I really don’t understand how so many people can read something and not have a clue what the writer was trying to say. Take for example the last post that I wrote. It was about the need for all of us to grow in our relationships with each other. I used a real group in my church, The Bridge, to start it off but that was not the focus. But some readers went no further than that. Instead, someone, and maybe more than one, took it as another opportunity to see me in a defensive position, trying to take up for this new group. They took it upon themselves to put into action some things that hurt at least two people. Since these are supposed to be my family, also followers of Jesus, this simply saddens and amazes me.
This is the last installment in what I labeled the Combat Readiness series. It originally started in a post entitled A Tactical Reassessment and was followed by Enemy Tactics. Then I divided it up into seven entries called Combat Readiness. All this started with a random thought I wasn’t even sure would fill a page.
I am sorry that this final entry comes so long after the others. If you need to catch up, they are listed in the archives.
The thought that started it all was about how our enemy has used some things that otherwise might be good for the Kingdom and through his clever ways of deception has caused us to actually corrupt some good ideas. And I believe it was all to do with the endgame of taking our eyes, us Pentecostals, away from a pursuit of holiness. This was the beginning of this series.
The last area I defined to a small degree was relevance. There is a definite need to be relevant to the culture we minister in. So many in the past have tried to go into a culture and forcefully try to change the very way they live into something we deem more appropriate for Christians.
Paul had some things to say about this:
1Co 9:19-22 For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. 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.
Paul says to go to them, whoever we have been sent to, and be one among them so we might reach them. He did not say to go to them and seek to change them first into something more recognizable. Jesus never asked anyone to change either. Instead, He simply said, “Follow Me”, and they did change, but it was from the close association with Him.
So we have some taking all of this to heart in the Kingdom today. They call it being culturally relevant.
We now have ministers that use profanity from the pulpit, some for the shock value like Rod Parsley, and others because they think it is the best way to reach the younger crowd. We have some ministers who seem to never speak of anything but Jesus as a friend. They paint such a one-sided view of our King that it is no wonder why no one is serving Him. Most of the younger generations just hang out with their friends, they sure don’t serve them.
The truth of Gods standards, of His Holiness, are nowhere to be found in the churches that are considered the most culturally relevant. This is not the case in all churches, but it has spread far enough to be alarming.
This whole concept about relevance seems to miss the mark in one major way. There seems to be no attempts at winning those some of us are being relevant to. Paul said he would become all things to all people for one reason, to win them over; to lovingly, persuasively, bring them to the truth of Christ. Our attempts have mostly only taken some of our own over to the worlds side.
By portraying the idea that profanity is no big deal, for instance, some of us have not brought about a change in those we attempt to reach, but instead has lowered us to their level. If there is one thing I know for a fact about meeting the risen Lord it is that I change, not Him.
Relevance is about meeting them at their level. Jesus was the master of this. But then it is about the slow, steady change to Christlikeness. Not the other way around.
We must reach out to a lost and dying world, not in condemnation, but in love. Maybe stooping to their level, getting down in the dirt beside them, but never with them, and letting the light of the truth and the love of God convince them of the need for change. Holiness is the goal and the proper explanation to a lost soul is that holiness is being set apart. It means joining the gang. The Holy, wonderful, life giving and love filled Kingdom gang.
And most of the younger generation would just love to be in a gang.
And that might just be true Kingdom relevance.
Love you all
Tags: Christ, Christians, Christlike, Church, Combat Readiness, Enemy, Holiness, Kingdom, Love, Pentecost, Pentecostal, profanity, Relevance, Relevant, Truth
