From the Preacher’s Pen… Far too often we hear people make the nonsensical comments about the Bib
le not being relevant to today’s world. The fact remains that the Bible is the single most relevant book to today’s problems and today’s world that has ever been written.
Sadly, in addition to the nonsense being said, many in the church are trying to update God and His word to make God in their own image. That is both wrong and just plain stupid!
Consider the recent comments of brother Brad Harrub via Focus Press:
The Church Doesn’t Need You To Make It “Cool”
I cringe watching young preachers trying to sell faith as “cool” to a group of youths. They stand there in their Christian t-shirt and skinny jeans trying to package the Gospel as “hip.” These guys do not realize that by trying to appear cool and “authentic” to young people that they are actually coming across as just the opposite.
These preachers are trying hard to compete with professional entertainers and reality show stars. They use cool analogies, have impressive PowerPoint slides or videos, and have powerful stories in their lessons. In addition, they have a huge social media footprint— receiving hundreds of “likes” for every article or picture they post.
Sadly, these preachers forget that just 12 hours earlier these same young people were watching a movie with professional actors and million dollar movie sets, or attending a concert with a professional entertainer—they know what is authentic.
So in the end, the young people realize this for what it is: a middle-aged preacher trying desperately to be “relevant” and “cool.” As a result, the Gospel gets watered down, and young people leave the church because they never heard what they really needed to hear.
Here’s what I intend to teach my children regarding being relevant.
Jesus Christ did not call the church or Christians to be “relevant.” In John 15: 18-20 we read, “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.”
What is your duty? What should you be doing? Consider the words Moses wrote, “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul,” (Deuteronomy 10:12). Did you read anything about being “relevant,” “hip,” or “cool” (or wearing skinny jeans)?
However, many people seek to change the church or change the message in order to better “fit in” with our culture. Quoting Paul’s words to the church at Corinth, “To the weak, I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means, I might save some” (1 Corinthians 9:22) they seek to be “hip” and “cool” to the younger generation.
Let me remind you that the Gospel is roughly 2,000 years old and has stood up to all kinds of attacks, insults, and weird new fads. It doesn’t need you coming along trying to make it cool. In fact, what many don’t realize is in that same letter to the church at Corinth Paul wrote: “For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men (1 Corinthians 1:22-25).
The truth is, in too many cases we’ve worked so hard at being all things to all people that we’ve jettisoned the message of sin and Jesus Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection! People need to hear about their sin and what it has done to their relationship to God. They need to hear about the saving power of the Gospel. Your job is not to be “relevant.” Your job is to go and make disciples.
— Brad Harrub reprinted by permission from focuspressblog.com at /www.focuspress.org/2016/11/30/church-doesnt-need-make-cool/
May we continue to stand firm with God and His word. May we this week, and always, resist the urge to remake and reform God into our image.
May we have the courage to share the truth with a world that is lost in sin and desperately in need of listening to and obeying God! May we take care of doing our job for Jesus by going and making disciples of Him!
— Lester P. Bagley