Larry Norman, a Christian singer once called hymns "funeral
marches". I guess he didn’t think they were all that relevant to
his rock and roll generation. Since then many churches have replaced hymns
with modern Christian songs. With the addition of drums, bass guitars and
electric Fender guitars wailing away through a high powered sound system,
our meetings have been transformed into an exciting and relevant event.
Drums, guitars, and the latest in sophisticated sound equipment does
make church a bit more relevant, but there’s more to relevance than
music. Modern music is simply a more viable way to approach the world with
our message in this present generation. I’m not opposed to the use of an
electric Fender guitar screaming across the spiritual universe. If I were
I’d have to sell my Fender. But I realize that the electric guitar is
only one means in helping us deliver the message of Jesus Christ our Lord
to the world.
Being relevant in our approach to the world may look different from
place to place and from culture to culture. Although I have no problem
with that, my poor old banjo does. It gets quite lonely these days because
of its apparent lack of relevance in a rock and roll church. I do believe
that our approach to the world can change from generation to generation to
make things a bit more relevant, but the message we present after the
approach must remain constant, and most of all must be Biblical.
There’s many issues facing the world and the church today that
Christians need to consider and address. These issues include such things
as morality, technology, finance, education, politics, philosophy, and
religion. These issues relate specifically to our message.
Our attempt at relevance in our message must be based on the truth of
the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ as seen in the Bible, without
compromise, and with heart felt conviction. This is absolutely necessary
and more important than the way we approach the world with our message. If
we fail with our message, our attempt at relevance becomes meaningless.
I feel in some circles we are failing when it comes to our message.
This is resulting in an over familiarity with the world, leaving us with
little significant impact. This familiarity and the subsequent failure is
due to purposely neglecting the more controversial aspects of Biblical
truth in order to make our message more acceptable. Failing to address the
truth of sin and judgment is one example of this. Thus by avoiding the
controversies, everyone’s our friend. In short, many churches have
compromised and watered down the gospel in the name of relevance.
The result of this watered down gospel is that we’ve become so much
like the world that it’s hard to distinguish us from the world. I don’t
mean that we’re like the world in the way we dress, or the music we
play. We’re like the world in the way we think, and the way we think has
a direct impact on our message and how we live.
To understand relevance in our message we must first understand the
Biblical view of our relationship to the world. The Apostle John tells us
not to love the world, if we do, God’s love isn’t in us. (1 John 1:15)
When John uses the word "world", he’s speaking about the world
system, not individuals in the world.
The first generation church cared more about the truth of the gospel
than it did about what the world thought of them. John tells us to love in
action and in truth. (1 John 3:18) That’s not a sloppy tolerant love
where we turn our backs on sin. That’s love based on truth, justice and
the Biblical way. John didn’t preach a tolerant gospel.
The early church also had a real disdain for the world system. Peter
"warned and pleaded" with those he preached to by telling them
to "save themselves from this corrupt generation". (Act 2:40)
Peter felt that people needed to be rescued from the world, as one who
needs to be rescued from a fire by a fireman. Peter wouldn’t think of
compromising the gospel to accommodate the world
Paul sure didn’t have a lot of positive things to say about the world
either, especially the religious world. He viewed such things as
"dung". (Phil. 3:8) Now "dung" is an old King James
word, not the more relevant word that I’m not comfortable using.
Jesus Himself said that the world would hate us because it hated Him.
(John 15:18) One reason why the world hasn’t hated us much in western
society is because we’re too much like them. That’s in the process of
change for those who stand for Biblical truth.
So that’s the Biblical view of our relationship to the world. We
should adjust our thinking accordingly. With this in mind, why should we
consider watering down the gospel to make it more convenient for the world
to accept. It’s clear then when thinking of relevance in our message,
our allegiance is first to Biblical truth, not to the world. When we water
down our message, we reap a crop of worldly Christians that may not be
Christians at all. Yes, they fill our pews and maybe even fill the
offering plate. They are at ease in our meetings, with our gospel rock,
comical sermons, and the casual dress. Things are almost as cool as the
rock concert they attended the previous evening. There’s just one
problem. Biblical truth has nothing to do with being cool.
I’m not suggesting a return to legalism where women wore ankle length
black dresses, wore their hair in a bun, and looked like they were 70
years old when in fact they were only 30 years old. Our approach to the
world can be up to date, but the truth of God that He has entrusted us
with can’t be messed with.
We need to understand the issues of the day and address them with the
truth of Scripture, not a compromised version of the truth. Truth doesn’t
get updated to a newer version every year as computer programs do. The
power of God is in the truth of the gospel message, not some new version
of the message, and not in the style in which it’s presented. (1 Cor.
1:18) For this reason our approach can change but our message can’t.
To me many Christians seems to have a lack of heart felt conviction for
Biblical truth these days. We’re too wishy washy when it comes right
down to it. We think too much like the world and so we act too much like
the world. Therefore the world doesn’t see the truth of Jesus and any
significant or demonstrable effect is lost.
A simple example of this can be seen in the move to sing secular songs
in our Sunday morning meetings as an attempt to be relevant. One church I’ve
heard of likes John Lennon songs. Personally, if I wanted to hear a John
Lennon song, I’d play one of his CDs in the comfort of my home. There’s no Biblical significance
in any of his songs, so why waste time singing them in worship. Besides,
the Holy Spirit is available to inspire us with original songs glorifying
Jesus and the truth of the gospel. I don’t think the Holy Spirit
inspired any of John Lennon’s songs.
I know secular songs may be a small example of misplaced relevance but
a number of small things add up to be big, and there’s a bunch of small
things out there. If we think these songs make a significant impact on the
world, we’re fooling ourselves. If Biblical truth is not found in a
song, whether secular or Christian, why sing it in a worship
gathering. Sing these songs around a campfire for fun, but not in a
worship service.
So this is my point. The way in which we approach the world can be
relevant. Use all the modern ways and means available. Personally, I think
Paul would have loved to have had a laptop and email. We should never mess
with the message. It doesn’t belong to us anyway. We’re only entrusted
with it. Our loyalty is first to the truth of Scripture. Messing with the
message defeats the very purpose we set out to accomplish.
The Apostle Paul lived and died for the truth of the gospel, without
compromise. When a Roman soldier slid a sword across Paul’s neck, and
before his head fell to the ground, do you think Paul wished that he had
lightened up on his message? I don’t think so. It was his privilege, and
even his compulsion to speak and even die for the truth. May the same
motivation be found in us as well.