Over the last few years I’ve seen several articles and social media posts declaring that the era of “cool” church is over.
This matches my experience. I hear far more skepticism than admiration about churches with bright lights, high stages, fog machines, and so on.
There’s just one problem. All the latest stats show that big churches are getting bigger. And almost all of them have the cool stuff that’s supposedly going out of style.
So what’s really happening?
When you look at who attends cool churches, it’s mostly people who are already Christians, with “only 6 percent of attendees (saying) they’d never attended church services before coming to their current megachurch” according to Lifeway.
The typical outsider response to big, cool churches ranges from eye rolls (at best), to mockery, to outright disdain. Only 16 percent of nonchristians and 17 percent of Christians have a positive view of meagachurches, according to Outreach magazine. Many criticisms may be unfair, but they’re quite common.
Cool churches are growing, but their influence is waning. They’re creating insular subcultures rather than having an impact on the society around them.
They don’t seem to be impressing anyone but the already converted.
Genuine Is The New Cool
The divide between cool and uncool churches is growing, and that gap is likely to end up along the lines of outreach and evangelism.
Nonbelievers aren’t rushing back to church in droves, despite many reports to the contrary and my wish that those reports were true. Articles like the excellent, “Ryan Burge: There Is No Statistical Evidence of a Gen Z Religious Revival” give us an accurate account of what’s really happening.
When nonbelievers develop a soft spot for faith it’s unlikely to be for a cool church, and more likely to be for something more traditional (on the one hand) or more quirky (on the other).
They’re more likely to want a genuine expression of faith than the latest Christian-insider fad. A clear statement of belief, not a concession to a confused culture. Principles, not politics.
Cool Is Aging Out
Today’s cool churches are largely a remnant from the heyday of attractional churches pioneered by Boomers in the 1990s to 2000s. And, like Boomers, they’re aging out.
We probably have a dozen more years of cool churches continuing to get bigger, pulling believers away from smaller, uncool churches. But today’s cool church is tomorrow’s uncool church. If they don’t switch gears they’ll collapse under the weight of their own insularity.
Once the pool of today’s cultural Christians age out there won’t be new crowds big enough to replace them. Cool isn’t gone. But its shelf life is limited.
This isn’t an “I told you so” or a victory lap around the cool-church graveyard. It’s a caution.
Don’t put your energy in the cool church bucket. And don’t worry about those who do.
Stay true.
Keep faithful.
Worship Jesus.
Disciple the saints.
Meet people’s needs.
And be led by the Spirit.
(Photo by Ville MJ Hyvönen | Flickr)
