Recently a close friend asked me my thoughts on the idea of relevancy, particularly as it relates to the Church. Here's what I shared. Toward the end I quote someone directly and it contains a "saucy" word, so if that bothers you please don't read that part.
When I hear of a group, particularly a church, seeking to be “relevant” I typically ask, “In whose eyes are you wishing to be relevant?” My gut inclination is that many groups do not have well-reasoned responses to this question. They desire some kind of general relevancy. In other words, these groups don’t want to be ignored or forgotten. Unfortunately, those who can articulate a sense of this relevancy they crave do so in a competitive sense. They wish to capture attention the way this or that other church does. It quickly becomes akin to keeping up with the Joneses and little more.
The overarching concern I have is that relevance is rarely measured in God’s eyes. Of course, God does not call any person or group (that I have found) in Scripture to be relevant. Rather persons and groups are called to be holy and faithful. Relevancy doesn’t seem to be on the radar for God, probably because any kind of relevancy that matters to God is understood through God creating and calling God’s children. By creating humans, God is saying, “You matter to me always.” If we want to say this makes us relevant to God, then sure, I suppose that’s fair. But we must also follow this to say there is nothing we can do or not do to be more or less relevant to God. God created us and loves us, full stop.
However, it is clear that we have insecurity about God’s love. We often feel we have to earn God’s love, and that if we have done something wrong (which we most certainly have), then God must love us less. I think there is also an assumption that if a certain group or church seems to be displaying more fruit, then perhaps God loves them more or they are more relevant. This is incorrect, but it’s a pervasive belief. We measure ourselves against others. Israel did this regularly and found herself lacking. Despite being called by God to be a holy nation (set apart for God’s purposes) Israel constantly felt small, weak, and insecure when compared to other nations. Perhaps the clearest example of this is Israel’s desire for a king. Through this request Israel specifically says, “We want to be like the other nations” (1 Samuel 8:5). Essentially they are saying, “We want to be relevant.” Samuel delineates for the people what their request will bring, and it’s not particularly good news (1 Samuel 8:10-18). Nevertheless, the people will not relent and ask again for a king in other to be like other nations (1 Samuel 8:19-20). Yahweh gives them what they request, and although there are some bright moments, Israel’s monarchy is mostly a disaster. In retrospect, kings are blamed for the nation’s journey into utter faithlessness, the nation’s fall to the other nations it desired to copy, and destruction/diaspora.
One would hope that Israel had learned its lesson by the time Jesus appears. And yet, we see more of the same. Jesus is often asked by those who oppose him, “Why aren’t you like everyone else? Other teachers do this, why do you not?” In Mark 2, Jesus calls Levi, the tax collector. Others grumble and question why Jesus eats with tax collectors and sinners. Jesus responds, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners” (Mark 2:17). Jesus chooses to spend the bulk of his time with those who are irrelevant, at least in the eyes of that culture.
The pursuit of relevance is not the pursuit of discipleship. Emptying oneself and serving others is what God asks of us time and again. We are not to do this for any other reason beyond God’s call of love on our lives, because we ourselves are to point with our lives to God rather than using God to point out to others how important we are. One of my mentors in faith is theologian Stanley Hauerwas. A few years ago, as he was working on a theological memoir, he shared words very close to these: “Everyone wants to be relevant. Fuck being relevant. Your life just isn’t that interesting.” I am forced to agree. Of course I would love to think that I had new insight on God’s love. And I would quickly put myself in the place of God if I did not surround myself with a community to remind me time and again that I am created and loved by God - but I am most certainly not God. By creating, loving, and calling us, we are as relevant to God as we need to be. Anything else is seeking to make ourselves more interesting and captivating than God. And the word for this is “idolatry.”
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