Blake has a great post where he examines the dangers of being “cool” vs. being “traditional”
Gospel Relevance, Coolness and Offense
In it, he states the obvious (to me anyhow) if you are being cool, JUST so you can get more people in the door, you run the risk of watering down the gospel so that it is inoffensive too. But if you refuse to be cool, (i.e., if you stick to your traditions) in order to prevent the church from watering down the gospel, you run the equal risk of obscuring the gospel.
Neither, in the end, proclaims the gospel successfully. And the devil really doesn’t care which path you take, personally or corporately, just so long as you lose site of the goal: proclaiming the Gospel, and equipping the saints.
Of Suits or Jeans
This past year, I started wearing a suit to church. Suits are “cool” in my church and I was, to my chagrin, offended by someone who dressed down further than I did. The thought occurred to me that if it mattered to me how someone dressed, maybe it would be a good idea for me to dress as well as my means would allow.
What really surprised me is the number of people who actually told me how glad they were that I was now wearing a suit. Not because they thought I looked better, but because they believe that people should wear their Sunday best to church!
I gently reminded those who actually said something, that there are advantages to wearing jeans too. What about the visitor who comes and doesn’t have a suit, doesn’t feel comfortable in a suit, or can’t afford a suit? Are we, by us all wearing suits, actually preventing people from worshiping with us?
So, lately, I’ve been mixing it up a bit. Some Sundays you’ll see me in a suit, some Sundays you may see me in jeans, and others some where in between.
I know of one church, several years ago, where the elders purposefully decided to stop wearing suits so that those who were not comfortable with suits, or didn’t have a suit would feel more comfortable coming to church.
BTW, why is it that the ladies no longer wear hats and gloves to church?
Of Hymns, Psalms, and Spiritual Songs
Nowhere is the coolness factor and its problems more apparent than in the area of music. I remember growing up in a traditional Baptist church where doing a cantata with triplets and syncopation was pushing the boundaries. I also remember the evening service where my dad and I did Dixie Land style on our trumpets and my mom about crawled under the pew 
So, why is it that music is one of the most contentious areas of worship in the church? Why is it that the generation gap has largely been defined by music? Why does everyone care so much?
I would submit to you that the main reason we tend to have such an issue with music is because music is the language of the soul.
Check this out. Ask a musician in your church what they tend to hear first, the music or the words to the music. A large percentage of them will tell you they hear the music first. Even those that hear the words first will admit that the music is what sticks with them.
This is why a truly GREAT song is a song where the music compliments the lyrics. A well crafted song will say with the music what the lyrics say with words. I remember my wife and I listening to “50 Ways to Leave your Lover” in the car and I commented, “It’s too bad the message of this song is so rotten, because it really is a well crafted song.” Actually, many of Simon and Garfunkels’ songs are well crafted. That’s why we still listen to them today.
So, what’s this got to do with Church?
I’ve been in churches that have done traditional hymns with traditional instruments. I’ve been in churches that have done contemporary worship songs. Guess what? I think the first has the danger of obscuring the gospel and the second has the danger of watering it down.
Think about this. Would the majority of your non-Christian friends be more likely to listen to music in the style of a classical hymn, or would they be more likely to listen to something a bit more contemporary? Unless we are trying to attract people my parents’ age, I’d suggest that many of us are more likely to listen to something more contemporary. So, are we, by singing hymns in our church actually preventing people from staying? I know of several Christian families who otherwise might have liked our church who did not stick around because all we sing are hymns.
On the other hand we have contemporary worship, which, in my experience, has been way too man-focused. Folks, this waters down the gospel in a major way. In essence the songs say, “God, thank you so much for what you’ve done because now I’m a more complete me because of you.” When the fact of the matter is, God doesn’t do anything because he wants us to be better. He does what he does because he wants to bring glory to himself.
However, more contemporary songs do help attract people into a local church who may not otherwise come.
So, what to do?
I like to refer to a third style as “New Hymns” or “Contemporary Hymns.” These are songs that follow the “Theologically grounded verse, followed by a theologically grounded chorus, followed by another theologically grounded verse” pattern. That is, without the music, they look a lot like any other hymn we might have sung in the 60s and 70s, but the music behind them has been updated to reflect the culture around us.
The perfect Church
The early church was composed of congregations with rich and poor, slaves and free, Jew and Gentile. All worshipping the same Lord. I think we run the risk of either losing sight of how radical this was, or more often, losing sight of just how we might implement this in our local church.
We often think that the best way to implement the mix that was the early church is to strive to be multi-ethnic, and possibly multi-economic (probably not a word but it is now). And unless you live in the city, this is a pretty safe way of looking at the issue because if your community is anything like mine, your community has very little variation in ethnicity and you probably all make about the same amount of money, drive the same type of cars, and have the same types of gadgets.
However, within any community, you are going to have people who like different styles of music, like to dress different ways, like to read various types of literature. There are going to be some who are geeks, like me, and others who are social workers. There are going to be different political views, and even different religious views.
The church should in some way try to accommodate all of these variations as much as is possible without watering down or obscuring the gospel.
My vision of the perfect Sunday morning would have people in the pews who all dress how THEY feel is appropriate. It would have music from various genres, including classic hymns. It would have a sermon that was “meat” for the spiritually mature, “milk” for the new Christian, and the gospel for the unsaved. It would allow people who doubt to ask questions without ridicule. It would allow those who are struggling with sin to admit it and get help rather than hide it and continue to struggle, simply to avoid judgement. It would keep the gospel the main thing, growth of the Christian secondary, and would allow for variation as long as it did not negatively affect the message of the cross.
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