to me.

Here is where I come down in all of this: There is a difference between engaging in the culture and trying to use the culture as a marketing tool.  If I’m preaching a sermon, and the lyrics to a Lady Gaga song really help me to understand the scripture I’m talking about, then I’ll talk about it in the sermon.  (I can’t imagine a circumstance were this would be the case, I’m just theorizing.)  However, just talking about Lady Gaga in a sermon because I think kids will get a kick out of it is disingenuous and people can see right through it.

Which brings us to the point of today’s comic.  Everybody can tell when you’re just trying to be hip with the kids.  If you talk about MySpace in the same category of Facebook and Twitter, we know you don’t use social networking.  NOBODY uses MySpace anymore.  If you try to relate to young people by talking about iPods, everybody knows you don’t get it.  It’s like talking about how cool your new landline telephone is.  Everybody takes them for granted.

This is where the first article got it right.  People who are out of touch with the cutting edge of trendy things should not try to incorporate them just because they saw some other pastor try it on TV.  People will see right through it!  However, if you happen to be the type of person who does keep up with that stuff, and you can incorporate it into your ministry in a genuine way, then go for it.  Culture is just that, culture.  You should operate within our own cultural understanding, while trying to communicate with people outside your culture.  You shouldn’t jump on a bandwagon just to bring people in.

Tags: comics, culture, hip Christianity