How Do You Define Relevant?
This popped up on my TweetDeck the other day:
My friend Dave asked a simple question and I thought the answer would be an easy one.
So I thought… And thought… And thought.
And no answer came. I could not define the word “relevant” without using “relevant” in its definition. (In case you are wondering, that doesn’t work. It’s cheating.)
“Relevant” is such a buzz word in the church right now with so many people using it in do many different ways to define so many different things. Generalities diffuse power in meaning. Specificity brings power back. Simply put, I don’t know how to “get specific” when it comes to the term, “relevant” and its use in regards to the church.
So I’ll throw it out to you, BeDeviant.com readers, can you define relevance for me?
As I tried to tweet….it's being able to present/share information in a way that people can connect to and understand, relevance is different for different groups of people and that's what makes it's defining difficult….for example, my tatoos are relevant in some groups, but to others they are revolting (sometimes even within the group that I am performing or presenting to)
"Relevance is different for different groups of people."
I couldn't agree more, EVD. My beef isn't with relevance itself. I fully understand how important it is to communicate in a way that people understand. My beef is with how the church is trying to define and use relevance.
In my experience, most churches define relevance like this:
1. Have a facebook page
2. Play U2 music as people are coming in
3. Use catchy sermon titles that reference current pop culture
The problem with this is that by trying to be relevant to one demographic (20-30 somethings) the church risks alienating every other demographic.
Also, couldn't it be said that the true life of a Disciple of Jesus is just about as upside down and backwards as it gets, culturally speaking. The actions of a disciple or so completely "other" from the actions of culture.
Lastly, I am reminded of Jesus' words, "As I am lifted up, I will draw people to myself." There is a duality in his words. First, as he is lifted up on the cross, he will redeem people to God. And second, as he is lifted up in our lives and in our churches, I believe he will draw people to himself.
Is Jesus himself not enough to draw people in and rescue them from their graves? Or do we need Jesus + Twitter + MTV + iPhones?
All the talk about being relevant got me thinking. Are we called to be relevant. I know Paul says to be all things to all people in order to win them for Christ. But I believe we r created to be revolutionary not just relevant. We should not strive to keep up with what is cutting edge but we should set the bar as to what is relevant. We r stra gets in this world. I feel when we r revolutionary we will dstermine what is relevant and this draw all men near to Jesus
Christ-like.
~ He's relevant (or maybe beyond relevant) – always knows how to BEST communicate with culture.
Amen.
The Gospel of Jesus is completely relevant to the soul.
But is it relevant to culture? If it was, wouldn't it be an attraction at Disney Land? Wouldn't MTV advertise how great Jesus is….
definitely want to echo the fact the relevance is a fleeting mistress – she's quite subjective.
taking it a step further though, at its core i think relevance is a relational idea. if i can relate to something, or better yet have a relationship with it or because of it – it is relevant. i don't think everyone would define it that way – because 'relationship' can be too emotional a term for some, but at its core i think this is what's going on.
for a concept, person, or piece of art to be 'relevant' to someone it must relate to them in some way shape or form. this is why it is so elusive. it doesn't mean that this concept must mirror that person's life, but there must be a bridge – even the smallest bridge. this is hardly something webster would be proud of but i think relevance is a measurement – a measurement of a 'thing's' ability to relate to a specific person or group of persons.
now, on to what that word has been used for. you said it well j – its now a buzzword. relevance has become a commodity – is is also a magazine. i'm not knocking the magazine or organizations that aspire to 'be relevant' but as soon as we began to sell or manufacture this idea we missed it. relationships lose value exponentially when they become commodities. the best concepts or 'things' of all time have relevance – love, justice, mercy – they always will. they have relevance IN AND OF THEMSELVES. there is no magic equation, there is no forcing into a pattern or paradigm they are intrinsically relevant.
so, as time marches on and cultures progress i think there are continually new manifestations of intrinsically relevant 'things.' they show up in movies, in conversations, on subways, and in churches. when they emerge they should be celebrated, pointed to inside and outside of churches. we lose when we try to manufacture this. it's not about translating something to 'make it' relevant, the 'thing' itself will be judged relevant or not by the relationships it produces.
I like this. A book I am reading says: "If you are in a church that is TRYING to be postmodern, they do not understand the postmodern culture." I think relevance trends the same way. And that it's relational. I think that's what EVD was saying in the first comment.
When looking at the Relevant debate, I often think it is focusing on the wrong thing. When we are relevant we are solely focused on us. How can I be relevant to people? The filter on how to relate to our culture becomes self-focused. Someone once shared with me the power of relatable versus relevant. When we shift focus on to become relatable we can connect with anyone. The focus then becomes about the relationship, the person, not the cultural artifacts. Does this mean we go off the deep end and ignore these artifacts, No. They become away of connecting, but when I am relatable I don't need to worry as much about relevance.
I think living the Jesus Way does call us to a counter-culture way of life, relevance isn't always there with people. But when relatablity (not a real word, but it works) becomes the focus we can live, walk and love like Jesus.
I think Jesus is most certainly enough; I would say you use those tools (Twitter + MTV + iPhones) inasmuch as they help people hear about Jesus (although MTV is questionable).
They must be leveraged for the Kingdom, not for the sake of the tool itself.
Touche.
I have no idea if I spelled that right.
In case you couldn't figure it out…it is pronounced "Too-Shay."
You are hilarious.
I think relevant simply means that it matters to people. The gospel matters and is deeply meaningful, but often times Christians aren't. The most meaningful thing that matters in any kind of "relevant" way to people's life is love. If anything is loving, then I see it by definition as relevant.
I think there's plenty of counterfeit relevance out there that simply creates illusion of popularity by having current knowledge of whatever is latest and greatest in the world. Those who possess this knowledge are "in" and those who don't are "out." But seems far from the gospel.
I don't think church should play the game of trying to keep pace with what's popular when we have the most relevant and deeply meaningful resource at our disposal… love.
It seems like if churches want to be relevant, the only thing that would count is faith expressing itself through love.
If U2, Twitter, Facebook, pop culture references, and the latest slang allow faith to be expressed through love, then great. (To be fair, I'm a pastor that uses all of that stuff) However, more often than not they can cover up our gaping insufficiency to authentically love others. I've yet to see anyone's life changed because of a killer tweet. But love seems to impact people every single time.
So in terms of employing the cool tools to allow love to penetrate hearts, I may employ the former so long as it enhances and does not become a counterfeit substitution for the latter.
a "relevant" church will help people make sense of following Jesus in this time in history, in their specific cultural context, translating the scriptures from their first century setting into our post-Christian context.
The center is always Christ. Our job is to incarnate his teachings and his way of life in a way that is set apart and distinguishable from the world, yet visible within the world.
I love the way Donald Miller put it in Blue Like Jazz…
"A friend of mine, a young pastor who recently started a church, talks to me from time to time about the new face of church in America – about the postmodern church. He says the new church will be different from the old one, that we will be relevant to culture and human struggle. I don’t think any church has ever been relevant to culture, to the human struggle, unless it believed in Jesus and the power of His gospel. If the supposed new church believes in trendy music and cool Web pages, then it is not relevant to culture either. It is just another tool of Satan to get people to be passionate about nothing." -Donald Miller Blue Like Jazz (p111)
And we have a winner! Sheesh. "Please sir, may I have anothah?"
I think Dave said it best in that it is different to different people. My ministry is different to different people, although I can't custom tailor every teaching to each person during a talk. I can get to know that person and really connect with them and knowing their needs, I can talk to them and be relevant. I wouldn't talk to my buddy that doesn't like sports about my NCAA tourney brackets, it's not relevant. Just as I wouldn't talk to you, Justin, about knowing Jesus and having a personal relationship with God, because you know those things.
I love this comment from Ross…"…although I can't custom tailor every teaching to each person during a talk." This minor comment is precisely where Christ-centered ministries born out of a specific "passion/calling" is effective for communicating the Gospel. Why, because people can relate and connect to common interest or passion. This to me is being relevant. We need more ministries shaped by a passion or calling, for example Holy Yoga — http://www.holyyoga.net
trying so hard to be relevant that it makes you irrelevant…God's word is relevant, we only need to do our parts to carry on that relevance.