Someone e-mailed me the pictures below and it got me thinking about how the world’s standard of what’s in and popular constantly changes. I then reflected on the modern church and its incessant efforts to be cool, hip, and relevant by stooping to the world’s standards to attract people.

As the modern church does everything possible to be cool, hip, and relevant, I thought I’d pose a question: What happens tomorrow when what was cool, hip, and relevant becomes uncool, unpopular, and out of style? What then?

See, God is always relevant. He never goes out of style and doesn’t need man to dream up new schemes to attract people to church.

When you use the world and its gimmicks to make God relevant, you will always have to come up with new gimmicks because what the world says is popular and relevant today will inevitably change tomorrow. When you let the world dictate how the Church should operate, the glory will depart.

To illustrate my point, check out the pictures below from a 1977 JCPenny catalog, and behold for yourself what a wicked mistress “Relevance” can be.

Enjoy your stroll down memory lane: