The pressure to be cool is one of the self-imposed burdens that ministers should just downright reject. Aging has enough predictable limitations and stresses to keep us adequately befuddled a good bit of the time. Trying to be cool should not be one of them! It's like any other kind of pretense, you know, being something that you are not. It's fake, bogus, superficial, artificial, and totally transparent! I mean, isn't there a Bible word for this. Like hypocrite!
The basic premise of coolness misses the boat anyway! Here's how it goes. Unless you're cool you cannot connect to younger generations. So, us geezers are tempted to young it down somewhat---a new chiseled body, chic haircut, designer jeans, electronic devices that we don't know how to use, spiffy eyeglasses, sleek wheels, maybe a bike, head-set microphone, new vocabulary, and all the other paraphernalia of youthdom. Do all the right stuff and you'll be cool. If you're considered cool, they'll listen. Voila! Mosh pit in front of the praise band. Ooh's and aah's from the coolness groupies.
Let me admit something. I do love contemporary Christian music and prefer the casual dress of most contemporary services. My faith today, approaching age 59, is more intimate and personal than ever before, and I am really blessed by the informality of these worship times. There's an authenticity about it that resonates with my heart. Thank you, Lord, for allowing me to serve a congregation that enables that kind of environment.
But, I am not cool. When we announced a new, more contemporary Saturday evening worship service, pitched to 18-30 year old individuals, we all talked about this very topic. Could I relate to this age group? Should I be the one to bring the message each week? Well, we all debated the pros and cons. The staff presented and discussed this thing from about every conceivable angle. During the deliberations my daughter Elizabeth Carpenter weighed in by phone. She said, rather bluntly: "Dad, don't try to be cool." Ouch! Somewhere along the way I passed the cool stage. It's behind me somewhere, out of reach, beyond my grasp, paradise lost.
No I cannot connect. But, Jesus can. One of the hard lessons of ministry life is that Jesus is always relevant. He was relevant two thousand years ago and he still connects today. He does it for Chinese people, Hungarians, gypsies, Brazilians, and North Carolinians. Jesus makes it happen for skinny people, blimps, tall, short, male, female, young, and old. Blond hair, red heads, and baldies. Gangas and gammmies. He's the real deal, all the time. What we all decided is that it doesn't matter who does the preaching. It matters what is preached.
Well, okay, I get it! Time for a little disclaimer. You can be so outmoded that you are, in fact, a dis-connect, perhaps a throwback, a retro-living person giving witness to a worn-out faith that existed way back when. Don't hear me say that the communication should not be fresh, the presentation up-to-date, the language reflective of the latest dictionary, the scholarship exemplary, and the application actually applicable. I mean, you can be an eight-track tape in an Blu-ray world. But, brethren, you don't have to be cool. Jesus is plenty cool enough.
Careful, however. This is another regrettable miscalculation, that young people won't respond to truth! In fact, run the numbers yourself, check out the research. A Teflon gospel just doesn't stick with them. They don't want it soft-boiled or watered down. Give it to them straight! That's the deal. So then, the messenger doesn't have to be cool. The message is cool---miraculous, incredible, fantastic, stretching the envelop of human comprehension. Jesus said, "My father is always at his work, and I too am working" (John 5:17). His word is eternal. Always. The ancient Hebrew for that is always!
Now, that's really cool. What a load off my mind!
Groovy....