I was skimming through Blue Like Jazz again tonight and came across this from Donald Miller, thought it fit the previous post:
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.
And one other thought on a slightly different topic:
Andrew would say that dying for something is easy because it is associated with glory. Living for something, Andrew would say is the hard thing. Living for something extends beyond fashion, glory, or recognition. We live for what we believe.
maybe relevance is like planetary orbits… sometimes we are in alignment and other times we are out of alignment.
If we follow trends then we’ve failed… if, however, we empower people who are part of trends to connect with others in their “trend” then great.
As a collective whole… we struggle to be “relevant” to all culture… I’m not even sure there is an overarching culture… but as individuals we can be relevant to the sub-cultures we belong to.
Thing is… we don’t need to try to be part of the subcultures we belong to because we already belong. Sports / music / moleskines… you name it.
The idea is not to make the church relevant so much as open and accepting… we do the connecting.
maybe relevance is like planetary orbits… sometimes we are in alignment and other times we are out of alignment.
If we follow trends then we’ve failed… if, however, we empower people who are part of trends to connect with others in their “trend” then great.
As a collective whole… we struggle to be “relevant” to all culture… I’m not even sure there is an overarching culture… but as individuals we can be relevant to the sub-cultures we belong to.
Thing is… we don’t need to try to be part of the subcultures we belong to because we already belong. Sports / music / moleskines… you name it.
The idea is not to make the church relevant so much as open and accepting… we do the connecting.
I like that & agree – I think/hope that’s the goal in our church.
On an individual basis we can be relevant to those in our subculture. But I also believe authenticity goes beyond cultures and subcultures.
“Speak the truth in love”
I like that & agree – I think/hope that’s the goal in our church.
On an individual basis we can be relevant to those in our subculture. But I also believe authenticity goes beyond cultures and subcultures.
“Speak the truth in love”
Totally… Love is counter cultural!!! Maybe we need to be more counter-cultural than relevant (but not in a Westboro Baptist way!!!)
Check this out :: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/6180555.stm
We can learn from this.
Totally… Love is counter cultural!!! Maybe we need to be more counter-cultural than relevant (but not in a Westboro Baptist way!!!)
Check this out :: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/6180555.stm
We can learn from this.
Me again… check out the “art language” get a mac ad :: it is relevant to your post (sorry for the pun)
http://www.apple.com/uk/getamac/ads/
Me again… check out the “art language” get a mac ad :: it is relevant to your post (sorry for the pun)
http://www.apple.com/uk/getamac/ads/
Like it.
Like it.
I finally got a chance to read the BBC article.
Reminds of what Brian says all the time, “The church needs to be telling people what we’re for more than what we’re against.”
I finally got a chance to read the BBC article.
Reminds of what Brian says all the time, “The church needs to be telling people what we’re for more than what we’re against.”