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| Hillsong Convention Center (Public Domain) |
Churches such as Hillsong are said to have put the “hip” into “discipleship”and the “cool” into Christianity.
Some do this with a combination of “PR-friendly” jargon and crowd-pleasing messages.
Avoidance of controversial or unpleasant topics (such as gay marriage or hellfire and brimstone) is another popular strategy.
Brett McCracken, author of Hipster Christianity: When
Church and Cool
Collide, wonders
whether orthodox theology and hipster cool can fruitfully coexist. He cites places
that haven’t endured (such as Rob Bell’s and Mark Driscoll’s Mars Hill Churches), and some that are still going strong (within the international Hillsong movement).
In a recent Washington Post commentary, McCracken concludes with this incisive query: Shouldn’t
church be a sanctuary that offers far more than what is “on the pages of Vogue or the streets of Brooklyn”?
Resources
http://wwrn.org/articles/44800/?&place=north-america
Copyright August 18, 2015 by Linda Van Slyke All Rights Reserved
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