Change the right Thing
August 19, 2010 // By: Bob Hamp // 8 Comments
So when most people think of Christians what do they think of? How is it that God’s offer of hope to the world has become known by so many satirical images? Rigid, judgmental, simple, one dimensional closed minded; all pictures that much of the world conjures up when picturing those who profess Christianity. How did this happen? I think we must consider two factors; the war against truth, and the knowledge of good and evil. All the other factors, such as culture and politics, media and education, are simply tools in the war. The real war takes place beyond the veil…let’s not fool ourselves.
If we want to examine the state of flux in the church today, most conversations will attempt to answer the question, how has the church lost relevance, and what must be done to regain it? The sad irony is that the most likely answers are modern resurrections of the very reasons that the church becomes irrelevant.
You cannot set people free from the knowledge of good and evil by modernizing your knowledge of good. The war the church has fought historically has not been our failure to maintain a culturally relevant presentation. It has always been the same war. Are we turning desperately needy people back to a real and meaningful answer, or are we looking for ways to present the knowledge of good in a better more relevant package, hoping people will finally “get it right.”
More exciting knowledge of good. More technologically savvy knowledge of good. More edgy knowledge of good. More flashy knowledge of good. More doctrinally accurate knowledge of good. What is the common theme?
No matter what the method or presentation, human capability, and the clever or persuasive urging for men to use their own resources to please God, is still returning to the foundational problem that Adam and Eve carried out of the Garden. They left us all to live out of the powerless, death-filled, man centered knowledge of good and evil. My knowledge, and your knowledge no matter how it is presented, communicated and motivated is simply an insufficient answer. Once the new package fades, the answer is still insufficient and the ever-present Hope of the world hangs in the air, still and always available to those who come to know that in and of themselves they are stuck.
Relevance is not a cultural issue. It is a human issue. Respond to the real need of the human race with an open door to the Creator of the universe, and the Source of all Life and you will be relevant in any culture. Re-package religion and you will simply take the next step in an ongoing cycle.
More to come…
8 Comments
That right there was well said… thank you, Bob
The message is always relevant, but the messenger is not well received unless he, himself, appears relevant.
I went from involved in vampirism to saved by Jesus practically over night. Many of my friends would not have been interested in my testimony if I cut my hair, removed my tattoos, and took up bicycling around the neighborhood “spreading the good news” . Instead, I went to the same concerts and hung out with the same people, but refused to participate in anything that would distance me from Jesus. I think I was a curiosity. But they listened.
Jeff, I couldn’t agree with you more!! You changed exactly the right thing. You changed the core, and didn’t try to polish the presentation as a substitute for a valid and transformational message.
A part of what I am trying to address is a movement to change the “messenger” without ever having considered whether or not the message itself has yet hit the target.
I am glad to be on your team.
To borrow from one of your parables, we’ve got to change our lug wrench!
“Ask, and it will be given to you, seek, and you will find, knock, and it will be opened to you.” Matt 7:7
This blog string has me at the edge of my seat, I’ve got that passion thing welling up but I want to ask, seek and knock in the right places… that Tree of Knowledge sure keeps dropping fruit along the way that seems so tasty… But my soul and others in “this great network of God-hearing, world-changing people” are hungry for the real fruit, the Truth. Please continue writing to your heart’s content, you know, after all your other responsibilities of husband, father, pastor, department head, counselor…….
your blog is rockin me blessed
Bob,
I am not sure it is relevance that the church needs. Yes, people in dire straits are running in the opposite direction from them, but not because the church lacks relevancy. People leave as a result of attack, abuse, and a level of abandonment that rips the veil into shreds.
Chuck…absolutely, another serious issue. People are often hurt by churches and leaders who are either pathological or ignorant, or some combination of the two. Part of the shift in church demographics right now, is a slow return of a group who have stayed away from church for extended periods of time due to some church wound. This is another example of the knowledge of good and evil at work. People still try to “do church” by fighting their definition of evil, with their definition of good. All manner of human footprints follow this battle.
Boy, in my desire to catch up on all my favorite blogs, I didn’t know that I’d be blown away on the first one!
“Are we turning desperately needy people back to a real and meaningful answer, or are we looking for ways to present the knowledge of good in a better more relevant package, hoping people will finally “get it right.””
RE-presentation seems to be something we innately understand. Maybe that’s because we were created with that understanding but we’ve veered off course of what we were intended to re-present??? We were designed to RE-present God … His image and His likeness here on earth. We get the whole re-presentation thing because we’re supposed to! It’s in us! We just need to get back to re-presenting Jesus instead of re-presenting ourselves and our knowledge.