Relevant

"We wrestle with ‘making the gospel relevant.’ But God is about transforming the world to fit the shape of the Gospel." — Total Church

WHO is more relevant than GOD? Seriously, can there by anyone cooler than the Creator? We bore ourselves with second-rate nonsense, and then conclude that God is irrelevant.  In fact, it is you and I who are irrelevant. Only Christ gives us lasting value, for while we were yet sinners (our real identity), Christ died in our place (Romans 5:8). He made us relevant. Our new purpose becomes showing how relevant God truly is.

That is why I say it is a sin to bore people with the Bible. However, I pause at any methodology that is based on the assumption that we need to make Scripture relevant. It is the craziest, awesomest book ever. (Even deserving a new word like "awesomest.") We simply need to unleash it. Perhaps some (or many) of my students are not captivated when I teach them, and that is a mixture of my fault and theirs. (Junior highers don’t yet think abstractly, and I am a highly abstract thinker. So every word needs to be evaluated, illustrations that are, yes, relevant, employed, and my attitude and non-verbal language must exhibit the reality that I am very excited to speak about God.) Even still, it would be foolish to try so hard to sound smart or be cool that they don’t look past us to see God.

I say we quit tweaking His message to fit our tiny lives. Can we really improve on the greatest news ever? Our lives are meant to conform to His word and will (Romans 12:1-2). Unleash Christ and His Word, and let the Savior work. For that to happen, we need to be faithful to God’s truth, guard ourselves, and watch the Savior work (1 Timothy 4:11-16). Through the Gospel God will make us believers relevant in the eyes of the Father, Son and Spirit. We know They love us; and even like us. It feels great to be relevant.

• Update: speaking of Boring , Russell Moore has a great take on the topic .