However, the idol of relevance is rooted in the fear that people may not like us because we seem different from them. We want them to know we eat at the same restaurants, watch the same TV shows, listen to the same bands, laugh at the same jokes, and go to the same movies that they do. Our greatest fear is being perceived as out of touch.Read the whole post here.
Obviously, there are many times we’ll engage in the same activities as non-Christians. It's one way that we maintain a conversation with and presence in the world. However, we're fighting a losing battle when relevance becomes our aim - to convince the world we're just like them. There are aspects of our culture that we clearly want to set ourselves apart from, simply because they contain so much that is opposed to glorying in Jesus Christ.
Martin Lloyd-Jones addressed the desire of preachers to be "relevant" in his book, Preaching and Preachers. His point is applicable to worship leaders as well.
"Our Lord attracted sinners because He was different. They drew near to Him because they felt that there was something different about Him. That poor sinful woman of whom we read in Luke 7 did not draw near to the Pharisees and wash their feet with her tears, and wipe them with the hair of her head. No, but she sensed something in our Lord – His purity, His holiness, His love – and so she drew near to Him. It was His essential difference that attracted her. And the world always expects us to be different. This idea that you are going to win people to the Christian faith by showing them that after all you are remarkably like them, is theologically and psychologically a profound blunder." (p. 140)
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
A Word from Bob...
Bob Kauflin says:
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3 comments:
Hmm...
Ok, I think I take issue with this one.
To me "relevance" isn't chasing after the latest trend, but it is speaking in a language (music, art etc) that is not OPPOSITE of the current culture - as long as its not immoral or against scripture.
Bob says "This idea that you are going to win people to the Christian faith by showing them that after all you are remarkably like them, is theologically and psychologically a profound blunder." - I'd however argue that at the same time, if a person walks into our churches and hears an organ playing hymns when they are a fan of pop music, we might not ever get the chance to show we are "different".
In fact, we wind up looking like a cookie cutter idea of a church that may have very well been part of what turned the person away at another point in life.
I don't think Bob is advocating "avoiding the world", but I think we need to be careful about where we draw the lines.
Being different involves being true to who God made you to be, while not entrenching ourselves in legalism or some concept of "holier than thou".
Jim,
Good words - point being that drums and guitars may not really help someone enter into true discipleship if that is the only thing they are drawn to. We need to have much more substance to that.
Agreed... as long as we understand that we want to get them in the door in the first place. :)
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