What's wrong with being relevant?

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Originally Posted by MrMasterMind

I am afraid we have some leaders whose faith is so weak as to believe interaction with the unchurched will somehow leave the "saints" themselves less than holy.

I'm going to go out on a limb here, and I know I'll get slaughtered for it...

But this brother's statement holds some degree of truth to it. And I often wonder if it's not because our churches and ministries have put so much emphasis on external, outward holiness without the greater emphasis on the internal holiness and spiritual maturity, that they're afraid that peoples' relationship with God is not strong enough to keep them from being influenced by "the world." Does that make sense?

I've been in this for 24 of my 42 years. And until the last couple years I can honestly (sadly) say that I didn't have much of a relationship with God. It's because my focus was on doing and not doing, going and not going - to the point where I held all the standards, didn't go to movies, went to church four times a week, but didn't know God and wasn't really even led in that direction. I had plenty of times of emotional highs and moves of the Spirit, I loved to worship enthusiastically. Anyone seeing me would have thought I had it all together and was as holy as a saint could be - just one step below the ministry. But there was no relationship. Once the music faded and the preaching was finished and I went back to life, it was just emptiness.

If we're going to believe in the standards, that's perfectly fine if that's your conviction. But there needs to be a balance whereby people understand that, even though you are "doing all the right things the right way," you still need to grow in your relationship with God through PERSONAL interaction with Him and study of His Word. There are WAY TOO MANY people depending on their pastors to do all the studying and all the praying, IMO. And that's a tragedy.