The Relevant Church

I am weary of all the attempts of the contemporary Christian church to be "relevant." You see, the theory goes, people don't go to church because it isn't "relevant" any more.

So they come up with all kinds of gimmicks to try to make church more relevant. The latest one I read today is a church that has services at a night club, and combining hip hop and other pop music, tries to draw "relevant" messages for the Christian life.

The more tame versions of this method are ubiquitous: sermons series like "4 tips for a healthy marriage," "3 ways to improve your finances," "Dealing with difficult people." Blech! No wonder people aren't going to church. (By the way, I have sometimes wondered if the reason why preachers like to preach this way is because human psychology and accounting is more easy and straightforward than actually seeking and wrestling God and coming out the other side like Jacob and his limp, with something to live and to proclaim.)

I still think that if church does what it has always been meant to do -- to connect people with God, to help them experience the Divine in all things -- it is relevant. God is infinitely mysterious and worth getting to know and following. Jesus, whoever you think he is, is mysterious and worth getting to know and following. But we have forgotten what that means and what that looks like, and hardly anybody recognizes the Jesus of the Bible any more (hint: he doesn't look like James Dobson, Jerry Falwell, or Don Wildmon!).

It is no secret that America is one of the most Christianized nations in the world, and according to one survey, 1 out of 3 Americans claim to read the Bible regularly, but far fewer have any idea what's actually in it. So what happens? They get manipulated by the Bible thumpers. Instead of following God they live in fear of God's wrath, imagining that God is some nebulous judgmental thing up in the sky watching and waiting to strike them down or at least someone they don't like. Worse, in certain circles clergy claiming to be God's representative pronounce the most hateful tripe in the pulpit and then in their offices, commit the worst atrocities. No wonder people think it's irrelevant. It's crap.

And sadly, when people realize it's crap, they stop believing, live cynically, mocking all religious experience, never realizing that they have never genuinely experienced God in the first place.

Sometimes I think the average church tries to do too much. The church gets involved in politics, social justice, personal ethics, membership drives, cub scouts, mission trips, socials and ever-present fundraising bake sales, often not doing anything well and in the end marginalizing the central purpose -- to unite people with the mysterious presence of the Loving God (which is not to say that God cannot be experienced in the very things I just mentioned).

I have no answers. Sadly, this is just a rather scattered gripe. What I know is that there is so much MORE that faith in the Divine has to offer than most people have ever imagined. I know that I have barely entered the depths of the Divine Love.