Being Different

The other night, I had the privilege of chaperoning a group of our Sr. High youth and some of their friends to “Winter Jam 2008” - a Christian concert event held at the Colonial Center in Columbia. A recurring theme of the night seemed to be a call to be different than the world says we have to be. One band member even quoted 1 Peter 2:9 (in the New King James presumably) encouraging the audience to be the “chosen generation” that would “proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” Putting aside context and hermeneutical issues for just a moment, that statement seems like a wonderful goal for all who call themselves Christian. But it made me think, “How are we really being different than the world around us?” I wondered, “How is the way this band dresses different than the way the world says they should dress in order to reach their intended audience?” How is their music any different than the way the world says it has to be in order to capture the attention of the youth of this generation? Surely being different than the world around us involves more than simply adding the word “Christian” to the most popular styles and the latest fads. If I had walked into that concert for only a song or two during some of the performances, I’m not sure I could have pointed out the difference between what I was hearing and watching on the stage and any given video I might see from the 1980s on VH1 Classic . The music sounded the same. The clothes looked very similar (one musician actually reminded me of a member of Boy George’s band - not that I was a big Boy George fan in middle school, it’s just an observation). The way the musicians stood on the speakers or ran across the stage or even leaned back to back as they bent their knees in conjunction with the guitar solos, all seemed eerily familiar to this child of the “big hair band” era. Part of me appreciates that these musicians are trying to reach this generation for Christ. But doing so in a way that looks so much like the culture around us while speaking about changing that same culture smacks to some degree of insincerity. And so, as I drove home that night in my SUV, dressed in my Carhartt jeans and my Land’s End shirt, I thought about these things. I wondered, “What makes me different than the world says I need to be so that I can proclaim the praises of Him who called me out of darkness into His marvelous light?” What really makes any of us different?