My boyfriend and I were recently walking around in a Christian bookstore. We spotted the book "Hipster Christianity" (subtitled: where church and cool collide) by Brett McCracken. Glancing over the book, we started to think about how we have been affected by this new phenomena of modernistic Christianity. Going to college involves a lot of new experiences and one of the toughest is finding a new church to get plugged into. One thing we quickly discovered was that many churches seem to be all about glorifying the church instead of God. Here are five simple ways this is dangerous.
1) Jesus calls us to be set apart.
While it is OK to be contemporary in worship, I think some churches try way too hard to fit into the world. Let me explain. When all the music is about God's love and never about the realities of sin, we are misleading people. Of course the world wants to feel happy after leaving church. That is why many attend it in the first place. However, our goal is to prompt each other to listen to the convictions of the Holy Spirit.
Some Christians are covered in meaningless tattoos. I am not against tattoos necessarily, nor do I think God considers it a sin. I do think it is strange when the church body is covered from head to toe in piercings and tattoos. How are we any different from the world if we do not realize our body is the temple of God? What message are we trying to convey when we get a tattoo? Do our actions point to God or do we want to draw attention to ourselves? I think it is especially dangerous when a group of believers all convince one another to impulsively get a permanent thing on their body. We are called to have purpose behind what we do, not to maintain the cool Christian status at all costs.
2) When the church blends the world into the Christian life, godly values become blurred.
Sin is taken more lightly. I've witnessed church leaders joking around about serious sin in front of nonbelivers or baby Christians. This is detrimental to the growth of others when we diminish the cost of sin. Being in a church that encourages you to cuss because "they are just words" means that they are becoming numb to sin. When hearts become hardened, we must turn to the Father to renew our consciences. Hanging around with Christians that excuses sinful behavior allows our consciences to be rooted in their view of right and wrong, not God's. When the church's definition of sin changes with time, they are not listening to the ever constant God. His word does not change. Our view of his expectations for us should never change.
3) Hipster Christianity is about maintaining an attractive image while still being under the insurance plan of salvation.
It's about how we look and it no longer matters how we are making God look. When the church obsesses over fashion, trends, and appearing put together, we miss the whole goal of the church. It has never been about us. We were never intended to spend so many hours getting ready for church outwardly. God desires our hearts to be in the right place when we enter the doors. He wants us to come in ready to see him, not ready to be seen by others. WAKE UP CHRISTIANS.
4) The church becomes a hangout place instead of a place of worship.
God does not want us more excited to catch up with our Christian friends after service, than we are to get fed from the sermon. When we focus on the social benefits of church, we forget the church is a place of spurring (Hebrews 10:24), confession (James 5:16), growth (Colossians 3:16), and worship.
5) The church is used as a self glorification tool.
I already talked about how we can make going to church all about us. But what about when we literally use the church for self promotion? I understand that social media can be used to accumulate new members of the church. However, Hipster Christianity says you can not have a Bible study without posting about it. Every service project needs to be broadcasted. When we don't tell what church we are from, how to get involved, or how people were impacted, I'm unsure how the motives can be pure. Also, our worship service shouldn't be like a rock concert. Christian rock is fine. Getting excited for worship is fine. But when we only raise our hands or jump around when the music is super loud and our adrenaline is pumping, something is off. Music, lyrics, or song leaders should not be the reason we feel moved. It should always be because God used those things to stir within our hearts.
I'm not telling anyone to leave their church. Every person in every church is of course guilty of these things from time to time. I am asking each individual person to evaluate their hearts when it comes to church. Actually, I am asking what it means for us to be the church. Who are we going to glorify?
