Recently, Alex Wilson, one of the young men that I hang out with from time to time wrote me about my post "Relevant." Alex is in the 180 youth group where I serve as a leader. He wanted his comments about my post to show up on the Web. So here it goes:
Alex Wrote:
"i would like to say that we should not strive to be relevant to the masses. or target the masses with things other then Christ. i would love it if Jesus was enough to pull people to the Church, to a relationship. but it is not.
why would you go to a Church that says you cant live how you want, you can have sex before you are married, you cant party. they would rather have the immediate "joy" of sex, drugs, partying and the rest. why would this dude named Jesus be so cool if all the rest is so AWESOME. everyone is doing it.
how could a simple relationship be worth everything you are give up.
that is why Jesus, for the most part, isn’t pulling people in. that is why people have decided to use the cool stuff, bands, celebs, whatever, to bring an opportunity. it’s not about making Jesus and the message of Salvation relevant. it’s making people realize its BETTER then have sex with some random dude/chick. it’s BETTER then getting high, its BETTER then partying and getting drunk. that is what we really need to figure out.
we don’t need to make Jesus relevant. we need to make others realize that He is."
Alex and I talked about his reply when we hung out last weekend. Here is a brief recollection of our conversation...
Chaille: Alex, you said that Jesus is not enough. What do you really mean by that?
Alex: I was describing how the churches today seem to lack the real Jesus - His power, radical teaching and life. People have lots of preconceived notions about Jesus because of the bad publicity that Christians have generated in Christ's name through the years. These prejudices combined with the lack of miracles and God's presence in modern Christianity has led to Jesus not being enough for most people. They can't get to the real Jesus because of all the baggage they carry around with them.
Chaille: Ok, so you are not saying that Jesus is not enough. You are saying that people just don't realize that Jesus is enough.
People are not seeing the real Jesus in much of modern Christianity. This makes me believe that we should strive to discover and live out the real Jesus not try to keep up with the latest fads. The church will never be cooler than MTV or popular culture. But we can be more relevant by getting beyond the shell to the inner man. In reality, relevance is about what is inside not on the outside.
Alex: Yeah, well I still think that being relevant and connecting with popular culture doesn't hurt. It can help build bridges and overcome initial barriers that many people have.
Chaille: I agree. I am not saying that Christians should refuse to understand or engage culture. We should seek to understand the world around us while refusing to let it taint our greater reality. We can listen to music, watch movies, wear trendy clothes, go to the right places, know the right people just as long as we don't exchange our God focus for something else along the way. Everything we do should be done in faith to glorify God. If we get that right, we don't have to worry about offending God. In the process, we will discover the real Jesus, which makes us truly relevant.
