What’s the craziest fad you can recall?

The 1960s gave us the Beatles and bellbottoms, mood rings and mini skirts.

The 1970s inundated us with pet rocks and platform shoes, streakers and string art.

The 1980s gave birth to Cabbage Patch dolls and Care Bears, break dancing and boom boxes.

The 1990s produced fanny packs and Furbys, pogs and Pokémon.

When the new millennium rolled around, we were introduced to Bratz dolls and Neopets, paintball and Texas hold ’em poker.

In this decade we’ve seen Grumpy Cat and dog shaming, Honey Boo Boo and the Kardashians, and…defecated coffee.

Sigh. Yes. You read that right. Black Ivory Coffee is now offering “the world’s rarest and most expensive coffee.” According to their website, this rare coffee is made from “100% Thai Arabica coffee beans. But what makes it the rarest and most expensive coffee is that it’s “naturally refined by elephants.”

Refined? That’s a euphemism for defecated. And no, this is not a joke. Workers actually sift through elephant dung in search of intact coffee beans whose flavor has been “refined” by the elephants’ digestive process.Just because something is new, doesn’t automatically make it good. The sad thing is, flashy fads and trends aren’t limited to the secular world. Even in our churches, Christians often feel the need to jazz up the gospel before we can present it to a new generation.

However, our goal was never meant to be cutting edge or entertaining. Our purpose is to meet every man, woman, and child with the unchanging truth of their need to be restored to our awesome God. We don’t need fads to share the unchanging truth that He met this need in the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ.

Of course, we should speak to people in the language they understand and in a manner they can relate to. But let’s not run after change for the sake of change. The Gospel doesn’t need “refining” any more than coffee does.

Those are my thoughts. What are yours?