I love the church. The church is the one true hope for a world that has lost all solid ground. We are both the radiant bride of Jesus and His hands and feet to those around. We are referred to as the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:27, Ephesians 4:12). The church has the opportunity to demonstrate God’s love to a world that is thrashing around for some sense of hope and meaning. More than the government, more than economic capitalism or socialism, 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. However, despite all the potential for good, the church is often seen as irrelevant. The church is often seen as out of touch and the antithesis of what this world is looking for. Despite our accomplishments toward relevance, the church is far from the relevance needed in the world.
When I was growing up in the 1970’s and 1980’s it was no secret that the church was 20 years behind our culture. We had a piano, an organ and a choir in the church while the rest of the world had guitars, drums, screaming vocals and a sound drenched with emotion. In church we sang songs written in the 1950’s back to the 1800’s. There was little correlation between the culture of Monday though Saturday and the culture of Sunday. We even spoke a different language. Outside of our Shakespeare unit in English class I never recall using the words, “Thee”, “Thou”, “Ye”, or “chastiseth” in any daily conversation but they showed up in church. Even the Sunday school curriculum artwork was a throwback to an era that looked nothing like our world.
Since that time the church has taken a hard look at bridging the continuity between what happens on Sunday morning and what we experience throughout the week. Many churches decided that if people choose not to listen to organ music in their cars on the way to work, they may not engage with the organ on Sunday morning either. So many churches have adapted to meet people with the styles they choose outside of church with the styles they are met with inside the church.
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, programatic 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 during the week is very similar to what we experience on Sunday morning. We have made church comfortable and culturally appropriate for guests. In that sense, the church has made great strides in decompartmentalizing and making the church relevant to the average person’s daily cultural experience.
Simultaneously however, 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
- more people considering the church irrelevant to their lives
- increasing expulsion of God in all areas of our society
- an growing amoral culture
- more people identifying themselves as having no religious affiliation 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 religious 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.
The contrast is clear. Within 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 at least in many of the churches who are trying. 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.
Are there solutions? Of course there are and we will dig deeper in further posts. 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 necessarily mean the church will prevail in our culture. Jesus may choose for His bride to thrive elsewhere if we do not value her in our culture.
- 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 that this world so desperately needs. But more importantly it is time for the church to be what God intended her to be – His bride.
- 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” to something that is opposite of what is taught in scripture. And in focusing on being relevant to the world we have lost what matters most.
It may be time to move on to Relevant church 2.0.
(This is the first in a series of thoughts on the church)
See also: