The cultural external vs. the eternal internal

Our culture is ever changing. It is a culture that loves one thing one moment and the next that same thing is in the trash and irrelevant. Clothing styles have come and gone. Hair styles have come and gone. Technology changes about every five seconds. And in order to keep up with the culture that we live in we must be ever changing as well. One of the struggles I have with the Church is that we try to keep up with culture in a way that is not good. I am not speaking in terms of music, technology, teaching etc. because I fully believe we need to adapt and be relevant in these areas. But what I see is that the culture can shape externals like music, technology, etc. But what I see is that the culture shapes more and more internals in us than we think. For instance I work primarily with Middle School and High School students but for every student there is a parent or two. And I often see a dip in our attendance during certain times of the year when sports, drama, music etc. are in full force. Now these things are not bad but what I find is that these things are shaping our thinking about God. The externals of the culture are shaping the internal heart of our lives. For instance if a student has a game or practice for something they will not miss it. Even if the student does not want to go. The parent will say something like you have made a commitment to this and you need to keep our commitment. Now take this same scenario and apply it to Church. The student does not want to go because they "have to much homework," or they are tired and usually they are allowed to stay home. Now wait a minute we are committed to an external thing like sports, music, drama etc. but we are not committed to the Church of Jesus Christ. This is always interesting to me that the cultural things have more priority over the things of God. That the cultural things which are really only going to shape you externally in your life have more power over us than Church or the internal things that will shape you forever. Is not interesting that we excuse not just our kids but even ourselves from Church for the externals of the world. For most Christians they would rather do anything else besides go to Church. They would rather play in the culture of externals than sit in the house of God and grow internally. No wonder that most Church's are declining in the world. No wonder most Church's can't meet their budgets. No wonder most Church's have massive amounts of debt. Our loyalties are with the external culture and not with the internal Jesus. Our commitments are to what people can see and what they think of us. Rather than to Jesus. Our cultural allegiance is shaming the Church and our allegiance to Jesus is so weak that it is proving to the culture that everything else is more important than our faith. Think about the scenario of making a kid keep his commitment to a team but then in the same breath not making him keep that same commitment to Church. So in essence you are telling that child that a commitment to a team or the culture is more important than their commitment to the Jesus. Or take how we spend our money on new toys that most of us do not need, and take a look at the financial status of the Church. What you buy and spend your money on tells you that you care more about the culture and the toys than you do about the Church of Jesus. You can play this scenario out in so many ways. Now I realize that there are things that we should be committed too. I realize that there are things that we need to spend our money on. I am not condemning these things but I am asking myself this question and I as you the question as well. Where is your commitment? Is it with the external things of the culture or the internal things of Jesus? How will you live? And if you have kids what will you show them is most important? I have been looking at this in my own life and have realized that more often than not my heart is torn, which tells me one thing that I need more internal focus on Jesus so that so that as I live and breathe in this world I can focus on the internal struggles of those around me and not just give them external solutions for internal problems. But the only way to do this is to commit to the internal heart of Jesus because the internal things will last and the external things will fade away.