I've been thinking a lot about the idea of "trend" lately, though not so much the merchants of cool idea but rather the idea of local trend with respect to spiritual matters.

Is it enough to have a thing that everybody comes to? This resonates on many levels. We spend time and often money doing everything we can to make sure that our churches are filled with people - that we become the "it" place to be. It's an honest thing - we believe we're worshipping at a good place. (If we didn't think as such, we would attend there, right?)

I keep thinking about all the guys slaving away at little churches where nobody goes. I'm thinking about the guy who plays an acoustic guitar without a pickup or the Sunday school teacher who reads their lesson out of a book. I think we're conditioned to cast folks like that in a negative light -

But we've got to give credit where it's due. We've got to acknowledge all those folks who've given faithfully of their time and talent (maybe) in places that aren't cool. Heck, maybe there's a problem if people aren't coming to a service, but I just think we've got to be prepared to sing the songs of the unsung as well as the, well, uh...sung.

Ah... that feels better.