Churches, themselves, are not cool. House churches are not cool. Traditional churches are not cool. Emerging churches are not cool. Mega-churches are not cool. Seeker churches are not cool. Cell group churches are not cool. Churches with buildings are not cool. Churches without buildings are not cool.
We have such a human tendency toward unhealthy self-centeredness that we want to take our human expressions of God's grace and admire the human aspects of them.
Churches are not cool.
God is cool. God's redemptive power in the lives of humans is cool. God's grace expressed in and through humans is cool. God humbling himself to take the form of a human is cool. God giving himself to die because of His desire and love for humans is cool.
Humans responding to God are cool. Humans filled with the grace of God are cool. Humans gathering to worship are cool. Humans going into the world to express Kingdom life are cool. Weak humans filled with the grace of God are cool.
We talk too much about "churches." Having a "house church blog" can put the focus on the wrong thing. We get too much concerned about how we do church. We get too much wrapped up into our own ideas of a "better" church, or a more "scriptural" church, or a bigger church, or a next-generation church, or a whatever church. Our tendency to want a better church, whether it's a better building or a better post-modern expression, misses the whole point.
We are the church. How we express the church, or "do" church, or gather, or build, or worship when we gather, doesn't make it any better. How we be the church, today, ourself, is the only point. How we, as humans, reflect the wonder and grace and beauty of God, and point to Him, and let Him express His glory through our weakness and brokeness, is the point. God's grace seen is the point. God's redemptive work displayed through us is the point. God's Kingdom revealed is the point.
God help us when we think our self-conceived concepts of "church" can cause any of this to take place.
Wherever and however we gather today, may we be on our knees asking God to take our frail, weak, and fully imperfect human lives and gatherings and somehow, by His grace, display His wonder through our brokenness. Let's do it in cathedrals, and let's do it in houses, and let's do it in the streets.
Then, if God's grace does, in any way, show up and move hearts and touch lives... let's remember that it has nothing to do with how cool our church or gathering is. Rather, it has everything to do with how cool God is.
