I love the church. The church is the one true hope on earth for a world that has lost all solid ground. Even as I say that I know there are some who will enthusiastically agree ready to give me an “amen” and a high five! Others will shake their heads and mutter “the church is anything but that!”
Some say that the church is irrelevant. From those who are not favorable to the church that is probably the best option. Many say the church is just judgmental and hypocritical while others say we are a deluded bunch of weak minded people believing in fairy tales. Some have only looked at the church from the outside but others were inside the church and were disillusioned and walked away. These groups are a symptom that, despite all the efforts of the church to attract them, something in the church is wrong. It’s not that we haven’t tried to be welcoming and accepting and it not that we haven’t succeeded at times but something is not right if this is the result.
As the church we should really lean in and take note. What the church has to offer is invaluable. The love and grace of God is far more valuable than anything that can be offered on this earth. Yet people not only walk away uninterested, they can be aggressively antagonistic toward the church. Why?! We can spiritualize an answer or we can say, “they just don’t understand.” But I think we need to look inside first. How have we messed this up so badly? Seriously, how can we turn something so good to be looked at with such disregard and distain?
Much of the church’s focus over the past 50 years has been about relevance. We have made strong strides to be more relevant. There are things that needed to change. It is safe to say that the efforts toward “relevant” church have impacted our style of worship, our methods of communicating, the technology and the media we utilize, programmatic elements like drama and dance in worship, speaking to people’s felt needs, what we wear to church even who we hire as church staff. Essentially the relevant church movement has bridged that gap so that on the surface, what we experience in our daily lives during the week is very similar to what we experience on Sunday morning. We have made church comfortable and culturally appropriate. In that sense, the church has made great strides in de-compartmentalizing and making the church relevant to the average person’s daily cultural experience. But have you noticed that over the years as the church has progressed, studies have shown that the church is being seen as less and less relevant and antipathy to the church is growing higher and higher. So seriously, why, after spending hundreds of millions of dollars to be more relevant, are we falling further and further behind?
While we have made the church a more culturally relevant experience for people we have seen a rise in atheism, a drop in church attendance, a drop in people considering the church to be relevant to their lives, increasing expulsion of God in all areas of our society, an increasingly amoral culture, an increase of people identifying themselves as having no religious affiliation whatsoever and an increase of people simply leaving the church. In fact the rising generation has not only very little use for the church (only 20% see it as important), they are much more antagonistic to the church (35% are anti-church)(Barna). Beyond that we have seen our society redefine the institution of marriage against any biblical standard. Our culture embraces legal killing of unborn children as a virtue. History is being rewritten to exclude the Judeo-Christian influence of our nation’s founders. Our high level elected officials are now even seeking to disqualify candidates based on their Christian beliefs and expression. All of this is happening on our watch while we are trying to be relevant.
There is a striking contrast. Inside the church there is a feeling that the cultural gap has been bridged and the church is highly relevant to people’s lives. We are pressing forward and doubling down with our initiatives. Meanwhile on the outside of the church, culture is saying that there is not a time in recent history in which the church has been more irrelevant. The church is happy that it is seemingly attracting people and the cry from outside is growing louder that our culture wants nothing to do with the church.
The problem is not that the church has not done a good job of becoming culturally relevant in its methods and presentation, it has. Sure there are gaps but in large measure, the church has reached a meaningful presentational relevance especially in the mega-church world. However, if the church believes it is inviting and relevant to the needs of the culture but the culture is saying the church is irrelevant and they want nothing to do with the church, well, there remains a problem and it is a huge problem.
Are there solutions? Of course there are but they go deeper than a single blog post can contain. However it is important to recognize a few very important things.
- First, Jesus told us that the gates of hell would not prevail against the church so despite what some may believe, the church will not dissolve or crumble. On the contrary, the church is the bride of Christ and she will never be extinguished. She may be persecuted and pressed down but she will prevail. That however does not guarantee that the church will prevail in our city, our culture or even our nation. Jesus may choose for His bride to thrive elsewhere if we do not value her appropriately here.
- Secondly, there is no greater force, no greater organization, no greater entity than the church in the world today. The world needs the church now maybe more than ever. It is time for the church to rise up and be the light and the hope this world so desperately needs. But more importantly it is time for the church to be what God intended her to be.
- Thirdly, we can be grateful for the strides that the church has made in being culturally relevant. There is a lot of good there. However, it is time to move on to more important things. The world is not that impressed with colored robotic lights, smoke and cool videos. They need real answers. They need something far bigger than they are.
What if for the last 40 years we have focused on the wrong thing? Did some of those things need to change? Of course they did. But in focusing on the felt needs of people, in many cases we have lost the true urgency of the gospel and the vastness of an infinite God. In focusing on the style of music we have lost the meaning of true worship. In creating a seeker driven environment we have literally redefined “church”. And in focusing on being relevant to the world we have lost what matters most.
The church is both the beautiful bride of Jesus and His hands and feet to those around. The church has the opportunity to demonstrate God’s love to a world that is aimlessly searching for some sense of hope and meaning. More than the government, more than an economic system more than any other entity in this earth, the church has the opportunity to bring peace, to bring hope, to bring love and justice with truth. The church has the single answer that will last for all eternity.
I think it is time to move on to Relevant church 2.0 but first we need to define what the church really is.
Prologue
Relevant?
Defining Church
The Purpose of the Church
The Radiant Bride
Worship
Worship in the Church
Holy Huddle