Determining cool can be a tricky process. One Rolling Stone writer notes:

Unlike being hip, which suggests that you know what’s happening, and unlike being down, which suggests you are in with the in crowd, being cool is a fiercely individual characteristic. Going your d--- way at your own d--- pace is cool. Trying to be cool is oxymoronic. Asking people what’s cool is uncool, and telling people what’s cool-as we’re doing right now in this very sentence-is even less cool. However, breaking the rules is cool. So there’s always that out, and having an out is cool. (p.89)

Photo © Copyright Dreamworks SKG
	Philip Seymour Hoffman stars as legendary rock writer "Lester  Bangs" in Dreamworks' Almost Famous. Click here to buy the VHS.

Cameron Crowe’s highly-acclaimed film Almost Famous tells of the trials of being “cool.” Set in 1973, Almost Famous  recounts a moment in Rock and Roll history as the music transforms into a major commercial industry. The film centers on William who stumbles upon a job working for Rolling Stone. He travels with an emerging rock band Stillwater as an outside observer to the fallen world of fame and fast times.

William’s mentor and fellow music critic Lester Bangs offers a frightening prophecy for rock and roll: You missed it. Rock and roll is dead. It’s nothing more than an industry of cool. And of course, as everyone knows, trying to be cool is uncool.

William’s experience with Stillwater only affirms Lester’s omen. The guitar player Russell Hammond urges William, “We don’t care what you say. Just as long as you make us look cool.” Later, the lead singer Jeff Bebe pronounces, “Rock & roll is a lifestyle… and a way of thinking, and it’s not about money and ‘popularity!’ Although, some money would be nice… And the chicks are great.”

Likewise, American Christianity is taking a similar turn. We’re trying to be cool. We’ve become an industry of cool. And unfortunately, there is something inherently uncool about that. We’re trying too hard to fit in. Offering lifestyle opportunities for people to cope with the world they live in. This coping approach denies a call to transform culture through the proclamation of the Gospel.

Young adult ministries become places to “pick up chicks.” I’m disgusted with young Christian men using a facade of spiritual maturity to entice women looking for a Godly promise keeper. Prayers are no longer lifted to God; they become thinly masked pick up lines. No honey, I’m dating Jesus, right?

The most “successful” preachers are evaluated on how cool they are. Is the preacher funny? Is the preacher well dressed? Is the preacher well informed on sports, movies, and pop culture in general? And if the preacher is indifferent to popularity, that too, is an attempt to be aloof and hip.

What’s so wrong with being cool? Nothing. Nothing at all. What’s wrong with trying to be cool? Everything. If this attitude prevails, the Church merely succeeds in keeping a good appearance. We maintain the image of godliness, but deny its power.

Lester Bangs of Almost Famous speaks volumes, “The only real currency in this bankrupt world is what we share with each other when we're being uncool.” Will the Christian community still love you when you don’t fit the model (or demographic) for a typical middle America church member? Will the Christian community still include you even if you don’t shop at the Family Christian Bookstore? Even if you can’t be cool when you share the message of the Gospel, do it anyway. God Yahweh doesn’t need anyone to make Him look good. And that is cool.

David Hopkins, age 23 [http://monkhouse.org/david] is a contributing editor for Next-Wave. He recently graduated from Texas A&M University at Commerce with a degree in English and Philosophy. David has enrolled to Fuller Theological Seminary's distance learning program. David was raised in the Methodist tradition. Although currently, he is a community pastor at Axxess, an emerging congregation within Pantego Bible Church. In his "spare time," David is a high school English teacher. E-mail him at david@next-wave.org.