![\"extreme](\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/extreme_makeover_church_edi.jpg\")
<\/p>\nYou know those “Extreme Makeover” TV shows? They have the Extreme Home Makeover where they completely remodel a house, and the regular “Extreme Makeover” where they transform a person.<\/p>\n
I watched one of the regular Makeover shows a few weeks ago where they took some “loser” dads and turned them into “cooler” dads. It was amazing to watch the outward transformation take place. One long-haired, bearded, overweight trucker ended up looking like a CEO of a Fortune 500 Company. They did the same thing with several other men on the show.<\/p>\n
But I had to wonder if the changes in clothes and hair styles were going to make these men better husbands and better dads.<\/p>\n
I kind of doubt it.<\/p>\n
There is something similar going on in Christianity today.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
There is an attempt in Christianity today to resurrect the church out of the dredges of irrelevance by making it “cooler” than the way church was a decade ago. <\/p>\n
Churches have cooler names, like “The Summit” and “Mars Hill.” We install top of the line sound and video equipment to make the “church service” seem more like a concert. Every room is equipped with plasma large-screen TVs. The pastor wears jeans and a t-shirt and says “Dude” a lot. If you don’t make it to church, you can watch the sermon on your iPod instead.<\/p>\n
However, in all of the effort to become cool and relevant, is the church becoming more effective? The answer depends on how you define “effective.”<\/p>\n
For the church to become effective the way the Bible defines it, it’s going to take a lot more (or a lot less…) than blue jeans and plasma screens.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There is an attempt in Christianity today to resurrect the church out of the dredges of irrelevance by making it “cooler” than the way church was a decade ago. For the church to become effective the way the Bible defines it, it’s going to take a lot more (or a lot less…) than blue jeans and plasma screens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33574,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1341,1235,32],"class_list":{"0":"post-130","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"tag-be-the-church","8":"tag-church","9":"tag-theology-church","10":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\n