Cool Churches

Churches usually have difficulties when they try to copy what another church has done.  The key?  Allow God to guide and be authentic to your church setting:
rev.org: Eliminating Church Coolness

Many times, churches all over the country will take a great idea and try to copy it, not realizing that they've taken the heart, soul, and purpose out of the original idea. I was reminded of this when reading a section of "The Seven Habits of Highly Ineffective Churches" by Ron Gladden. Ron writes:

"If you expect people to come to church just to hear your music, you'll be disappointed. If they want to hear music, they'll pop in a CD. It's better quality than you can do.

The unchurched will not crawl out of bed to watch your drama. They can get a lot better drama on television by watching a rerun of Seinfeld or Friends or whatever show is hot today.

If they want to sit around tables and talk, they'll go to Starbucks...

Present God's Word in a clear, compelling way with a deliberate sensitivity to those you're trying to reach, because the Word of God alone has the power to bring people to Christ and keep them there."

You see, it's more than the cool, hip things we do. Way more important is the message we share. When you see a great idea, please don't just take the idea and forget the purpose. In other words, don't build a coffee shop to serve cool flavors of coffee. Don't try to outplay U2 just to have a cool band. These things should be considered tools that lead to a logical end—an end, as Gladden says: "to present God's Word in a clear compelling way." When we do that, lives will change. When we don't, we simply add another clanging cymbal to the mix of loud cymbals.