the journey
| If you find me talking too much about The Journey Toward Relevance I apologize. I can't really help myself. I have found this book to really challenge my thoughts related to the topic. Not that I have ever claimed to be relevant. well I do have this t-shirt that says "IAMRELEVANT" but other than that I have never laid claim to such a lofty title.
But I am telling you, you must read this book - the challege of relevancy, the author says is to balance a love for God with a love for people. Think about it, when we lean too far towards "loving" God we become self-righteous separatists and render ourselves ineffective/irrelevant, but if we lean too far towards "loving" people we become conformists and render ourselves ineffective/irrelevant. So it becomes a precarious balancing act with the desired outcome of becoming transformists somewhere in the middle. At any rate, there is a quote that I keep chewing on and thought I would throw it out to see if the rest of you feel like you ever fit into this category - I do. "I've seen a trend lately. A lot of people are walking around with a lot of bitterness toward the Church. In fact, pockets of people have organized times to complain about how the Church has disrespected them. Some of her offenses may have come in the form of legalism, religiosity or condemnation. Throughout history, the Church has been dressed in many different clothes. Sometimes she is relevant and beautiful, adorned in the finest and most elegant apparel. At other times she is in rags. She is strung out in the gutter of irrelevance. It kind of reminds me how I must look to Jesus many times. Nonetheless, to my wonderment, Jesus never loses His passion for His Bride (or for you and I for that matter). His Church is still on His heart. Thus, His Church needs to be on our hearts. There is no other Bride. We are it. We can’t escape each other, so we might as well reconcile with each other. If we’re badmouthing God’s girl, then we’re diametrically opposed to what’s on His heart. I see a potential threat on the horizon. If wounded people fail to move through their pain into a process of healing and convert their energies into something positive, an entire generation could be wasted on just sitting around and complaining about the Church’s irrelevance.” |
posted by Anonymous