Thursday, January 14, 2016

Bellbottoms and Shoulder Pads

“To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’” (John 8:31-32 NIV)

I recently read an article talking about future trends in the church.  The author spoke enthusiastically that “online church” would be a thing, as would “experience over content;” that is, that people are going to be more drawn to the experience they have in a church over whatever is said or done.  Hmmm.

Over my many years in vocational ministry, I have seen many purveyors of “exciting” new church trends and strategies, but most are rooted in the trends of the culture rather than the truth of the Scriptures.  One example is the church growth movement of the 1980’s where the emphasis was increasing church involvement by gathering people who look and think the same.  The thinking was, contrary to Scriptural teaching, that the way to grow your church was by attracting the same socio-economic class of people as made up the core of your congregation.  It was all the rage for many years.  

Then came the “seeker-friendly church” trend, which postulated that in order to reach unbelievers, you had to make your church a place in which they felt comfortable and were not put off by too much emphasis on deeper biblical teaching.  While the intent was admirable, the model of the New Testament church was cast aside in the midst of jumping on the bandwagon.

The danger of being trendy (think the bellbottoms of the early 70’s or the shoulder pads for women in the 1980’s) is you have tunnel vision. You only see how cool the trend is without any sense of its long-standing value.  That is why so often, as is the case with those of us who wore bellbottoms and the women who wore outfits with shoulder pads look back and exclaim, “What were we thinking?!”  The same can be said about trends in the church.  What once looked fabulous in the moment can look very different as time moves on.  

This is why it is so crucial to examine any trend in the corrective light of Scripture.  We are fallen human beings and the trends we create and follow often reveal that.  Jesus is the truth and only in Him can we escape being seduced by trends that seem cool but are unbiblical. Think about the trend cited by the author I referenced above: experience will trump content.  So should local churches concentrate on giving people a good experience, even if that means telling people what they want to hear rather than what they need to hear?  Or singing songs they like over songs that might have more biblical content?  Should we stop talking about the need to reach the world with the Gospel because people are more concerned with their own problems and needs?

The problem with trends is they mostly involve what people want rather than what they need.  It is not necessarily wrong for the church to try to stay in tune with the cultural trends, but the danger always lurks that the church will trend toward reflecting the culture in which it resides rather than the Lord whom it is to serve.

Today, remember all trends look good in the moment, as did bellbottoms and should pads.  That is why they are trends.  But as followers of Jesus, we need to evaluate every trend in the light of the Word.  It is the only way in which to avoid saying later, “What were we thinking?!

© Jim Musser 2016

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