Becoming the "uncool" christian?

[salt-n-light]

I've grown up in the christian faith, but it wasn't til a recent conviction that has led me to deepened my walk with God. I'm finding myself gravitating away from things that are normally deemed cool (certain music, certain shows, endorsing certain behaviors, etc.). I'm a 25 year old woman, so being among things that someone my age are expected to do like going to certain parties, being heavily involved on social media, dressing cool, clubbing/being okay with drinking/smoking, etc etc, although it's appealing and its a norm even among my christian peers, I'm just don't feel okay engaging in things that I know ultimately wouldn't please God and brings no profit towards my soul.

I often clash with my christian peers about these things, and it kinda limits me in terms of connecting with them on things that may have watched, did, or listened to, and I'm wondering if I need to "lighten up".I don't wanna present God in my life as someone unreachable, but I don't want to show Him in a light that is just down for whatever either.

How to deal with being the "uncool" christian?

 

[Citizen of the Kingdom]

I've grown up in the christian faith, but it wasn't til a recent conviction that has led me to deepened my walk with God. I'm finding myself gravitating away from things that are normally deemed cool (certain music, certain shows, endorsing certain behaviors, etc.). I'm a 25 year old woman, so being among things that someone my age are expected to do like going to certain parties, being heavily involved on social media, dressing cool, clubbing/being okay with drinking/smoking, etc etc, although it's appealing and its a norm even among my christian peers, I'm just don't feel okay engaging in things that I know ultimately wouldn't please God and brings no profit towards my soul.

I often clash with my christian peers about these things, and it kinda limits me in terms of connecting with them on things that may have watched, did, or listened to, and I'm wondering if I need to "lighten up".I don't wanna present God in my life as someone unreachable, but I don't want to show Him in a light that is just down for whatever either.

How to deal with being the "uncool" christian?

Keeping it light has been the demise of some people while others have there heads in the sand. It just means your a deep thinker and that all thoughts are not ment to share.
There does seem to be a line of what is fashionable to talk about more so than I've noticed before. If I haven't travelled or been on a ship bigger than a kyak the conversation seems to just go flat. Yah I have no advise but will listen in.

 

[HereIStand]

It sounds like you are on the right track. To some extend, we all need to be uncool compared to what the rest of the world is indulging in. Christianity should always be about not following the herd, and remembering Christ warning about all men speaking well of you.

In the recent past, during the 1960s counter-culture movement, some Christians felt called to adopt the dress and music of the counter-culture. Church related coffee houses became all the rage in the early 1970s. My avatar is taken from the Hollywood Free Paper, designed to offer a Christian message in the midst of the youth culture of the time.

Today though, it may be that home school culture represents the true counter-culture. Now, a case could be made for Christians cutting themselves off from secular culture all together, since the culture is so corrupt.

 

[saved24]

We want to be like Jesus...... what would Jesus do?

 

[JIMINZ]

I've grown up in the christian faith, but it wasn't til a recent conviction that has led me to deepened my walk with God. I'm finding myself gravitating away from things that are normally deemed cool (certain music, certain shows, endorsing certain behaviors, etc.). I'm a 25 year old woman, so being among things that someone my age are expected to do like going to certain parties, being heavily involved on social media, dressing cool, clubbing/being okay with drinking/smoking, etc etc, although it's appealing and its a norm even among my christian peers, I'm just don't feel okay engaging in things that I know ultimately wouldn't please God and brings no profit towards my soul.

I often clash with my christian peers about these things, and it kinda limits me in terms of connecting with them on things that may have watched, did, or listened to, and I'm wondering if I need to "lighten up".I don't wanna present God in my life as someone unreachable, but I don't want to show Him in a light that is just down for whatever either.

How to deal with being the "uncool" christian?

.
Hi Kris
You say in your profile "be the salt, and light," well guess what, you have come to the position where you are getting the chance to become just what you profess.

Mat. 5:13
Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.

Mat. 6:24
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

Christians usually equate Mammon as only money, but it represents everything of the world, anything which would draw you away from fellowship with God.

How can you be the salt of the Earth, and be mixed with the seasonings of the world at the same time.

The salt is what should season the things of the earth around us, it's alright to be out of the loop in those types of things, your really not missing anything, all of the things you mentioned do not in any way enhance your witness for Christ, to the contrary, they hinder it, I'm not saying you need to become a prude, but being watchful over the things you get involved with at your age, is admirable.

In time you will realize and understand those things which work for you, but at this stage in your life and walk with Christ.

Remember what Paul said.

Gal. 4:18
It is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you.

1Cor. 10:23
All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.

It isn't a matter of those things the others do is sinful, it is that they do not help you in your walk or witness.

Remember, as a girl, how important it is to keep yourself pure physically, it is just as important to keep yourself a virgin to the world.

Jas. 1:27
Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

Isn't that better than clubbing, ask your friends to come with you on some sort of Ministry, instead of what they do, you will find out exactly where their heart really is.

God Bless

 

[salt-n-light]

Today though, it may be that home school culture represents the true counter-culture. Now, a case could be made for Christians cutting themselves off from secular culture all together, since the culture is so corrupt.

Lol, you know I have plan to do this whenever I get married, stay at home and home school the kids. Not completely cutting them off, but make sure they are trained well before entering that world. I feel like we send them off too early.

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

I've grown up in the christian faith, but it wasn't til a recent conviction that has led me to deepened my walk with God. I'm finding myself gravitating away from things that are normally deemed cool (certain music, certain shows, endorsing certain behaviors, etc.). I'm a 25 year old woman, so being among things that someone my age are expected to do like going to certain parties, being heavily involved on social media, dressing cool, clubbing/being okay with drinking/smoking, etc etc, although it's appealing and its a norm even among my christian peers, I'm just don't feel okay engaging in things that I know ultimately wouldn't please God and brings no profit towards my soul.

I often clash with my christian peers about these things, and it kinda limits me in terms of connecting with them on things that may have watched, did, or listened to, and I'm wondering if I need to "lighten up".I don't wanna present God in my life as someone unreachable, but I don't want to show Him in a light that is just down for whatever either.

How to deal with being the "uncool" christian?

I once asked the Lord how to be a real Christian. He told me to be myself. I said I couldn't do that because people would see all my sins and shortcomings. He said that if He didn't like anything about me, He will change me. That was 1969. Many things did change without me being always aware of it, but other things, like my unsanctified sense of humour haven't changed, so the Lord might not see those things as very important to him to want to change them in me. There is a big difference between what is important for the Lord to change, and what seems important to other church members who want to change us according to their particular mould. Shows that some church members are mouldier than others.

 

[salt-n-light]

.
Hi Kris
You say in your profile "be the salt, and light," well guess what, you have come to the position where you are getting the chance to become just what you profess.

Mat. 5:13
Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.

Mat. 6:24
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

Christians usually equate Mammon as only money, but it represents everything of the world, anything which would draw you away fro fellowship with God.

How can you be the salt of the Earth, and be mixed with the seasonings of the world at the same time.

The salt is what should season the things of the earth around us, it's alright to be out of the loop in those types of things, your really not missing anything, all of the things you mentioned do not in any way enhance your witness for Christ,to the contrary, they hinder it, I'm not saying you need to become a prude, but being watchful over the things you get involved with at your age, is admirable.

In time you will realize and understand those things which work for you, but at this stage in your life and walk with Christ.

Remember Paul said.

Gal. 4:18
It is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you.

1Cor. 10:23
All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.

It isn't a matter of those things the others do is sinful, it is that they do not help you in your walk or witness.

Remember, as a girl, how important it is to keep yourself pure physically, it is just as important to keep yourself a virgin to the world.

Jas. 1:27
Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

God Bless

Lol actually living the true Christian walk recently have been the most lonely, excruciating, yet most freeing and humbling thing that has ever happened to me.Some of my Christian
friends living it up, and I'm just getting sliced with the Word day and night

 

[Halbhh]

I've grown up in the christian faith, but it wasn't til a recent conviction that has led me to deepened my walk with God. I'm finding myself gravitating away from things that are normally deemed cool (certain music, certain shows, endorsing certain behaviors, etc.). I'm a 25 year old woman, so being among things that someone my age are expected to do like going to certain parties, being heavily involved on social media, dressing cool, clubbing/being okay with drinking/smoking, etc etc, although it's appealing and its a norm even among my christian peers, I'm just don't feel okay engaging in things that I know ultimately wouldn't please God and brings no profit towards my soul.

I often clash with my christian peers about these things, and it kinda limits me in terms of connecting with them on things that may have watched, did, or listened to, and I'm wondering if I need to "lighten up".I don't wanna present God in my life as someone unreachable, but I don't want to show Him in a light that is just down for whatever either.

How to deal with being the "uncool" christian?

Love is the best. Christ's way is love.

 

[HereIStand]

Lol, you know I have plan to do this whenever I get married, stay at home and home school the kids. Not completely cutting them off, but make sure they are trained well before entering that world. I feel like we send them off too early.

Wonderful news. We need more Christian wives and moms like you.

 

[JIMINZ]

Lol actually living the true Christian walk recently have been the most lonely, excruciating, yet most freeing and humbling thing that has ever happened to me.Some of my Christian
friends living it up, and I'm just getting sliced with the Word day and night

.
A true experience.

Before I got saved I drank a lot, I went out clubbing every single night, about one week after I got Saved I went to a club I had been going to for the last 6 mo. everyone knew me and the bar tenders knew what I drank.

This particular night I went to this club, got my two tickets for the cover charge, and went inside, the bar tender had my drink waiting when I got to the bar, I gave him one ticket, took my drink in my hand and when I turned around placing my elbows on the bar, it was like God spoke to my heart, He said "Look at these people," I knew most of them, and when I did I saw the death in their lives, they were dancing, laughing, talking, drinking, but they all looked dead to me, in my heart I felt a sadness I had never felt before, I felt uneasy, I felt as though I didn't belong in this house of death any longer, I turned right around gave my drink to the guy next to me and my other ticket, and walked out .

I never went back.

I don't look at drinking as sin, if I want a drink I will have one, it hasn't become a law for me, I just don't need it in my life to make me happy.

God will replace in you what He wants to replace, He will make you the person He wants you to be, but that can only happen if you make yourself available for Him to do so, it cannot be done in a club with blaring music, where no one can hear what your saying, and couldn't understand anyway, because they are buzzed.

Rom 8:29
For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

Rom 8:12-14
12) Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.
13) For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
14) For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

 

[Sarah G]

Oh, believe me, spiritual life is the coolest thing to pursue in life. Everything else is nonsense.

If only I hadn't tried to be cool in a worldly sense and wasted twenty plus years on sense gratification, image and false beliefs. All of that leads to suffering. The only use those experiences are is as a warning to younger people to stick to the path.

You are called to something higher. Maybe your clubbing, partying, gig going Christian friends aren't. Maybe their path is to become lukewarm and fall away. That is a path of suffering, believe me.

1 Peter 4:1-6

Good Stewards of God’s Grace
4Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same intention (for whoever has suffered in the flesh has finished with sin), 2so as to live for the rest of your earthly life no longer by human desires but by the will of God. 3You have already spent enough time in doing what the Gentiles like to do, living in licentiousness, passions, drunkenness, revels, carousing, and lawless idolatry. 4They are surprised that you no longer join them in the same excesses of dissipation, and so they blaspheme. 5But they will have to give an account to him who stands ready to judge the living and the dead. 6For this is the reason the gospel was proclaimed even to the dead, so that, though they had been judged in the flesh as everyone is judged, they might live in the spirit as God does.

 

[GandalfTheWise]

I've grown up in the christian faith, but it wasn't til a recent conviction that has led me to deepened my walk with God. I'm finding myself gravitating away from things that are normally deemed cool (certain music, certain shows, endorsing certain behaviors, etc.). I'm a 25 year old woman, so being among things that someone my age are expected to do like going to certain parties, being heavily involved on social media, dressing cool, clubbing/being okay with drinking/smoking, etc etc, although it's appealing and its a norm even among my christian peers, I'm just don't feel okay engaging in things that I know ultimately wouldn't please God and brings no profit towards my soul.

I often clash with my christian peers about these things, and it kinda limits me in terms of connecting with them on things that may have watched, did, or listened to, and I'm wondering if I need to "lighten up".I don't wanna present God in my life as someone unreachable, but I don't want to show Him in a light that is just down for whatever either.

How to deal with being the "uncool" christian?

Welcome to the balancing act calling walking with God.

A couple principles I tend to follow:
1. What is most healthy spiritually for me? There are some things I simply need to avoid because they affect me too negatively. For example, this may sound silly, but there are simply some discussion threads on CF I need to stay away from because they will start to consume my thoughts. This is something that has changed for me over the years. Some things I'd have never done in my 20s I don't think twice about now because they have little effect on me.
2. How does this affect other people? I basically try to follow Paul's advice in various epistles about not being a stumbling block to someone else. But facing the reality is that there will always be someone who takes offense at what I do or don't do. There are people God has especially called me to influence (usually friends, family, colleagues, etc.). Those are the ones I usually think most about when deciding to do or not do something with regard to affecting other people.
3. Is this something worth my time? Life is a series of tradeoffs. Everything we choose to spend time and money on is automatically a choice not to spend that on something else. Ten years from now, what would I be happiest that I spent my time doing now?
4. Am I becoming an inquisitor or witch hunter? When I find myself more focused on worrying about rooting out sin and finding the devil's hidden schemes in people and groups more than I am focused on what God wants to do, I know my attitude needs adjusting. Simply put, I try to look at people and situations through the filter of what does God want done there and not if the devil may or may not have a presence there. I spent much of my early Christian life fleeing the devil rather than walking up to the gates of Hell and trying to kick the door down. Now, not every battle is ours to fight and we are not ready for some of them and should stay away. But, there are places I'll go now that I wouldn't have years ago.

Anyway, just a few musings on how I approach deciding on what stuff I should or shouldn't do.