What aspect of church is chic? Is there anything we do that’s popular? Are we cutting-edge in any way?
Nope. Never. Not even the “cutting edge” churches are cutting edge. They’re just picking up on trends and copying them. They’re not creating them.
The church as an institution was never meant to be hip, chic and cutting edge. It was designed by God to be cross-culturally timeless. Nothing about it is popular, by nature.
We appease people, often, to accommodate the gospel message (w ho doesn’t want the AC on, right?). But luxuries are not “cutting edge” or “popular.” In our culture, they are basically necessities, but do not detract from truth.
Church goes against the normal human nature. Our flesh likes one thing; God’s Spirit prefers the opposite, usually. Since “popular” things are driven by our human desire to appease our flesh, I get really suspicious about anything that’s both Christian and popular.
Not that I want to be UNpopular. No, no. The GOAL is not UN-popularity. The GOAL is non-conformity (Rom. 12:2). If something is popular, the chances are good that it’s not something that’s going to be found in church.
Popular things aren’t bad. Sports, entertainment, board games, activities…I’m into all these things, and that’s okay. They’re popular things; they’re just not things that define a church.
Our MUSIC (it took me a while, but I got on topic in this article) in church is
not necessarily popular, but popularity is not the goal. Everything’s weird about church to a non-church person: corporate prayer, “Amen’s,” offerings, preaching, the Bible…but just because something is weird to the non-church person doesn’t mean we should change it.
Instead, let’s hold fast to what we know God wants from our music.
– Bro. Ryan