Some thoughts spoken by Louie Giglio ar the Orange Conference have been on my mind for a week now. He was talking in our last main session that the church has made relevancy the idol of the contemporary church. That we need to focus on cultural transcendence rather than cultural relevancy. The bottom line was that He IS. If we focus on He Is and bring Jesus into everything we do, we will always be relevant. Once we look to culture for relevancy in the church, we are already out of step. It was an interesting challenge, especially coming from a church leader that I would say has followed the course of relevancy in his ministry.
After thinking about it this past week though, I see the truth in it. How many days go by without hearing with word “relevant” in your church? When we describe our message or worship, we describe it with this term. As leaders in the church, we sometimes think that if what we do is just relevant with non-Christians, then they’ll relate and see Jesus in a new way. BUT….they won’t be able to see Jesus in a new way if we’re leaving Jesus out of it.
I believe that we need to find new and creative ways to relate to individuals. We need to tie what culture gives us into our teaching. Psychology has a term for this – “creating schemas.” Much like an index card system we have in our minds of past experiences, as we approach something new, we try to assimiliate it into what we’ve already experienced. This maximizes learning. In the church, presenting things in a relevant manner acts in such the same way. It draws connections from what is familiar and known to what is being taught. Not to mention, how people spend their time. If we’re going to “compete” for people’s time and attention, then we’d better “bring it” and a message worth hearing.
However, if in the name of cultural relevancy we leave Jesus out of it, they won’t see Him anyways. They’ll see the church being just like everything else they encounter day to day. What sets you apart in the name of cultural relevancy?
