This Beautiful Mess... more good stuff
I continue to enjoy the book "This Beautiful Mess" by Rick McKinley. Here's some things that are really speaking to me...
A lot of people say that the church isn't reaching America because she's not relevant. It's as if the church doesn't look sexy enough and if we could just give her an extreme makeover, the culture around us would fall in love with her. "Man, look at the church!" they'd exclaim. "She's looking good." In no time people would be camped outside like fans at a U2 concert, just waiting to nab the best seats.That's good stuff - love give without any other agenda is always relevant!
Sounds ludicrous, doesn't it? But we do it; we try so hard to be cool. We need to have relevant music, relevant programs, relevant parking... Of course we're meant to communicate in an understandable way - I'm not saying we should try to be irrelevant. But relevance is a consequence of kingdom living, not a cause.
We become relevant when we are committed to being that signpost of heaven in some part of our world. When we study Scripture, we find that relevance happens naturally when we choose to be real people caring for other real people. Even the real people who are not like us. Even the real people who don't hesitate to hate us. Authentic relationships make us relevant. Love given without any other agenda is always relevant. Relevance comes from relationships - it means we matter to someone, he or she matters to us, and we both know it.
2 comments:
I'm taking a sermon prep break so I thought I'd enjoy a brief blog surf. "Relevance is a consequence of kingdom living, not a cause." I like that line. Good stuff!
dude - so true! authenticity is what truely gives us relevance...how did we become so backward that we think being relevant means being like everyone else and always being "fine" or "cool". We need to be true to ourselves and who we are as children of God!
I really want to read that book now! THanks.
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