rel·e·vant
adj \ˈre-lə-vənt\1
a : having significant and demonstrable bearing on the matter at handb : affording evidence tending to prove or disprove the matter at issue or under discussion <relevant testimony>c : having social relevance
This is the third installment of GaryMo Monday's where I take on the list of 20 topics that Gary wishes people would write about.
Relevant is one of those words that gets thrown around A LOT in today's churches. It's usually teamed up with authentic and humble. I feel a real butt-scrunch whenever I hear a church announce that they are relevant.
What relevant should mean when coming from a church is showing how the message of the gospel applies in our everyday lives. How we can live it out and spread the message of Jesus to the un-churched, the de-churched, or the over-churched...the lost.
What relevant increasingly means is providing a product that people will consume...something that is "hip" or "cool" or different than what people perceive church to be. There's nothing wrong with providing a different offering in church services, but when the gospel takes second place to the production value then the message of Jesus gets lost in my opinion.
I think authentic has become equally distorted and should mean staying true to the clear message of Jesus, but unfortunately too often means staying true to the what's-in-it-for-me mentality of today's society.
And humble? Well, that could be a whole post in itself, but suffice it to say, if someone is telling you they are humble...they aren't. Jus' sayin'.
So, why is "church" relevant to me?
I have a t-shirt that on the front says "Don't go to church." And on the back it says "Be the church."
Church is not a building. It's not a worship style. It's not a liturgy.
It's community.
A community of broken people doing life together. With all their brokenness. In all their messes. Through the good times and the bad. In celebration and in sorrow. It's people who aren't afraid to have someone else's mess splash on them a little. Who aren't afraid to speak truth, to love, to encourage, to support and who aren't afraid to have truth spoken to them, to be loved, to receive encouragement, to ask for support. It's people who gather together and humble themselves to worship authentically the God of the Universe.
It's what He made us for and it's what He calls us to.
And I am blessed to live in a community like that.
Yeah, it's messy and yeah, sometimes it splashes around. But somehow God moves through us and in us and He always gets the last word. And there's a peace in knowing that He's not finished with any of us and there's a joy in knowing that we are doing this together humbly and authentically...and that's relevant to me.
What relevant should mean when coming from a church is showing how the message of the gospel applies in our everyday lives. How we can live it out and spread the message of Jesus to the un-churched, the de-churched, or the over-churched...the lost.
What relevant increasingly means is providing a product that people will consume...something that is "hip" or "cool" or different than what people perceive church to be. There's nothing wrong with providing a different offering in church services, but when the gospel takes second place to the production value then the message of Jesus gets lost in my opinion.
I think authentic has become equally distorted and should mean staying true to the clear message of Jesus, but unfortunately too often means staying true to the what's-in-it-for-me mentality of today's society.
And humble? Well, that could be a whole post in itself, but suffice it to say, if someone is telling you they are humble...they aren't. Jus' sayin'.
So, why is "church" relevant to me?
I have a t-shirt that on the front says "Don't go to church." And on the back it says "Be the church."
Church is not a building. It's not a worship style. It's not a liturgy.
It's community.
A community of broken people doing life together. With all their brokenness. In all their messes. Through the good times and the bad. In celebration and in sorrow. It's people who aren't afraid to have someone else's mess splash on them a little. Who aren't afraid to speak truth, to love, to encourage, to support and who aren't afraid to have truth spoken to them, to be loved, to receive encouragement, to ask for support. It's people who gather together and humble themselves to worship authentically the God of the Universe.
It's what He made us for and it's what He calls us to.
And I am blessed to live in a community like that.
Yeah, it's messy and yeah, sometimes it splashes around. But somehow God moves through us and in us and He always gets the last word. And there's a peace in knowing that He's not finished with any of us and there's a joy in knowing that we are doing this together humbly and authentically...and that's relevant to me.
"Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you."
Romans 12:2 (The Message)
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