The need for relevance

It has been a while since i last blogged but Lord help me i am back and stronger than ever.
It's hard for me to write usually what i am felling, i have never been a good writer of my thoughts per say. But i have learnt that i need to be able to communicate my feelings better on 'paper' (i know duh im typing but you get what i mean) because it is like therapy for my soul when i get it right.

Relevance. A tough, difficult and scary word. What does it really mean to relevant? In times of constant changes and evolving cultures it can seem that change and being relevant go hand in hand. And if you are not relevant than you are its complete opposite... you are irrelevant.

To be relevant in simple terms means to be connected or still have the ability to relate, and as we all know we are designed and yearn for relationships. As the old saying goes 'no man is an island' stands boldly amidst this topic. We long for someone to be able to connect with us regardless of our flaws and let downs we want someone to be able to 'get us' and thus the need to form marriages, long lasting friendships, community, love etc. all spawn from this one need.

So if this is how God designed us then what does it mean to God's people to be relevant? I started by looking at the church, the church of christ today is more like and institution with rules and guidelines, rather than the organic representation of a body and less like a movement. Institutions are built on policies and standards and repeatibility clashing with things like change. I mean just think about the comment Erwin McManus the head pastor at Mosaic made at Catalyst of the churhces 'disciple cloning systems'. Jesus did not come to clones us he came to bring out our uniqueness.
If we look at the way the church started we begin to see somewhere along the line the church has lost touch with the world around it. I have been visiting many churches and the same issue arises everytime the same pattern, the church lives in its own bubble. We have become champions of interacting with the world by pointing and dictating things we see wrong yet we choose to seem powerless to be able to do anything about it because we have built this invisible barrier that does not allow us to operate the way we should. It's like the old adage of the elephant that is chained to a pole from birth once an adult the chain is removed but the elephant wont move an inch more than the length of the old chain, he remains powerless and fooled. This is not the way to bring the kingdom of the Lord, in the words of our great messiah 'Your kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven' should permeate in our heads daily.

God knows things change i mean his thougths are not limited by time he exists outside of the realm of time and he sees all things and he knows all too well change is inevitable. In order for us to adapt to change we need to evolve our spirituality, we need to come to the realisation that the outcome for us is still the same the only thing that changes is our methods.
We need to take a page out of Jesus and see how he operated. He didn't subcomb to the ways and the orthodoxy of the current religious instistutions he didn't just preach in synagouges to the religious, righteous elite but he preached in the open areas as well he sought the social hubs of the times were he could speak to everyone of any social level. He approched the weak and sick on the streets he didn't steer away from them. he came and challenged the religious powers of that time them because he knew that we were losing ourselves, we were being lead astray, we were missing the mark. A scripture that brings chills down my spine when i read it i believe is relevant now more than ever and puts everything into clear perspective is Mat 23:15 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are". We need to rethink everything we do with this scripture in mind, this is one of the reasons i find it hard to evangelise in shoppings centres it seems that we are making the great comission a mere numbers game, where it seems more like a qouta we need to meet instead on building true authentic relationships trhough hard work and humility to bring the light of christ into peoples lives. People are so much more and we come of like they are merely targets we need to meet. Jesus mentions above that if we continue in this path we fall into the trap of hypocrasy and who will believe a hypocrite? Jesus is asking us today to rethink the fight and approach it differently due to changing times, reasses your heart why are you doing what you are doing? Who is it really for? Are you bulding the kingdom of heaven by 'creating' or 'awakening' the saints or are you building the kindom of darkness by making Sons of Hell?
Today we need to be strong spiritualy and we need to take the fight outside of the church we need to hit the clubs and share with drunken orgy goers, the pill poppers to blind to catch a cab.
The mothers that struggle with suicidal thoughts dailiy and struggle with 3 kids at home. The Young men that fight ponography everyday, tackle social-economic issues plauging us today. It's time for the church to emerge and be relevant to its time. There is too much at stake, we are taklking about people's lives here and to God we are priceless so we as christians should have the same mindset as the father. The great comission speaks of people in foreign lands but also at the sametime encompass the people that live right next door to us. To all the spheres of influence we 'operate' in God will hold us accountable... for the child you are suppoting through missions in Nambia to the little girl next door that plays on your street and calls you neighbour.