'Taking good news relevantly to every young person in Nottingham' is an interesting statement, particularly the relevant bit. Working with young people this could mean that you develop different styles every moment.
So what does being relevant mean? For anyone who knows me they know that i can be the king of tenuous links. Sometimes this works, sometimes it is just ridiculous. I don't think writing pantomimes helps lol, as they are just ridiculous although they are supposed to be.
I still sometimes get a bit embarrassed by some Christians as they attempt to be ultra relevant. Whether that is the clothes they wear (mutton dressed as lamb is one relevant phrase), or the music they sing a long to or listen to (just cause it has swearing in doesn't mean you have to listen to it to be relevant). I think sometimes we try and over do the relevance as Christians. Being in the world, but not of the world is a tricky concept but really helpful to get your head round. YfC used to have the mission statement geared to the times, anchored to the rock. Awesome.
The encouraging thing is that this isn't a new thing. I am currently doing some preparatory reading for a course i am about to start and one of the books i am to read is Christian Theology: an introduction by Alistair McGrath. Here he talks about the relation between Christian theology and secular society. Mentioning how Christian poetry and song was often put to secular music even in those days. See it has always embarrassing lol, but the desire for the Christian faith to be relevant has always been there. Which shows that there has always been people who have wanted to connect people with Jesus. That is encouraging.
Balance that with the fact their has always been slight tension between those who want to do that and the established Church and then you really see nothing has changed over 2000 years.
As we strive to be relevant let us be secure in the knowledge that people have been there before us, and that the reason the Church has lasted this long is because there are people and fellowships that continue to strive to bring Jesus to their communities in a relevant way.
But let's try and get it right by providing the true Jesus and not cheesy Jesus.
Great read.
ReplyDeleteI'd say one way to be "relevant" would be to drop the word secular. Secular by it's very definition means "worldly and not of God". Personally I think that since God created everything then there's something of God IN everything and it's quite offensive to his nature to imply that this or that has nothing to do with him.
Of course it's easier for us Christians to put labels on things but those labels are often not right.
U2...Christian or secular? Bruce Springsteen...Christian or secular? I guess certain TV programmes would be considered secular but when you have a Christian on Big Brother what does that make it? The labels rarely fit.
Discuss?
cheers mate, I think the trouble is we think God/Jesus/Holy Spirit only works through the church exclusively, so we miss what they are doing in the world. I think the times that we are truly relevant is when we discern where the Holy spirit is working and join with Him, it will only be then that we will truly make a difference.
ReplyDeleteJust like anything i think if we can put a label on something it makes people feel secure, and safe with whatever it is. We think we have 'got it'. God is huge and we will never 'get Him' fully because he is awesome.
I think that's true about people feeling safe and secure with the label...isn't that a great reason to drop them? The problem with that is many people won't step out and actually experience what God IS doing out there. They'll listen to their Christian CD's because they know the words will be about God but they won't be challenged since the majority of it's song writing by numbers...and musically these Christian artists are not influenced by other Christian artists (apart from a couple of originals like Martyn Joseph or Kevin Prosch) but rather the likes of U2, Coldplay or any other mediocre formulaic rock with uplifting choruses. Sorry I'm a bit passionate about this subject and I just can't stomach most Christian music that's out there.
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