This is the last time I'm going to rant on this, I promise. At least for a while...

Hey, church, yeah you--American Evangelicalism--the ones trying to be relevant, hip, cool, trendy, and (most importantly) liked by everybody around you...give up.

It's cool to not be cool. I promise.

Let's face a few things. Your music will never be as good as the world's. Your coffee will never be as good as the world's. Your 'life principles' will never be as appealing as the world's. And that's fine. These aren't what you have to offer the world. You have the gift of eternal life in Christ Jesus. The world doesn't have that. That's your calling. Full stop.

Instead of focusing on style, which always eventually goes out of style, it's time we focus on faithfulness to Christ. "So then, just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, being rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, and overflowing with gratitude" (Col 2.6-7 CSB). Here is our apostolic charge. Note the focus is not on numbers but on abiding in Christ.

It's time we ask ourselves, "What has our arrogance profited us? And what good has our boasted wealth brought us?" (Wisdom 5.8 RSV). The implied answer is 'nothing,' and the implied responses are repentance and turning back to God in faith and righteousness.

It's time to take serious the counsel of Martin Luther, writing on Joseph's captivity in Egypt. "We serve, teach, counsel, comfort, and do what God tells us to do. For the most part, we do this for undeserving people from whom we get nothing in return except hatred, envy, and suffering. It seems that our lives are wasted on being kind to people to don't appreciate it. Don't ever expect the world to acknowledge or reward your faithfulness and hard work. The opposite often happens, as Joseph's life shows" (Martin Luther, quoted in Faith Alone).

In case you missed the point previously, the Evangelical notion that if we only talk, look, and act like the word they will like us, flock to us, and believe in Christ is utterly delusional. Nothing in Scripture or history supports that, in fact quite the opposite is true. All this approach has done over the past few decades is resulted in an anemic, impotent, largely gospel-less 'Christianity' that looks everything like the world around it and nothing like Jesus.

Focus on Christ. Quit trying to be cool. This isn't High School, it's real life.

< / rant>...i.e., "end of rant"