A Reverend's Rambling Review of 'Relevance'

I’m sure every real preacher of the gospel, at some juncture of their life, has those times that certain ‘concerns’ reach up and gently tap on the shoulder of your spiritual man. I’m referring to those times that your eyes say ‘not too bad’ but your heart says ‘something doesn’t ring true’. I’ve had it many times in the past and will most likely have them again.

I realize that in my passionate pursuit to genuinely be a Man of God that I can sometimes be ‘wary’ of things that could potentially lead us in the wrong direction. It was in that moment of ‘wariness’ that I received a correspondence from a young man that I’ve heard many good things about. He expressed some concern about the goals of some prominent young preachers and his concern has lingered in my heart long enough that it has now become my burden. A burden, in fact, that I feel a have to at least address.

Let’s talk about the driving need some feel to be ‘relevant’. Mind you, while I probably preach as many ‘Campmeetings’ as youth camps these days, I still feel quite qualified as someone who has poured out my heart to youth through ministry for some 18 years to address some issues. Please indulge me to make a few points that I feel ‘relevant’.

First of all it’s important to those precious young preachers following behind me to know that every new ‘crop’ of young preachers are going to have their ‘catch phrases’ that can become problematic if taken too far. For instance;
• Has there ever been a youth camp that, at some point, hasn’t had to debated whether that camp was to be a ‘refuge’ from peer pressure or 'evangelistic’ in nature. That was a common ‘catchphrase’ for letting down or ignoring certain campground standards. Good intentions? Perhaps. I saw some good men plead to make them evangelistic at the expense of holiness standards.
• How about when rap first came out and most every choir had at least one rap solo in a song? The ‘catchphrase’ of that generation was that we had to ‘identify’ with them. That carried over into the whole gospel rock scene and their heralding call was that we had to ‘identify’ with their preferences before we could push our preferences on them. Good intentions? Some incredibly sincere people I loved dearly laid down precious things to ‘identify’ and it cost them dearly.

My point in dealing with those ‘catchphrases’ is to note that each new generation has their ‘catchphrase’ and the one I keep hearing bantered about right now is that we have to be ‘relevant’ to this society. It might surprise you to know that I, at least to a point, agree with you. But, again, it’s when those ‘catchphrases’ are taken to extremes that our Pentecostal culture starts to break down. That is what I fear about our newfound desire to be ‘relevant’; being relevant to our society at some point means forcing our Pentecostal culture of holiness to fit into a mold it was never designed for.

Let me illustrate for a moment. For over a year after the hurricane destroyed my sanctuary we had midweek services in ‘casual’ dress. Jeans, khakis and such were almost necessary because we had to ‘put out’ and ‘put up’ the sanctuary furniture each and every night. We had good Church with the exception of those few random nights when their ‘casual dress’ ushered in a ‘casual mentality’ about worship. Overall, it was easy to overcome and have real Church.

Likewise, I’ve heard much lately about ‘shirt tail out, jeans and jacket’ Church. I'll be the first to tell you that it probably won't hurt them anymore than it hurt us. But why do it if it's not necessary? It’s our pursuit to be ‘relevant’. Is it wrong? That is for that particular Pastor to decide.

What about our newfound infatuation with ‘acoustic worship’? Or what about the four piece bands with driving guitars? Where did it come from? We have to be ‘relevant’.

Ironically, my issue isn’t so much with any of those things. My issue, the sincere issue at the bottom of my heart, is the screaming question, “Why is the Body of Christ being driven to be ‘relevant’ to an ungodly society?” I’m not against new methods. I’m not against trying new things for various types of outreach. (I complain at my own Church when my worship leader doesn’t change up the services enough!) But where does this pressure come from telling us that we have to find some relevance to a world who, by nature, is an enemy of God?

... to be continued...