Relevant: having significant and demonstrable bearing on the matter at hand.
This weekend at Alive Church we are going to to be discussing how the church should be relevant. What do you think makes a church relevant? Should churches even try to be relevant?
When I younger churches seemed to compete with one another in an effort to be “holier than thou.” I’m glad some of that is past. But the game has now changed. It seems the competition among churches today is centered on the effort to be “trendier than thou.”
Our band is better than yours… Our screens are bigger… Our services are more seeker-friendly… Our pastor is cooler… Our ministry is edgier… Our cappuccino lattés between services are frothier…
The temptation to be relevant is great. In a desire to reach the unreached, the seduction is strong to think that newer is truer, later is greater, and bigger is better. We begin to actually believe that we must do this in order to have an impact.The race to be trendier-than-thou is self-defeating. Not only does the church who falls into this seduction become guilty of what C. S. Lewis calls “chronological snobbery,” but this is the surest path a church can take to cultural irrelevance to the very people they are trying to connect with. The passion to be up-to-date is the surest recipe for becoming out-of-date. A church whose main purpose is to be “cutting-edge” will soon become either inconsequential or a place where a “different gospel” is preached.
I am slowly learning that the best way to be “cutting edge” is to be “retro.” Teach the scriptures. Study the Bible. Love your neighbor. Care for people. Serve those less fortunate. Do this, and many will wonder what you are up to! It is the things that make us different from the world that makes our message attractive.
I am deeply committed to being counter-cultural. The only way I know to be truly “cutting-edge” is to uncondtionally love and accept people, right where they are at. Let’s recommit ourselves to being in the world…but not of it!
What are your thoughts about churches trying to be relevant?
This weekend at Alive Church we are going to to be discussing how the church should be relevant. What do you think makes a church relevant? Should churches even try to be relevant?
When I younger churches seemed to compete with one another in an effort to be “holier than thou.” I’m glad some of that is past. But the game has now changed. It seems the competition among churches today is centered on the effort to be “trendier than thou.”
Our band is better than yours… Our screens are bigger… Our services are more seeker-friendly… Our pastor is cooler… Our ministry is edgier… Our cappuccino lattés between services are frothier…
The temptation to be relevant is great. In a desire to reach the unreached, the seduction is strong to think that newer is truer, later is greater, and bigger is better. We begin to actually believe that we must do this in order to have an impact.The race to be trendier-than-thou is self-defeating. Not only does the church who falls into this seduction become guilty of what C. S. Lewis calls “chronological snobbery,” but this is the surest path a church can take to cultural irrelevance to the very people they are trying to connect with. The passion to be up-to-date is the surest recipe for becoming out-of-date. A church whose main purpose is to be “cutting-edge” will soon become either inconsequential or a place where a “different gospel” is preached.
I am slowly learning that the best way to be “cutting edge” is to be “retro.” Teach the scriptures. Study the Bible. Love your neighbor. Care for people. Serve those less fortunate. Do this, and many will wonder what you are up to! It is the things that make us different from the world that makes our message attractive.
I am deeply committed to being counter-cultural. The only way I know to be truly “cutting-edge” is to uncondtionally love and accept people, right where they are at. Let’s recommit ourselves to being in the world…but not of it!
What are your thoughts about churches trying to be relevant?
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