good thoughts, brett. if we take even a short look at the old testament prophets, we see that being an outsider was often necessary for speaking the truth of God into a group. i don't think this means that God calls only the outsiders, but rather that once called, God's prophets often become outsiders by virtue of the truth they bring.

on another note, you said, "I remember looking at youth pastors or church leaders and feeling either endeared (by how nerdy and yet believable they were) or repulsed (by how phony their attempts to be “culturally relevant” often seemed)."

i, myself, was fortunate (maybe?) to know more than a few youth ministers and the like who were both genuine and culturally relevant. they weren't nerdy or phony. just some guys who had socially adapted well, knew what was going on in pop culture, and dressed in ways that i appreciated.

Amen Brett. Your book just arrived in the mail via Amazon. I'm looking forward to reading it (your piece in the WSJ is what motivated me to purchase it).

Blessgins!

True cool, as I've explained to my students, means being a trendsetter, not a trend-follower. Too many youth pastors haven't learned this lesson either.

That's some tough medicine, brother. I don't always ask myself the "why" behind what I would like our church to pursue, but I'm getting better at it.

are those the only two options?
Nerdy and authentic
or
Cool and wannabe faker

I think there is probably more to it than that.

"It's not that what's inside of inner rings is necessarily bad,..."

CSL is far too accepting of what's inside "inner rings" as having anything remotely close to godliness. Godliness never has a relational ring around it. When relationships are tainted with status and money, there will be little if any kingdom building present.

What if God sent His son into the world as one who played it cool with swagger? It's clear He rejected such a thing with Isaiah's prophetic words "... He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him..." Is. 53

For many in church leadership this is far to "primitive" a concept that must be adapted away for culture today. You could not reach anyone today - right? Oh, Paul updated God's intentions for today by saying "I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings." 1Cor. 9

Maybe a more contextual look at this would help us realize this is not a ticket for whatever you prefer is okay. This is part of his argument for why it is relationally strategic to reject a ministers right to be paid and do it for free. A concept most ministers today are not interested in no matter what the consequences.

The concept of drawing people to you so you can point them to Christ with only godly character is a simple concept worth pursuing. What church would accept Jesus's Is. 53 resume for a youth pastor? Probably none, but then would that hinder the work of God or would it go on with greater power? The current system has a very odd way of doing things for God's glory.

Unfortunately, this motivation—to be an "inner ringer"—is widespread in the evangelical church today

On what basis is this claim being made?

I would like to read the second post. I know many people in ministry whose authenticity is amazing. I am with Nathan on this too... on what basis is the claim being made?

I'm having trouble figuring out exactly who or what McCracken is directing this to. Does he think the search for relevance is a new phenomenon? Is there a recent spike in inauthenticity that he's reacting to?

I'm also a twenty-something who grew up in the Evangelical church, but far from sympathizing with McCracken, all I see in him is a kind of nebulous, undirected angst that embodies the very trendiness he's trying to refute, disparaging others for dropping references to Mad Men and Lady Gaga while he does so himself.

McCracken seems to be the very epitome of a hipster -- doing that one thing that hipsters love doing most: hating other hipsters.

I just don't get why we need to problematize people simply participating in the ever changing features of pop culture...

Good post. Too much striving to be cool can actually be an underestimation of those one is trying to reach when it includes the tacit assumption that they have no capacity or hunger for anything more or different than the usual cultural fare of their everyday lives. In fact, I think there is a great hunger for something different, greater, more and deeper than anything pop culture can offer.

I agree with the other folks here who asked the basis for these claims. I wish the author would provide specific examples of who is doing this. Maybe he'll do that in his second post, which I feel would make his argument stronger.

Also, and this may be just my being out of the loop, is "Mad Men" popular among today's youth? That always struck me as a show for an older crowd, but I could be wrong.

I've also never seen it, which I guess means I'm not in danger of hipsterism. :)

After reading his WSJ piece a while back, I was struck by how "cool" - in many ways - Brett's take seems to be and perhaps his book is. I visited his website and found the same cool vibe -- so there was a real (and perhaps intended) irony to the whole thing. Not sure what to make of that.

I love that this topic has finally come up, as more and more I am seeing this attitude among churches and leaders.

While there is nothing inherently bad about being 'cool' as most of my friends could fit into this category, they are trendy up to date, etc. They have not acheived this through their will to be cool, only that where their interests lie is what society deems as cool. They are genuine and have real integrity in their lives.

I find fault however in those that say that cool is to be desired, when I see nothing in the Bible where striving for peoples affection and validation is healthy for a Christian. Be who you are, and if that makes you cool accept it, and use it in the ways that God intends, and if you are not 'cool' as I will admit to myself that I am not, use what you are to do the things that you are uniquely equipped to do.

There is only one Person who's affection and validation we should seek, and He tells us to be nothing more than what He made us.

This post puts me in mind of this passage from 1 Corinthians 1.

26Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29so that no one may boast before him. 30It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord."

As I reflect on my own experience in Christian youth groups, of the two churches my family attended during my secondary school years, only one had a hired professional youth pastor. But what a lay volunteer youth group leader and my high school youth pastor had in common was their true humble faith in God and genuine love for us kids with all our immaturities. They knew how to have fun with us (or let us have some fun), but it was their love and living faith, their willingness to show us abundant grace (often expressed through their humor), and their joy that left the greatest mark (and neither of them was all that cool!). I also remember a middle aged businessman who taught a high school Sunday school class I was in, and it was his own love for Christ and excitement in his faith that shone through. I remember all these folks with the deepest gratitude.

The question remains...

WHO exactly is telling people that "cool" is to be desired?

And, IF THAT IS HAPPENING, on what basis do we determine that this is a problem of such scale that it warrants a book?

From what I can see of the author's work (online and in print) I'd say that he has not succeeded in describing "hipsters" but describing the painfully ghettoized evangelical consumer sub-culture which includes a lot of people, most of which who really couldn't be called "hipsters".

Again, WHO is telling us this is the way to be? On what basis can we claim this is a particular problem of this particular moment.?

I don't know whether or not some mysterious, Illuminati-esque church shadow government is telling evangelical leaders to desire cool, but the human desire for acceptance and popularity - which often go hand in hand with coolness - is hardly a new concern. That being said, I do agree that there's been a definite focus on "relevance" in the evangelical church that can perhaps be called new. "Cool" and "relevant" have become the same thing, so you'd better be cool, or else you don't matter. That's a terrifying idea, no?

The best conspiracy theory I can come up with for that shift in my part of the world (Canada) is that it relates to the church trying very hard to to pull itself out of secular culture in the 90s and replace the culture we live and operate in with that now-dreaded "Christian subculture" of derivative literature, art, music, TV, and so on. The problem with that is, the culture people live in is very relevant to them, so when the church attempts to disengage from that, of course it should lose relevance in the average non-Christian's daily life. The other problem, contingent on the previous one, is that what's common or popular in a given culture at any given time is also what's "cool" in that culture - hence, relevance and coolness becoming one and the same. I think.

In my experience this issue, which I refer to as the "tyranny of cool", is more prevalent among pastors than young leaders. A pastor of a church I used to attend frequently referred to current PG-13 and R rated movies in his sermons. He didn't seem to realize that he was setting a lot of problems for parents - "But Pastor said "The Matrix" is full of Biblical themes!". Likewise, he seemed to consider Bono to be a minor prophet.

I doubt that Jesus was in the "inner ring."

Maybe the more we define ourselves by who He says we are in His Word and begin to experience His true, genuine, afffirming love, we'll be more authentic and confident in who we are ... and less concerned about what others think of us.

Trying to be cool or relevant? two differents things. Leaders should know their limit about when being cool becomes artificial. But RELEVANCE is definitely a need of all churches, is not an option. Churches that don't know how to culturally contextualize principles stay behind just recyling christian rathen that reaching the actual generation of non-believers, because of lack of knowledge on what is negotiable & what is not. The church must figure out how to get involve in the culture without sacrificing values. Both side extremists (traditionals - "Cool") ruin the church. RELEVANT is the way

I believe that it is important for churches to keep up with the latest trends and up to date things but I feel like this should not be the center focus point. Churches need to reach out to the body of believers first and if trendy things help them accomplish this better, than I think it is important!

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