Are You Cool Enough?

Welcome to De-Commissioned, a place for former members of the Great Commission movement (aka GCM, GCC, GCAC, GCI, the Blitz) to discuss problems they've experienced in the association's practices and theology.

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[Genevieve]

A few years ago, a long-time staff member became a pastor, and, surprise, got a makeover in the process. He shaved his head, got an earring, and was given a gift certificate to the Gap. He was filling the shoes for someone who was most definitely cool, so he needed to take his game up a notch. He was married with kids, but his wife and kids didn’t get new clothes or new haircuts. It was just him. He looked like he didn’t even belong with his family anymore.

I love makeovers as much as the next person (What Not to Wear is one of my favorites), but I don’t think it was something he asked for. It seemed like a prerequisite for taking the next step in leadership.

Now, I’ve seen my share of evangelical churches, so I don’t think this is just an issue with GCM/GCAC (Anyone seen Saved?), and certainly, not everyone leading is runway material. That said, coolness is most definitely a factor when you’re moving up the ladder in leadership. It’s like high school all over again.

In our culture, people who look a certain way get more respect and are followed more easily, even voted for more than others. So, if GCM/GCAC is really going to reach the world, then they need to use people (tools) that the world is going to respond to: Beautiful, Hip, Cool.

And since leaders build a group of devoted followers around them, cool people are going to do that easier and faster than others. In the church I was in, the leaders (small group and pastors alike) that were most respected and imitated were the cool ones. Others who might have had more wisdom, love, and grace were often overlooked.

One very wise and grace-filled pastor had his speaking responsibilities revoked because the other pastors didn’t feel like he was as “seeker-friendly” as they wanted for Sunday mornings. What’s more seeker-friendly than love and grace? I think that is a tragedy. How hurtful to be shoved into the shadows because you’re not cool enough. What are they trying to tell seekers? “We’re cool. Join us.” That’s a pretty weak message and one that is directly opposite of Christ’s.

So, not that there’s enough pressure to be cool and beautiful as it is, GCM/GCAC adds to it by telling people they’ll be more effective for Christ (more pleasing to Christ, too?). People who might feel inadequate in the dorms are made to feel even more so in the church.

[puff of purple smoke]

Hmm. I don’t know how widespread this is, I didn’t really ever notice it in my church. Maybe your pastor was just going through a midlife crisis! I do think GC tends to overemphasis evangalism over other gifts, and thus extroverted people tend to find the most favor in the eyes of leaders. Forcing pastors to be “cool” though? Even if this was happening I probably wouldn’t care. Youth pastors especially are always trying to think of ways to connect with their audience. I usually like your posts Gen, but this one seems a little um.. out there..

[Genevieve]

Thanks for being honest. I don’t know if it’s necessarily forcing them to be cool but valuing it more than they should and, when necessary, “making over” those who aren’t. It might be more common in the college churches. Or perhaps my church needed A LOT of help. :-)

[bertrandbaggersly]

This relates to one of the most bizarre scriptural misapplications I remember from GC. I heard this multiple times from different leaders. The snippet quoted was “man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” And the conclusion? We should make our outward appearances “winsome” in order to draw people to the Lord. Because after all, man looks at the outward appearance. If you can get people to hang out with you, you can potentially get them to convert to Christianity.

That may well be true, but it’s certainly not what God is saying here.

   But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not look on his appearance, or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.

It boggles my mind how someone could take this verse as an exhortation to become attractive and impressive to the world. That this message was given to teenagers was even more funny — teenagers don’t need much encouragement to worry about impressing each other.

If GC leaders want to encourage attractiveness in their followers, they should just come out and say it. Don’t back into it by implying God cares about it too.

[AgathaL'Orange]

I don’t think that the pastors in my church were “cool,” but I do think that people were way more excited when a “cool” person joined the group. And definitely there is sort of a “hip, emotional-guy, usually musician” track. I mean there were some guys who just had that Euro/Bono look… anyone remember Steve Bush? Although, he just seemed naturally cool, not forced or anything. But I just thought “wow, look how much these kids look up to him!”
Gen, I think this could also be a part of the “Bait and switch” thing. You know, there’s the hip front man or the hip front band and the crazy counterculture interior.
I know there were definitely times when I just didn’t feel hip enough.
I do think there is the regulat leader track and the “fast track.” Haven’t really figured out yet how it works…
Bertrand… that is crazy about the outward appearance verse! I do remember being told to be “winsome.” I always thought that was an odd use of that word.

[The Clone]

I must be candid here and say I saw two interesting things at Evergreen Community Church, the GCI/GCM Movement in Minneapolis, Minnesota. And I will use names here. The first instance was when my youth pastor (the son of a national leader) told me that I would be a better witness for Jesus if I wore better clothes. That hurt. We were a poorer family serving GCI in the suburbs and it was not a goodtime in my life this statement. I did not know.
The second time was when Ken Johnson at Evergreen who was raised up to be a pastor and once he became pastor, he looked exactly like Mark Darling, a Gap man with hip glasses, but prior to this leadership role, he was a nerdy looking small group leader, and now I hear that Ken Johnson is Admin Pastor, and only shares a few times a year, but amounts to a paper-pushing pastor. Don’t get me wrong, but he was an engineer at 3M prior to this and fit the role as “Doc” the crazy un-kept scientist in Back To the Future, and dress like so. This Gap and coolness was very real for me and my life in this recent intial posting.
-The Clone
P.S. I will use names only when they deem useful and these stories are useful.

[erik]

i can’t say this for certain as why there is a level of focus on outward appearances, but let me give a plausible theory i have, based on a conversation with someone who grew up in the church during the 1980s. correct me if this is off… so the church movement started out with quite a few hippies. fast forward to the 80s, the hippie look is out but many people have found new life in christ and live the same lifestyle they did in the 70s. that means for many, looking like hippies. however, the gospel was most likely being somewhat hindered based solely on the fact that these people looked like “hippie weirdos”. between not causing others to stumble on their way to receiving christ and keeping the long hair as a sense of “identity”, i’d encourage people to cut the hair and remove the stumbling block.



of course that idea can and surely has been taken too far, but please stay away from the conspiracy and bait and switch talk, as if anyone has had anything other than wanting the kingdom of God advanced as their motive. the church (universal) has been dealing more and more with these “relevance” types of issues for a few years and has certainly had growing pains; but this is more of a christianity issue than a GC issue

[erik]

not that it isn’t also a GC issue, and not that any of you doesn’t have an honest hurt that has come from this issue. i’d just hope that before excessive GC bashing on an issue like this that someone would take a deep breath and ask themselves if GC is really the issue.

[nateswinton]

Holey Moley!

The world just got so small! Tim Borseth is my “coach” with my support raising, and Paul Johnson (Ken’s son?) is one of my co-staffers. Now I feel like we all know each other We definately need to have a national get together.

My wife is a professional baker (graduated at the top of her class from Johnson and Wales University in Denver, CO). We’ll bring the deserts. I’ve gotta meet you guys.

The Sunday that Tim made his joke about his new earing was one of my first Sundays at Stonebrook. I wonder how many of you I know personally.

Anyhow, Genevieve, let’s talk. Are you still in Ames? Lets have some coffee at Stomping Grounds, my treat. Give me one chance to show you how serious I am about addressing these specific things. Report back to everyone here what happens with us. I’ll keep this between you and I, and you can break your confidentiality whenever you want.

[Angie]

Paul is definitely Ken’s son.

[snoopy]

Bertrand,



That outward appearace thing must go way back in “the movement”. I knew exactly where you were going with it when I read your first sentence!



It seems to me that a huge part of the problem in leadership is a misunderstanding of the Holy Spirit or at least a small view of the Holy Spirit. It’s not us that persuade people to believe, it is the Spirit of God.



I Corinthians chapters 1 and 2 speak volumes. Here’s part of 1 Corinthians 2.



Dear brothers and sisters, when I first came to you I didn’t use lofty words and brilliant ideas to tell you God’s message. For I decided to concentrate only on Jesus Christ and his death on the cross. I came to you in weakness, timid and trembling. And my message and my preaching were very plain. I did not use wise and persuasive speeches, but the Holy Spirit was powerful among you.I did this so that you might trust the power of God rather than human wisdom.

[Kirsten]

What I think would be funny is if Genevieve isn’t from Ames and this same exact thing happened somewhere else too.

[Tony Hill]

Careful….



Genevieve is trying to remain anonymous, and as of yet hasn’t chosen to reveal which church(es) she/he was in. I don’t know that we want to force her into spilling the beans on this.

[nateswinton]

Kirsten,

That would be VERY funny! I hadn’t even considered that. I kinda hope that’s the case, because things will be even more fascinating.

Snoopy,

My hermaneutics could be off here, but I believe that that was Paul’s approach specifically to the church in Corinth. Read through Acts and you see that Christ’s death is almost always the meat of the message, but not even 100% of the time. Paul did reason and debate in some situations. And look at his clarifying statement in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23:

“Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.”

So would it be wrong to become “cool” for the sake of the gospel in Paul’s mind?

Here’s a sticky one. Is it a command, principle or a prefrence to go along with the heart of the above passage? Are any of us willing to change our outward appearance or become someone different for the sake of the lost? Because I know Tim was/is. Can anyone find a command or principle against being “cool” for the sake of those “cool” ones that don’t know Christ?!

I know a ton of people that are “cool” and are actually really hurting, insecure and lonely on the inside. Just because they cover it up better (in some cases) doesn’t mean they don’t need to be sought after just as hard as the “unlovely”.

Don’t take this as a guilt-trip, that’s not the direction I’m going with it. I’m going in the direction of “Lets look at this in a reasonable light”. Who here cares so much about the lost that they’ll do anything to have them know Christ? I’ll volunteer a name first. Tim Borseth.

I know I might take some hellfire for this, but seriously…

I’m going to submit a radical thought here: No one has to be cool. Seriously, I spend some time with some very very uncool people. Tim does much more than me, actually. Anyone thinking that because their pastor shaved his head, pierced his ear and shopped at the Gap that he’s become superficial or lost his connection with his roots is decieved. Hey, did you think that maybe his family didn’t all get to shop at the gap because that wasn’t who they were ON THE INSIDE?! Tim dresses like that for the sake of others, not himself.

I think in a case like this, it would be fair and loving to ask the individual “Why did you do that, what made you decide to change your wardrobe?” rather than come to some of the conclusions that are reached here.

Hey, this will be a revolutionary thought, but I’m one of the up-and-coming leaders in the Rock. I have one name-brand shirt that I got for christmas 3 years ago. I haven’t bought new clothes in at least that long, and I buy them from Good Will and Salvation Army when I do. Not because I think it’s the cool emo style, but because I think they’re simpler and cheaper and I get nauseated shopping in brand-name stores with all their materialistic crap. I’m not cool guys!

I was a loser in high school. I couldn’t decide if I was an athlete, a goth kid or a shy nerd. And no one else could either, so I got shunned by alot of people.

People in the Rock see my heart, and thats why I’m in the position I’m in right now. I know that’s the case for every other leader, because I know them all. Only a few of the leaders in the Rock are really genuinely “cool” (at least in my mind, maybe I’m a jerk?). Most of them are just in love with God - that’s the only real criteria.

Email Tim Borseth, tim@rockisu.com, and ask him his criteria that he looks for before a brother or sister steps in to a place of responsibility (note that I said “responsibility” not “authority”). It’s fair and reasonable to give the accused a chance to defend themselves.

[nateswinton]

“Genevieve is trying to remain anonymous, and as of yet hasn’t chosen to reveal which church(es) she/he was in. I don’t know that we want to force her into spilling the beans on this.”

Dangit… I just get excited about things… Sorry everybody…

[Chris D.]

“Saved” is the worst movie ever made.

[Anonymous]

“Saved” is the worst movie ever made.

How could a movie with a 20-something Macaulay Culkin be bad???

[G_Prince]

Nate,

So should I become a nerd to reach nerds? Where do my personality and personal preferences go? Are you suggesting we become changlings to reach a targeted group? Christ’s message has nothing to do with looks and reaches much deeper than appearances. Anyone, no matter how cool or nerdy, can detect the message of love through the facade. I think it is a disservice to Christ to say we have to dress up his message in some form.

[Genevieve]

Clone,
I’m sorry you were treated that way. I think it’s very real for a lot of people.

[Genevieve]

I agree that this isn’t just a GC thing. I think it’s common in a lot of Evangelical churches, which makes me sad. It’s just so sad and maddening to watch people trying to change themselves so completely because they think they’ll be more effective, and therefore, more pleasing to God, especially with all the talk about “being real” with people.

Erik, you might be right about how this started, but it’s 20 years later without the same cultural ramifications, and they should rethink it.