Beware of Following the Trend

There are far too many churches that are trying to follow the trends in an attempt to “grow” their congregations. The first problem is that they are focusing on quantity not quality. The second problem is that the churches are always a few years behind. A huge number of churches are trying to be “relevant”, which really is (to me) being like everything else, thus the differentiation between the church and the culture is erased (salt with your light, anyone?).

The rage against the liturgy (okay, that is hyperbole) that seems to be much of this is dead, even in the “evangelical” church. Rick Phillips, in his blog post Random Thoughts on Gender, Based on a Small Sample Size, is only a small wave in a bigger change. The Roman Catholic church is growing, as is the Eastern Orthodox church, especially among the very section that being “relevant” is targeted at. Of course, too many churches have bought into this, so they feel that they cannot go back. Look, we don’t proclaim to have worship infallibility, so let’s act like we don’t.

My favorite line in Mr. Phillips post was, “This [classic, historically-rooted (i.e. traditional) worship], too, is now counter-culturally Christian.”