The Danger of Church Relevancy

According to Webster’s 1828 Dictionary, “relevancy” is defined as relieving; lending aid or support, pertinent; applicable. For something to be relevant there should be a connection between the two objects being referenced. One set of ethics is having an affect on the other. A question in the courtroom is considered relevant if it has something to do with the issue at trial. To the contrary, a question is irrelevant if it is not germane to the issue before the court. There are many today that believe that the church has to become relevant to the world to reach the world. This paper addresses the need of the church to be relevant in carrying out the Great Commission to reach the lost for Jesus Christ.

In many churches today, a worship style is adapted to make the unbeliever comfortable. Music is played that has the same rhythm, beat and sound of secular music. The idea is that we need to adapt the music to the present culture. We need to make the worship relevant to the visitor. If someone was to come to church and hear music from a different era, he might be “turned off” to God. The idea is to accommodate the sinner by making him comfortable in the worship experience. Worship becomes man centered. Worship is to be about God; it is not to be about man.

The Scriptures in 1 Chronicles 16:29, Psalm 29:2; 96:9 uniformly set a standard for worship. We are instructed to give glory to His name and worship in the beauty of holiness. “Holiness” means in part sacredness. We are to approach the act of worship remembering the sacredness of the God we are worshipping. This is not a time to “lose ourselves” into a type of mindless euphoria but instead to focus our spirit, soul and body on the Majesty of God. Our next breath is totally dependent on His good pleasure. The fact that our world does not spin out of control is due completely to His love toward us as a people. Worship is not about the unbeliever; it is about the believer and his God. Any effort to make worship relevant to the culture around us is to take the sacred and turn it into the profane or common.

Another area where some attempt to make the church relevant is in the preaching. Recently, I received a flyer inviting me to a set of church services that stated: “The real truth is too many churches are intolerant, judgmental, hypocritical, and money hungry. Oh, and did we mention they’re totally boring too…NOW THAT SUCKS!” An upcoming series of sermons were entitled: “Jesus vs. Intolerance,” “Jesus Judges the Judgmental,” Jesus Exposes the Hypocrite,” and: Jesus Confronts Organized Religion.” Recently in our area, a different “church” has begun conducting services in a bar. People are allowed to drink during the message and “worship” and then they receive communion. While the effort to reach the lost is to be commended, this approach of making the lost feel at ease and insulated from anything that might suggest that a change is needed, will do little more than increase numbers. One church offers first time visitors their choice of a $10 gas card, 2 movie tickets or a gift card to a national coffee shop. Jesus’ method was different; He never gave an altar call; He never asked anyone to make a decision for Him; He told people to deny themselves, pick up their cross and follow Him. In essence, Jesus said, “You have heard my Word, my teachings, now repent and turn from your sins and live out your new faith day by day.” The message of the cross is a message of self denial and personal holiness. The effort to make the message of the cross into a relevant non-offensive request is to preach another “gospel.” We must never forget that people are headed either to heaven or to hell. A relevant “soft” message that saves no one but makes sure that they are comfortable in their sins with their coffee and doughnuts is a tool of the devil and needs to be rebuked!

Recently, the center of the “seeker sensitive” movement (this is the approach that tries to get people saved before they realize what Jesus requires of them) at Willow Creek Church performed a survey about the spiritual quality of their attendees. Dr. Skip Moen has written an article addressing the results and at his web site www.atgodstable.com he states the following:

“Willow Creek has released the results of a multi-year study on the effectiveness of their programs and philosophy of ministry. The study's findings are in a new book titled Reveal: Where Are You?, co-authored by Cally Parkinson and Greg Hawkins, executive pastor of Willow Creek Community Church. Hybels himself called the findings "earth shaking," "ground breaking" and "mind blowing." And no wonder: it seems that the "experts" were wrong. The report reveals that most of what they have been doing for these many years and what they have taught millions of others to do is not producing solid disciples of Jesus Christ. Numbers yes, but not disciples. It gets worse. Hybels laments: Some of the stuff that we have put millions of dollars into thinking it would really help our people grow and develop spiritually, when the data actually came back it wasn't helping people that much. Other things that we didn't put that much money into and didn't put much staff against is stuff our people are crying out for. If you simply want a crowd, the "seeker sensitive" model produces results. If you want solid, sincere, mature followers of Christ, it's a bust. In a shocking confession, Hybels states: We made a mistake. What we should have done when people crossed the line of faith and become Christians, we should have started telling people and teaching people that they have to take responsibility to become 'self feeders.' We should have gotten people, taught people, how to read their bible between services, how to do the spiritual practices much more aggressively on their own. Incredibly, the guru of church growth now tells us that people need to be reading their bibles and taking responsibility for their spiritual growth.”


Efforts to make church relevant may increase your numbers; however, are you increasing the number of people receiving eternal life? Was relevancy an issue to Jesus? His mission was to save His people from their sins; His message was the Kingdom of God is within reach; He came to heal the broken hearted and to set the captives free. I see no interest in making the lost comfortable in their sin; to suggest to the contrary is to fall into the trap of relevancy. Let us take the message of the cross to a lost and dying world; let us worship our Holy God with the respect to which His sacredness demands.

Soli Deo Gloria!