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2 Types of Relevant
by Chris Burgett
“Relevant” is everywhere in the
church…On t-shirts, websites, Bibles,
magazines, church billboards, and in any
number of sermons. Everywhere I look in
church culture I am being reminded that I need
to be relevant. But, I must ask, relevant
to what? What should I be trying so hard
to be relevant to?
I know churches that are doing a good job
of being relevant. Oh, sure they are not
cutting edge, but they are relevant. They
are relevant to all the people in their church
who enjoy listening to Southern Gospel music
and who think that Jesus preached out of the
King James! In fact, given the average
age of those living in the surrounding
community, it would be foolish for the church
to be relevant to any other age group…unless
they can talk their seniors into the
importance of rocking out to Skillet. Not
likely, though.
But is this the relevant that my emergent
friends are referring to? Of course not. My
emergent friends are trying to tell me that I
need to be relevant to Modern Culture (not the
culture of senior adults, “Go Bill
Gaither!”). I think they have a point. But
I would also like to propose another way of
being relevant that is perhaps even more
important.
1.) Relevant to Modern Culture
First, we have the emergent cry of being
“Relevant”! By this, we mean, Jesus
isn’t some hateful fundamentalist wearing a
3-piece suit and yelling at everybody that
passes by that they are worthless slime who
needs God before He smites them. This
type of Jesus does not fly with those in
modern culture (or should I say postmodern
culture?).
To be relevant we have to show people that
we are cool and “with it.” We watch
M-tv so we know the language and we watch
popular movies so we can relate to the people
we talk to. We dress in ways that show we
are not trapped back in the 1950’s and some
of us even are pretty cutting edge for our
neighborhood. We buy relevant magazines
and we read relevant books. We are more
flexible than our fathers were, except when it
comes to the importance of being
flexible…that we’re pretty firm on.
I think all this has helped the church out
quite a bit. The world is beginning to
see that we aren’t some group of rednecks
with less brains than God gave a cabbage. We
are cool and pretty savvy about modern
entertainment. I, for one, am glad that
this has happened because I’m not some
fundamentalist stuck back in the 1950’s, and
it opens new doors for those like me. Personally,
the thought of wearing a 3-piece suit and
screaming at people just doesn’t appeal to
me.
However, I think there is a problem that
must be addressed. In our efforts to be
this type of relevant, we can ignore an even
more important type of relevant. In our
efforts to be cool we can begin to be
uncaring.
2.) Relevant to Real Life
I have talked to people who were surprised
that I was a Minister. “You’re a
Minister? You are young and you don’t
dress like one.” To which I say,
“Thank you. I take that as a
compliment.” They are surprised that I
know who Professor Dumbledore and Simon Cowell
are, and that I know about the groups Godsmack
and Slipknot. They are mildly impressed
with my relevance to modern culture, which has
opened a few doors to me. But then it
always moves to the second form of being
relevant…is Christianity really relevant to
their day-to-day lives?
The attitude I run in to is: “Okay, so
you know about what’s popular in my world,
but can Jesus really help me in my life?” How
should I answer this question. “Come to
church on Sundays and everything in your life
will be spectacular”? Yeah right! I
can’t even get my regulars to believe that
one. They are too busy wrestling with
divorce, family problems, depression, and the
like to move beyond Sunday-only Christianity.
The average Joe that I meet on the street
could care less about going to church and
listening to a boring sermon. They want
to know how Jesus will give them a better life
on Monday, how Jesus will help them get
through Tuesday, and if Jesus does care about
us on Thursday, why does He only have time for
us on Sundays or Wednesday nights?
I think this is what is holding the
emergent conversation back. We aren’t
100% sure how to move beyond Christianity
stuck in the church building or the house
church on Sunday morning. What do we do
about all this focus on the miracle of
“small groups” which is destined to fizzle
out once we realize that Bible Studies (or
Purpose Driven Studies) aren’t as
life-altering as previously promised? What
do we do with a Christianity that is so
focused on church-going formulas and spiritual
disciplines that it leaves many people feeling
like we don’t have anything to offer them?
I think that emergent conversation has
answered the question “how can we be
relevant to modern culture?”, but we have
yet to answer the question “how can we be
relevant to real people living real lives?” The
world is waiting.
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