Great, but disturbing article.
Great, but disturbing article.
interesting article. however, i think the juvenilization of a lot of evangelical christian worship mirrors the juvenilization (infantilization?) of north american society as a whole.
for example, look at the casual clothing middle aged and elderly adults wear now.
they dress like children...
My grandfather was born in 1896. I was born in 1962. He lived in a world of hardship where men had to be men 24/7. He never wore a pair of sneakers in his entire life or put a pair of short pants on after he was 12 years old. He wore a fedora any time he left the house. He wore a coat to plow his field and rarely rolled his sleeves up.
Before we complain about the juvenilization of Christianity, lets look at our culture. Men wear short pants and ball caps with our brightly colored polo shirts. We can relax in ways that my grandfather never did. His music was not rock and roll, but my 70 year old mother has listened to rock for her entire life.
When the Wesleys were writing most of the Methodist Hymnal, they were attacked for writing “popular music”. I see no problem with a “juvenile” church as long as the scripture is being taught. I can connect to God better with Casting Crowns than I can through Gregorian chants.
With that said, many “hipster” churches do go too far. They push out scripture in favor of “interpretation” because “no one reads anyway.” They take the universalist view of God and Christ and essentially remove the Trinity from the salvation equation. And they get too involved with creating a good “show” that has very little worship.
There is a line between creating a culture in church that is familiar and easy to connect with and with throwing out God to have more room for the music. Some churches do a great job of the former, while others are purely the latter and not worth anyone’s time or money (unless you just want to listen to the music).
Veggie Tales. jk
