MondayMorningInsight - Leadership & Encouragement for Church Leaders

Are You A Christian Hipster?

Posted by: Todd
Posted on: Mon, October 05, 2009
Viewed 159
(20) comments so far

Are you a 'Christian Hipster'? Do you consider yourself a 'cool' Christian? See if you qualify...

Do you like?

Christian hipsters like music, movies, and books that are well-respected by their respective artistic communities—Christian or not.
They love books like Resident Aliens by Stanley Hauerwas and Will Willimon, Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger by Ron Sider, God’s Politics by Jim Wallis, and The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis.
They tend to be fans of any number of the following authors: Flannery O’Connor, Walker Percy, Wendell Berry, Thomas Merton, John Howard Yoder, Walter Brueggemann, N.T. Wright, Brennan Manning, Eugene Peterson, Anne Lamott, C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, Henri Nouwen, Soren Kierkegaard, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Annie Dillard, Marilynne Robison, Chuck Klosterman, David Sedaris, or anything ancient and/or philosophically important.
Christian hipsters love thinking and acting Catholic, even if they are thoroughly Protestant. They love the Pope, liturgy, incense, lectio divina, Lent, and timeless phrases like “Thanks be to God” or “Peace of Christ be with you.”
They enjoy Eastern Orthodox churches and mysterious iconography, and they love the elaborate cathedrals of Europe (even if they are too museum-like for hipster tastes).
Christian hipsters also love taking communion with real Port, and they don’t mind common cups.
They love poetry readings, worshipping with candles, and smoking pipes while talking about God. Some of them like smoking a lot of different things.
Christian hipsters love breaking the taboos that used to be taboo for Christians. They love piercings, dressing a little goth, getting lots of tattoos (the Christian Tattoo Association now lists more than 100 member shops), carrying flasks and smoking cloves.
A lot of them love skateboarding and surfing, and many of them play in bands.
They tend to get jobs working for churches, parachurch organizations, non-profits, or the government.
They are, on the whole, a little more sincere and idealistic than their secular hipster counterparts.

Do you dislike?

megachurches
altar calls
door-to-door evangelism.
They don’t really like John Eldredge’s Wild at Heart or youth pastors who talk too much about Braveheart.
In general, they tend not to like Mel Gibson and have come to really dislike The Passion for being overly bloody and maybe a little sadistic.
They don’t like people like Pat Robertson, who on The 700 Club famously said that America should “take Hugo Chavez out”; and they don’t particularly like The 700 Club either, except to make fun of it.
They don’t like evangelical leaders who get too involved in politics, such as James Dobson or Jerry Falwell, who once said of terrorists that America should “blow them all away in the name of the Lord.”
They don’t like TBN, PAX, or Joel Osteen. They do have a wry fondness for Benny Hinn, however.
Christian hipsters tend not to like contemporary Christian music (CCM), or Christian films (except ironically), or any non-book item sold at Family Christian Stores.
They hate warehouse churches or churches with American flags on stage, or churches with any flag on stage, really.
They prefer “Christ follower” to “Christian” and can’t stand the phrases “soul winning” or “non-denominational,” and they could do without weird and awkward evangelistic methods including (but not limited to): sock puppets, ventriloquism, mimes, sign language, “beach evangelism,” and modern dance.
Surprisingly, they don’t really have that big of a problem with old school evangelists like Billy Graham and Billy Sunday and kind of love the really wild ones like Aimee Semple McPherson.

This is all from Brett McCracken, who's writing a book on what he calls the "Christian Hipster".

How'd you rate? Would you consider yourself an 'hipster'?

I'd love to hear your comments.

Comments

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Peter Hamm on Wed, October 07, 2009

Oliver writes [The point is that some christians cherry pick a certain political position (left or right), I think its done mostly on the right, and associate being a republic as being a christian.] I gotta say, yes, it is mostly done on the right, and it’s a little bit much to me…

That said, don’t forget everybody that we are supposed to conquer the earth and subdue it AND take care of it all at the same time!
rbud on Thu, October 08, 2009

Ollie, what makes you think Jesus was an “orthodox” Jew? Seems to me he was every bit a Reformist Jew.
Peter Hamm on Thu, October 08, 2009

Missing the point… he was the only “true” jew…
Oliver on Sun, October 11, 2009

Final response too, I am not seeing Jesus through our political system, the pharisees were conservatives in that they were traditionalists, they strictly adhered to both scripture in their theological beliefs and keeping the law, the saddusees were liberal in that they did not believe in things like hell, the afterlife, etc. This isn’t just what I think any good basic book about the NT will confirm what I am saying, hence the ‘educate yourself’ comment. The bible reference is Matt 25. Finally, yes I did say it was on both sides, though I think personally its more agrigious on the side of the republicans. But this goes back to the original post, look at the list of christian hipsters above, do you see liberals or more conservatives? My point is that hipster list shows people becoming tired of the “christian conservative” line that has neglected so much Bible for an American conservative republican point of view mistaken for christianity. I am neither republican or democrat, if anything I would green party. Oliver
Sgillesp on Mon, October 12, 2009

wow - I’m 53, and it turns out I’m closer to being a hipster than not!
And from that aged vantage point, let me say that when we were 20-something new believers, we, too, thought we would rescue Christianity from the mess the older generation had made of it (from such a place came ‘Jesus Freaks,’ Keith Green music, Christian music festivals, etc.) It’s a good thing for each generation to want to renew Christianity, and it’s an even better thing for all of us who expect that we will live forever with Christ to cast a discerning eye over what’s been built and see how closely it conforms to Christ. Of COURSE we run the risk of just finding a new clique to hang with and a new batch of things to adopt which are no better; we’re sinners. So I appreciate the tongue in cheek -ness of this questionnaire - good for making me be careful about just glomming on to the next new thing.