In his article published in the WSJ today, Brett McCracken says churches need to be real. He takes them to task for trying too hard to be culturally relevant to attract young people – who are leaving churches in alarming numbers. That often is accompanied by sacrificing truth for relative morality. We’re seeing this increasingly in mainline denominations that are watering down the moral principles of the Bible because they’re just not very popular.  As Brett points out, we need to be more concerned about being popular with Christ.

For what it’s worth, my unscientific  study of the teens in my own home as well as those I work with at church prove Brett is right.  They’re much more impressed by things that are real than those that are cool. Of course, if you can do both, that’s even better.  A prime example is a sermon our church viewed via video just last Sunday from a South Carolina pastor, Perry Noble. He came down hard on Christian teens who date non-Christians and kids who skip church to be involved in sports.  It was hard hitting, but he did it with a great deal of humor. The kids ate it up.  “Real” beats “real cool” any day of the week – especially on Sundays.

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