I think I’ve been academically raised up to be afraid of that word. Not because it’s anything bad, but because so much is often loss at the cost of trying to gain more of it. Now of course I believe that the Scriptures, though deeply aged are never antiquated, and that the notion of relevance is in the message rather than the medium, so long as the medium is sufficient to carry the message. However, relevance is something that I’ve been learning to engage because you must engage it if you are aiming to talk to kids and teens alike.
What do I mean by relevance? Certainly, I am not speaking of a watered down gospel, an entertainment centric approach to people, nor a flash bang altar call accompanied by cathartic ccm melodies for the hormonally melodramatic. When I say relevance, I mean, how do I speak the deepest most core truths of the Scriptures and teach them in a way that even the youngest junior higher finds breathtaking? If I am boring the kids, I am either failing at communicating the glory of God, or I am failing to communicate my own passion about it. I need to speak with a relevant voice, with relevant words, and in a relevant attitude.
Now hold that thought. This generation of youngsters relates to one thing: Passion (at least for the most part). And what makes it difficult for the older generation teaching them, is that so many messages that stir up the kids are based on vague or hodgepodge Scriptural reference with a whole lot of creative bungling. In other words, hip pastors delivering sermons with amazingly little substance packaged and / or illustrated in a very cool and creative way. Throw in a story about rhinos charging and mushrooms sprouting, add a dash of testimonial from gangbangers turned Christian, and you get a big crowd of kids, frenzied up into a mindless christian-esque passion.
But what if you want to teach those very same kids the timeless truths of sanctified living, of God’s plan for Israel and the church? or even the core concept of imputed righteousness in Justification? These are Biblical teachings that call for us to not be creative with the text, but rather to be faithful with it. The pulpit is not High school English class after all. And yet… this is the very point where relevance must be claimed. Yes, Amen, we must never forfeit the accuracy of doctrinal teachings for the gimmicks of teen-centric youth-speakers, but we must fight to gain the attention of youths too. To put it more tersely we are searching for Relevance without Rhetoric.
I am still waiting for the day when the youth of today’s churches cry out to their pastors, “Do not bring us your Creative Writing paper! brings us a Sermon!”
Growing into Greatness
Published September 25, 2009 Churches , Devotional Flavor , Heaven , social commentary Leave a CommentThe Scripture says that the human condition is one of “alienation.” As a race, we are tragic and broken. We are not what we were meant to be, and we see it in our sin and our self-disgust. One of the most poignant observations ever made, came from the mouth of the wise king, Solomon. He once wrote, “He (being God) has placed eternity into man’s heart” and followed that statement with these words “…yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.” In simpler terms, God has made man distinctly aware of his finitude, by fashioning an appetite for infinitude within his beating heart. The point being, Man was meant for greater things than this material life.
That is the premise. Hold on to that thought while I start unwinding a related thread. Young people, adolescents, teenagers, for the most part all go through a stage of mental, emotional and physical change. ”Puberty.” It’s an awkward topic, no doubt about it, and it is appropriately so, for it describes an awkward process that makes for awkward changes resulting in awkward situations. But despite all the awk, there is a lot of grace in the midst of it. You see, one of the most beautiful things about this phase of development, is the nascent bud of that divine appetite, which I mentioned just a moment ago. As boys become men, and girls become women, there is an ember of hunger for greatness that begins to glow.
I have heard it often before, and I expect I will hear it much more in the next few years as I continue doing youth ministry. The phrase, “Nobody understands me.” or some variation of it, seems to be the ongoing theme for this stage of life. Maybe you’ve heard it too, (we have all known our fair share of emos). However I’d like to propose that the spoken phrase is unfinished. What’s really being said is “Nobody understands me in a deeper way”. See, I suspect that when young people begin to develop a taste for the deeper realities of life, they also develop an awareness of the depth that is within them, a depth that was for them hitherto previously unattended, and unnoticed by others. But having stepped into that wonderfully illumined place called adolescence, they suddenly feel strangely neglected, and maddeningly misunderstood. What they need, is someone, or some word, that speaks to the deep within.
Souls were fashioned to contain eternal truths. This should help us determine what to teach young people. Surely, appealing to hip teenage superficiality is not the answer to reaching this generation. What we need is a deep and satisfying draw of Eternal Truth. So that, as these young people grow into their bigger bodies, their souls also grow into this unseen reality, called Greatness.