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Why Cool Church Doesn’t Work Anymore

5 KEYS TO REBIRTH

The church can take many forms. But for all those leaders who, like me, believe in gathering people together for the sake of a larger mission, what does the future look like?

I think you stay relevant (and maybe even a bit cool—growing charismatic churches are all that), but you go beyond that. Way beyond it.

Here are five keys I see to a future of greater impact. In many ways, they are the new cool.

Authenticity is the new cool. The mission is the new cool. Hope is the new cool. Community is the new cool. And so is experimentation.

1.  AUTHENTICITY

Sometimes under cool is an inauthenticity. Dump that.

Authentic resonates. People are looking for what’s real, what’s true and what’s authentic.

Here’s a post on how to be an appropriately transparent leader without oversharing.

2. A DEEPER SENSE OF MISSION

The church has always been about something bigger than itself. At the centre of our mission is Christ.

A church that is focused on a larger mission will never become self-obsessed. Cool can carry with it a sense of narcissism.

You lose your narcissism when you lose yourself in a bigger mission.

And that, by the way, is something Gen Z and Millennials are longing to give their lives to.

3. DEAL HOPE

We leaders are dealers in hope.

And Christianity provides more hope than anything.

I’m 100 percent behind making messages practical, applicable and helpful. I think the Gospel is that. But it is also much more than that.

If all we have is this life, we’re to be pitied more than anyone (pretty sure the Bible says something about that).