I Hate Youth Pastors!

I do...I really very do. Okay well maybe hate is too strong a word. I intensely dislike youth pastors...well not all of them. Alright, lets settle on this. There are many youth pastor out there who can really get my goat. There that's better.

Too many youth pastors try to sell Christianity. Its true, they most certainly do. And while this is a problem in itself, its the way in which they sell it that bothers me most. They try to make it cool. This seems like a great way to sell something, after all society tends to look more fondly on those who are "cool" so we all try to become cool by associating ourselves with cool things. At first glance this seems like a good idea, make Christianity cool and then people will want it...in the short term. By making Christianity cool you are simply making it fashionable, and like all fashion - it will eventually go out of style. Something newer and shinier will come along and distract these people and lead them away. By making Christianity cool you are turning many young adults into shallow soul in which they will grow quickly but soon whither and die. Don Miller says something interesting about the nature of cool. He writes,

[Deep belief] isn't cool. I mean it is in a "Reality Bites", "Welcome to Sarajevo", Amnesty International sense, but that is only as good as dreadlocks. Chicks dig it to a point, but then you can't be all about it; you also have to want a big house and expensive clothes because in the end, our beliefs are about as enduring as seasonal fashion. In the end we like Ethan Hawke even though we don't know what he believes. Even our beliefs have become trend statements. We don't believe things because we believe them anymore. We only believe things because they are cool things to believe.

The second reason why making Christianity cool is a bad bad bad idea is it only feeds our sense of self addiction. Nearly everything that is wrong in our society, every aspect of the fallen nature of man comes down to the fact that we are addicted to ourselves. Everything we do is for ourselves, and we treat ourselves as the primary end in our actions - our thoughts, beliefs, even our friends and our families are all means to which we may meet our own ends. Be it material pursuits or self affirmation. Self addiction is sin and sin is self addiction. Why did Adam eat the fruit, because he thought it would make him smarter (and Eve told him too, so maybe also for the possibility of sex); why did Cain kill his brother Abel? Because Able made Cain look bad, and Cain as a result needed to uplift his personal sense of worth. By making Christianity cool all you are teaching is that Christianity is simply a way to better yourself. It will make you cool (and at the very least give you a front row seat in heaven), and therefore make you better in the eyes of society. By making Christianity cool you are essentially turning it into sin. It becomes a tool to bring glory to yourself - be it through a group of super good looking friends led by a youth pastor who drives a motorcycle, is in a rock band and constantly has a toothpick in his teeth and that feeling that you are a bigger part of society, apart of something cool.

Now I don't like to simply criticize. Sometimes I do, but most of the time I prefer to offer an alternative. Empty criticism breeds bitterness, alternatives breed progress. Instead of trying to make Christianity cool, stop trying to make Christianity anything. It can't be made - it isn't a tool to utilize. Instead be passionate. People, and especially kids, love passion. They want something that doesn't sway, which is consistent and sure. If you are passionate people will follow. They will think you know something that they don't, some clue to the meaning of the universe...and you know what, you do.