But are these gimmicks really going to bring young people back to church? Is this what people really come to church for? Maybe sex sermons and indie- rock worship music do help in getting people in the door, and maybe even in winning new converts. But what sort of Christianity are they being converted to?

In his book, “The Courage to Be Protestant,” David Wells writes:”The born-again, marketing church has calculated that unless it makes deep, serious cultural adaptations, it will go out of business, especially with the younger generations. What it has not considered carefully enough is that it may well be putting itself out of business with God.

“And the further irony,” he adds, “is that the younger generations who are less impressed by whiz-bang technology, who often see through what is slick and glitzy, and who have been on the receiving end of enough marketing to nauseate them, are as likely to walk away from these oh-so-relevant churches as to walk into them.”

If the evangelical Christian leadership thinks that “cool Christianity” is a sustainable path forward, they are severely mistaken. As a twentysomething, I can say with confidence that when it comes to church, we don’t want cool as much as we want real.

If we are interested in Christianity in any sort of serious way, it is not because it’s easy or trendy or popular. It’s because Jesus himself is appealing, and what he says rings true. It’s because the world we inhabit is utterly phony, ephemeral, narcissistic, image-obsessed and sex-drenched—and we want an alternative. It’s not because we want more of the same.
Mr. McCracken’s book, “Hipster Christianity: Where Church and Cool Collide” (Baker Books) was published this month.

So…I could probably comment on every single paragraph that Mr. McCracken wrote.  I will try not to.  But I will be honest, it is really hard not to.  I read an article like this and I think to myself, “Self… if only these people could come and visit our churches, visit a monastery, talk with a spiritual elder, read the lives of the saints, the holy fathers, participate in a liturgy they will find that Holy Orthodoxy really does speak for itself.  The reality they are so desperately searching for is here, it has been here for 2000 years.” Everything that Mr. McCracken wrote about he will not find in the Orthodox Church.  Our services are not held on-line or in a bar, there are held in a church, a temple of God, a place of respect, of Holy Tradition.  We do not text or twitter during the service because our worship is truly interactive, it requires our focus and dedication.  No $80 haircuts and tight jeans.  Priests grow their hair long, grow beards , wear cassocks.  There are no laser light shows, no fog machines.  Just the candle lights, the light reflecting off of the holy icons, the incense hanging in the air.

We do not make the Holy Orthodoxy “hip” because Holy Orthodoxy is not about popularity, it is not about adapting to the culture.  It is about the culture adapting to God’s will.  Our Lord and Saviour never said to His disciples, “If you follow me, you are going to be the most popular people ever.”  “Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’^[a] If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.” John 15:20

But the line that sticks out for me is this one, “If the evangelical Christian leadership thinks that “cool Christianity” is a sustainable path forward, they are severely mistaken. As a twentysomething, I can say with confidence that when it comes to church, we don’t want cool as much as we want real.”

Holy Orthodoxy is reality.