Is a World of ‘Cool’ Killing Christ? By Bob Walters

Spirituality Column #199
August 31, 2010
Current in Carmel - Current in Westfield - Current in Noblesville
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

“World” in the Biblical sense can mean very good, godly things, or very bad, evil things.

For example, in John 3:16 we are assured God will save our world and us with it because He created it, He loves us, and in faith we are worth saving.

“God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son … ”

Great! The world is good.

But then, “In this world you will have trouble.”

John 16:33 presents the world as a catch-all name for the bad stuff. Only God, in the person of Jesus Christ, can “overcome the world.”

Uh oh! The world is sin.

The Bible plainly credits God with all Creation, and at the same time lays the root and blame of all sin on “the world.” Any wonder why the Christian church has a hard time trying to figure out where it fits into the modern world?

The accomplished young magazine writer Brett McCracken (Christianity Today), has taken a thought-provoking and entertaining stab at sorting out the modern church world of fads and fashions in his first book, Hipster Christianity: When Church and Cool Collide.

The title, he writes, is a “nod to Mere Christianity” by C.S. Lewis. McCracken recently finished writing Hipster at the Kilns, Lewis’s home near Oxford, England. The book was published this month.

Thankfully, the book is not about how to be a Christian hipster. It is a look at the history, pros, and cons of Christians trying to improve on the look and work of Jesus Christ through the lens of “cool.”

Ah yes. “Cool.” McCracken provides an intelligent conversation on how Christians try to synergize their faith with the world of intellectual fashion, cultural trends, technology, and marketing. All quantified with modern metrics, and a steaming café au lait on the side.

The history of the church has been riddled with heresies which were an expression of contemporary “cool.” Today, hipsters young and old walk out of churches, never to return. The church, you see, is too much like the world.

And eventually, the world will do something God won’t … go away.

Serious Christians will appreciate the depth and direction of McCracken’s conversation, and I pray hipsters will learn that Jesus Christ plays “cool” at a level unique in the history of mankind.

The world of Christ is a world worth seeing. Worldly cool won’t cut it.