Diff'rent strokes to save the world

Ever since I learned of their existence, I've been checking out a couple of blogs - Raiders of the Lost Church and The Old Truth - whose basic premise seems to be that traditional churches and sermons are the only suitable form of Christian worship and education. Furthermore, any attempt to make Christianity relevant to today's society is a compromise and a sin.

I disagree with these sites. In part because that's ludicrous, and in part because I attend one of the churches that is most often maligned by the sites. My church, National Community Church, is a young church with a young pastor, a young congregation, and two locations (both intentionally placed in movie theaters on subway lines). Its approach is notably high-tech (e-sermons, online devotionals, blogs, podcasts, video podcasts, and preloaded Ipods), and the message themes are notably contemporary ("The Chronicles of Narnia", "The Game of Life", "God at the Box Office", "God on the Billboards"). All of this makes it a prime destination for the young and tech-savvy, and a prime target for the writers of Raiders and OldTruth.

The trap that these sites fall into is disregarding the fact that we are all on the same team. They also polarize churches into innovative and traditional, when there is a full spectrum of approaches and types. There are many "innovative" churches (like mine) with traditional theologies. There are many "traditional" churches with innovative ministries.

I'm a realist. I understand that both innovative and traditional approaches, and every combination thereof, have their costs, their benefits, and their place. But, right now, the more innovative approach is what's jibing with what God's up to in my life. I don't mean to suggest that I advocate novelty for novelty's sake. I'm a creature of habit and have been known to run screaming from change. However, taking a risk and making a compromise are in no way synonymous. So, it is dangerous to reject innovation, outright. Even by modern standards, Jesus was an innovator and a rebel. So to call any deviation from the Liturgical norm a sin is to call the founder and namesake of the Christian Church a sinner. Nobody in His day was hanging out with thieves and prostitutes with the aim of winning them to salvation, and such behavior would still be frowned upon today. Nobody in His day was talking about salvation for Gentiles, and modern day churches who gear their ministries toward the unsaved and unchurched are still the object of ridicule and judgment.

It is naive and dangerous to believe that, at any point in the history of the Christian Church, we corrected all the mistakes of the Old Testament Church or overcame our own. Nor can any model we have established be considered henceforth and forever more the only way to go. To me suggesting that one style of church and preaching can capture the complexities of an infinite God and convey them to an infinite number of completely different individuals seems a little sacrilegious. But that's just me.