Last week The Wall Street Journal ran a story that was an excerpt from Brett McCracken’s book Hipster Christianity that just came out. Brett has an awesome blog, and I think a great perspective on what hipster Christianity is and looks like. As someone from Portland surrounded by hipsters my age, I think he’s nailed it.
We’re suckers for the silver bullet of how to reach young people in church. The popularity of this story in the WSJ is an example of that.
We’re also suckers for a critique of Christianity. The popularity of this story in the WSJ is partly because it critiques “the emerging church.”
The problem with all this is that Brett makes an overarching point that gets overlooked because we read into the excerpt from his book looking for the silver bullet and loving the critique.
What is this overarching theme that is overlooked?
We should be teaching what people need to hear not what they want to hear.
We attend conferences, read books and blogs, often looking for the silver bullet of what connects with people, especially young people. I’m as guilty as you. Brett said:
If we are interested in Christianity in any sort of serious way, it is not because it’s easy or trendy or popular. It’s because Jesus himself is appealing, and what he says rings true. It’s because the world we inhabit is utterly phony, ephemeral, narcissistic, image-obsessed and sex-drenched—and we want an alternative. It’s not because we want more of the same.
Part of the mega-church, seeker service movement became about giving people what they wanted, at the expense of what they needed. The result is a Biblically illiterate church that believes that the church exists to meet their needs. As someone in church ministry, that last sentence is beyond scary to me.
Brett’s point was easily overlooked but it is spot on.
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