I had to buy new razor blades this week. I know this may come as a shock to most of you – “What?!? He’s so manly, I assumed he shaved his face with a bowie knife.” Sorry to disappoint you, but that is simply not the case. My tender face can’t even handle a single blade, so a bowie knife is definitely out of the question. I’m a three-blade gentleman, but I’m far too modest for the new five-blade razors, though.
However, I have always been intrigued by the concept of a five-blade razor. Will it offer a smoother shave, or will it leave 5 slices along my jawline instead of 3 slices? They also cost about $8 more, and I am not confident that the benefits of two extra blades will justify the added cost.
Luckily, in my 4-pack of three-bladed razors, I received a free sample of a five-blade razor. It was like Christmas in July. However, I was quickly disappointed. I thought it would be better. I simply couldn’t tell a difference with the two extra blades. The 5-blade razor looks a lot cooler than my common 3-blade, but the overall performance was the same.
I’m sure your church has added some extra blades over the past few years. Do you remember when your church graduated from those clear protector sheets to Powerpoint slides? Did you almost have a heart attack the first time your church sang a song that was not in the hymnal? What about that time when some artist painted a portrait of Jesus while the congregation sang “Old Rugged Cross?”
At our church, we always have a special song that is sung following the sermon. Growing up, we called this the “invitation song,” because it was your chance to come forward with prayer requests, big-time confessions, or desires to be baptized. At our church in Nashville, I call it the “theme song,” because it is usually a cool song that helps connect the sermon to the artistic places in your heart.
Sometimes, these songs are in the Contemporary Christian genre, but other times these songs are “secular” (I can hear the Church Lady now). It’s something different. More blades to the razor. Here’s a quick rundown of a few artists whose lyrics have bounced off the walls of our worship center: Katy Perry (Wow, speaking of secular. Don’t worry, we didn’t sing the one about kissing girls), The Beatles (now we’re talking), Taylor Swift, Lady Antebellum (representing Nashville, duh), and most recently Mumford & Sons.
I think that stuff is great, and I’m sure there’s some naysayers out there. In life, and in the church, there is a tendency to “keep up with the Joneses.” Part of this is to keep up with the times. I don’t know about you, but I don’t really want to crawl into a catacomb each Sunday like the First Century Christians. I love the old hymns, but Chris Tomlin and Hillsong United have written some pretty legit stuff.
So the church adds blades to its razor. Sometimes they flop, and they are simply not worth it, like the new 5-blade razors.
Other times they deliver the Truth of the Gospel in a different way impact people who would have otherwise remained on the sidelines.
What blades has your church added over the years?
Was it worth it?
Stories We Tell 
Although she’s so far away from it now, Katy Perry did start her career in Christian music. Maybe she’s just experiencing what the prodigal son went through. There’s hope for everyone.
Churches with Blades sound dangerous, but I get your point. Its always risky to change churchy tradition. You don’t want people to leave over minor issues, but you also don’t want people to be turned off by a church that seems too religious or too caught up in the christian bubble that we’ve created.
When it all comes down to it, church shouldn’t be some complicated thing. We try to make it more complicated than it is. It’s simply meeting together with God’s people just as they did centuries ago. I used to always think “Hmm… what kind of cool thing could we do to make church more appealing to outsiders? What kind of activities could we do to become closer as a church family?” But I realized if we really want to be the “cool” church; if we really want to have deep intimate relationships with our church family, we need to start by becoming more intimate with God. It’s easy to get caught up in the activities and the programs and an agenda. But we must never lose sight of why we do what we do. If we want others to want what we have, we should start by getting to know people outside of our little christian bubble. Inviting Bob to church because Bob is not a Christian is probably not going to convince Bob to become a Christian, even if my church is really really cool. Bob’s not looking for a cool experience. Bob is looking for friends who care about him. Bob is looking for something different. He’s looking for someone to walk with him; someone to talk with him; someone to invest in his life. Bob wants to see that my life is different, not just my church. As one musician put it: “See Bob Run yeah! See Bob play! why not talk to Bob today!”
As Rich Mullins once said: “Whatever church you are in you should just stay there. They are all equally messed up. I hear people say, “Why do you want to go to church? They are all just hypocrites.” I never understood why going to church made you a hypocrite because nobody goes to church because they’re perfect. If you’ve got it all together, you don’t need to go. You can go jogging with all the other perfect people on Sunday morning.”
I totally agree that “we should start by becoming more intimate with God.” I think that was one big reason Jesus went crazy in the temple one day – it was no longer God’s house. Sometimes we turn the church into “our house” to make everything comfortable and just the way we like it. It’s important to have an understanding of how God wants to use each church, and to do that, it required intimacy with Him. Thanks for your response.