Cool is Temporary - The Church is Forever

This week, I've been talking about "coolness" and the Church.

Everyone wants to be considered as cool. The cool person is the one everyone else wants to be around and be like. Cool people dress cool. They act cool. They drive the cool car.

I remember back in high school that the coolest kids seemed to excel at what they did. And, if they didn't excel, they gave off the appearance that they had excelled. But, something funny happened. Graduation.

Graduation has a neutralizing effect on high school coolness. Everyone goes their separate ways, and the guy who once was cool is now a stranger in the adult world. That's the way coolness works. What's cool today won't be tomorrow.

Look at fashion trends. They change with the passing seasons. And, what some try to pass off as cool fads eventually become the horror fashion of a generation (bellbottoms, anyome?). We all laugh at our photos from a couple of decades ago, because what we thought was trendy then is laughable today.

Coolness is clearly temporary. In fact, all but one thing is temporary.

The Bible tells us that eventually everything, including Heaven and Earth will pass away. They will be no more, and will be replaced by a new Heaven and Earth. However, Jesus said in Matthew 16 that His church will last forever, and that nothing could destroy it. It will weather the storm while coolness will burn away.

With that in mind, I think a church and its congregants need to be deliberate in keeping their focus on the Gospel message of Jesus, while also keeping a finger on the pulse of the culture around them. This is important, because just as the landscape is littered with churches that sought after coolness, it is also littered with those that have sacrificed ministering to the culture to protect the church's culture, and are now close to death's door (or already buried).

I think there needs to be a series of checks and balances - evaluations, if you will - to ensure that a desire to be cool doesn't turn the fire for the Gospel into a lukewarm message.

What are your thoughts on the coolness factor of churches?