Former Brooklyn minister Gage Jung of the Hipster Church, standing outside Sheraton hotel in Flushing, Queens, where he is holding monthly meetings.
Posted on 05/19/2011 8:04:47 PM PDT by Bed_Zeppelin
For a budding church in Flushing, your Sunday best will be a flannel shirt and skinny jeans.
The Rev. Gage Jung, 37, is building an artsy flock for a brand-new, nondenominational congregation called the Hipster Church. His eclectic group of followers embody the counterculture mission statement - "This ain't your mama's church."
"We're not trying to make a church like the one your parents went to. We're trying to make a church for our generation," said Jung, a self-proclaimed hipster.
Jung was ordained a minister 10 years ago. The former lead pastor at the United Generations Church in Brooklyn said Flushing is fertile ground for gathering a new flock.
"We wanted to go to a place where there was the most amount of need," Jung said, pointing to a large number of homeless and nonbelievers in the area.
Jung had his first monthly meeting at the Sheraton LaGuardia East Hotel in Flushing earlier this month. He has recruited 32 followers so far, he said, and his goal is to get 100 by September, when the church is scheduled to open.
The group's 1-1/2-hour service features an indie rock band that plays its own religious songs. Instead of using Bibles in book form, congregants use a Bible app on iPhones, Jung said. The service even includes an informal mingling where participants listen to indie rockers like MGMT and Arcade Fire, and chat over donuts and candy.
"It has to be different. We don't want to be like everyone else," Jung said.
Omar Flores, 36, who has been attending a Presbyterian church in midtown Manhattan since 2005, said he has found a stronger spiritual connection at Jung's church.
"At the other church, you just listen to the pastor. There's no vibe to it. With Gage, there is. He has something to offer the community and his members," Flores said.
Celina Flores, 16, who is not related to Omar, said she was walking in Flushing when someone gave her a Hipster Church wristband. She attended the church's first meeting at the Sherton and was hooked.
"Regular churches aren't that easy to get into. When you go to Hipster Church, you feel like you belong," she said.
Jung said he's had some skeptics but vows he isn't your typical hipster.
"It's going to be tough trying to convince people that we're authentic, but people will know that we are real," he said.
Former Brooklyn minister Gage Jung of the Hipster Church, standing outside Sheraton hotel in Flushing, Queens, where he is holding monthly meetings.
This has SCAM written all over it.
I have no issue with how they get the word into them, so long as it gets into them. You can change the wrapper to your liking as long as your message is sound Bible doctrine.
Kind of sounds like I might enjoy the music as well.
I have my doubts about this, but then again, I hate the hipster culture.
When one considers that quite a few churches don't even have Bibles at all, I'd say this was an improvement. But as another poster mentioned, if they preach and teach the Word as it is written in the Bible, what's the big deal about the presentation?
TAIUWOT
This Article Is Useless Without Theology.
It’s been said that the most segregated hour in America is 11-12 Sunday morning. I think this applies to these kinds of groups as well, hipsters wanting to share w other hipsters. I hope it works for them.
Start a “church”....
get tax exemptions.
The Church of What’s Happening Now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmJati2W7uA
Other cults in the area: the chanters of Nichiren Buddhism have a “temple” nearby.
No one who is hip refers to themselves as a hipster. Hipster is a marketing term invented by advertising.
Sounds like an orthodox profession of faith. Good for them.
I’m pleasantly surprised by their doctrine.
I've got a clue for you. We don't modify scripture to meet our demands. We modify our lives to meet the demands of scripture.
Uh, yeah, I can find that one in the Bible. /s
Acts 2:14a, 36-41
Then Peter stood up with the Eleven,
raised his voice, and proclaimed:
“Let the whole house of Israel know for certain
that God has made both Lord and Christ,
this Jesus whom you crucified.”
Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart,
and they asked Peter and the other apostles,
“What are we to do, my brothers?”
Peter said to them,
“Repent and be baptized, every one of you,
in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins;
and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
For the promise is made to you and to your children
and to all those far off,
whomever the Lord our God will call.”
He testified with many other arguments, and was exhorting them,
“Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.”
Those who accepted his message were baptized,
and about three thousand persons were added that day.
Especially this line:
“Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.”
People have to start somewhere. Good for him, and may God bless and guide his weird little flock!
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