The problem with Relevance;
Recently my 20 something son and I were at lunch and the subject came up concerning being relevant to the unbelieving world around us. He adamantly rejects any form or substance of what he considers the old fashioned ways of doing or being Church in favor of Donald Miller's concepts of being relevant or being just like the World so we can reach them more easily. This all sounds good in concept, so does communism, but the error is in it's short sightedness. Just as in communism, any society void of God is doomed to failure and any evangelistic effort apart from the Holiness and truth of God is doomed to failure. The thing he fails to see is that it is not our language or lack of it, (worldly dialog, ie: foul language in our Christian movies which make it appear more real and streetwise to be relevant to the masses) or our attempts to be just like them so as not to offend or appear holier than thou. The truth is that no matter how you package it when you get to the Cross it will cause offense. Because it is the Cross that men and women can not deal with in their unregenerate lifestyles. We should know because we were all there once and it was not how the gospel packaged that made the difference but the inner working of the Holy Spirit to bring us to repentance and the need for our Savior. So, we can package it however we want but it will always come down to Jesus and his suffering on our behalf that will bring relevance for this life to a lost and dying world.
Recently my 20 something son and I were at lunch and the subject came up concerning being relevant to the unbelieving world around us. He adamantly rejects any form or substance of what he considers the old fashioned ways of doing or being Church in favor of Donald Miller's concepts of being relevant or being just like the World so we can reach them more easily. This all sounds good in concept, so does communism, but the error is in it's short sightedness. Just as in communism, any society void of God is doomed to failure and any evangelistic effort apart from the Holiness and truth of God is doomed to failure. The thing he fails to see is that it is not our language or lack of it, (worldly dialog, ie: foul language in our Christian movies which make it appear more real and streetwise to be relevant to the masses) or our attempts to be just like them so as not to offend or appear holier than thou. The truth is that no matter how you package it when you get to the Cross it will cause offense. Because it is the Cross that men and women can not deal with in their unregenerate lifestyles. We should know because we were all there once and it was not how the gospel packaged that made the difference but the inner working of the Holy Spirit to bring us to repentance and the need for our Savior. So, we can package it however we want but it will always come down to Jesus and his suffering on our behalf that will bring relevance for this life to a lost and dying world.
posted by D.R. Miller | 11:39 AM
3 Comments:
Denny. I am confussed. Your son wants to "reject" the "Church" or the "church"? There is a huge difference. One is the body of believers. The other is a way of being a body of believers.
If it is the former your son is rejecting then it sounds like he is what we would call "backsliding", but if it is the latter, then it sounds like he is being different. Nothing more.
Actually Luke he's caught up in the same type of thing my generation was in the 60's and 70's during the Jesus movement. We saw and recognized much hyprocisy in the established Church and felt we knew the true way God wanted to run things so we went about rejecting everything from the previous generations and did things our way. Unfortunately we found over time that we didn't know as much as we thought and ended up not making much more of a difference that previous generations. Granted music changed and many were brought into the kingdom but in the process we also lost much in the way of sound doctrine and a desire for holiness. Just look at the stats on our society's decline. If we had it right how come things got worse? I try not to get too worried about it since understanding where he's at I know he'll be where I and the rest of my generation of believers have come too in time. It's part of the growning process. The zeal of youth becomes the wisdom of age in time. And though youth doesn't think we're doing or accomplishing much those of us who are trying to do Gods will know we're where we are supposed to be and doing what he wants us to do.
Denny, isn't your 20something son actually saying that we are filled with hypocrisy just about as much as those we reacted against in the 60 and 70's? Unfortunately I think he is right . . . we became those we were reacting to . . . and more unfortunately is that he is repeating our mistakes. Perhaps you are correct, that this is a typical cycle that Christians must go through. Though I wish and hope you are wrong.
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