There’s an interesting post over at the Christianity Today Leadership blog – Out of Ur, titled Image Isn’t Everything: the uneasy conscience of a GenX pastor. It’s a pretty harsh criticism of the trend in young trendy churches to be a bit too young and trendy. That might be over-simplifying it. But basically having a crack at the idea that lots of the churches with young leadership tends to be a little bit over-focused on their own image and being cool.

Some of the points, like the bit about having trendy names, is taking potshots at sitting ducks. Any name for a ministry is an opportunity for criticism – you’re either too old, too new, too worldly, too irrelevant. And while some church websites are undoubtedly just about putting up a pretty face to try and impress people, often they are there as an opportunity for people with talents in that area to serve the church and do something a bit creative.

I think that underneath all that there’s certainly a point, but the article seems to me to be far too narrowly focused. I think that most churches/ministries tend to focus too much on their image. Sometimes that’s an image of how cool they are. Sometimes that’s about proving that they are a respectable place to worship. Some places are determined to show just how rich they are. The symptoms being described in the article are not diagnosing the root of the problem – that we take our eyes off the purpose of our ministries, and get more worried about what people think. And that’s not just a problem with young leadership – there’s something in that for everyone.