In the mail on Friday, I got a copy of Brad Powell's new book "Change Your Church for Good... The Art of Sacred Cow Tipping". The book releases tomorrow from Thomas Nelson. Brad has written a brilliant book on how to change your church without compromising God's Word. Today I want to share just a few paragraphs from the book about 'relevance'. There's much said about the church being relevant today; but I think Brad says it in a way that we all can understand. Brad writes...
"In order to work right, the church must be relevant. It must communicate God’s truth and hope in the language of the culture in which it’s situated. Unfortunately, many consider cultural relevance a compromise for the church. Though they may be sincerely motivated, they’re wrong. As an incontrovertible example, let me share some words from Jesus Himself on this.
Videns autem turbas ascendit in montem et cum sedisset accesserunt ad eum discipuli eius et aperiens os suum doce bat eos dicens beati pauperes spiritu quoniam ipsorum est regnum caelorum beati mites quoniam ipsi possidebunt terram beati qui lugent quoniam ipsi consolabuntur beati qui esuriunt et sitiunt iustitiam quoniam ipsi saturabuntur beati misericordes quia ipsi misericordiam consequently beati mwido cordequoniam ipsi Deum videbunt beati pacific! quoniam filii Dei vocabuntur beati qui persecutionem patiuntur propter iustitiam quoniam ipsorum est regnum caelorum beati estis cum maledixerint vobis etpersecuti vos faerint et dixerint omne malum adversum vos mentientes propter me gaudete et exultate quoniam merces vesti-a copiosa est in caelis sic enim persecuti sunt prophetas quifuerunt ante vos
Wasn’t that awesome? It defines the foundational message of Christ and explains His life and ministry, doesn’t it? I wouldn’t be surprised if you stopped to read it a couple of times and contemplate its importance to your life. You just read a portion of the greatest sermon ever given by the greatest preacher in history ... the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:1-12). The truths you just read are a part of the foundational hope that Jesus Christ came to give us.
Let me ask you: how much hope did you experience as a result of reading them? How relevant was it to your life? If you’re honest, unless you’re proficient in Latin, it was totally irrelevant. And the reason it was irrelevant is because you couldn’t understand it. It didn’t make any sense. Your inability to understand it rendered it inoperative in your life. Though it contains powerful truths, reading it was boring and a waste of time. More than likely, you either didn’t try or you quickly gave up.
We need to realize that this is the experience of lost and unchurched people when they choose to attend a church that communicates God’s truth in, what I call, “Christianese.”
Whether they know it or not, this is the language most churches all over the world are speaking. “Christianese” is the private language of any given church’s culture and tradition. As with all languages, it is clearly understood and considered beautiful by those who have been raised with it. The only problem is that only insiders can understand and appreciate it.
When outsiders, either unchurched or different-churched people, attend a church that speaks Christianese, they don’t get it. They have no clue what’s being said. It’s like a foreign language to them.”
FOR DISCUSSION: Let’s start a list of the top “Christianese” words we’re all guilty of using. What words have you used in your service lately that kind of made you cringe? What private language is part of your church’s culture and tradition? How can you communicate better to the unsaved?
We need to spice up our churches! Though it may sound weird, comparing the church to hot sauce isn’t that far off. The value of churches is found in how hot they are. Jesus said it best in Revelation 3:15-16. “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” No matter where your church is today, it can go from bland to hot…if you Change Without Compromise. I can’t encourage you enough to take the dare…It will be worth it!
At this conference, you will gain tremendous insight, help, and encouragement from our significant transition story. (If transition can happen at NorthRidge, it can happen anywhere.) In the past 16 years, NorthRidge has transitioned from a dying church locked in a pattern of cultural irrelevance, to an exciting, contemporary church communicating God’s Word to people from every generation. After experiencing three decades of significant decline, (a loss of 75% of all attenders and 90% of membership), we have experienced a minimum of 20% growth annually for the past six years and are presently ministering to over 12,700 people in our Weekend Services.
Last year alone we saw over 2,100 first-time decisions for Christ. This conference will address the principles we used to move from static to dynamic, from cultural irrelevance to relevance, and from ineffective to effective. We’ll speak to how you can lead this kind of change…without compromise.
“I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.”
1 Corinthians 9:22b-23
Does Your Church Speak "Christianese"?
In the mail on Friday, I got a copy of Brad Powell's new book "Change Your Church for Good... The Art of Sacred Cow Tipping". The book releases tomorrow from Thomas Nelson. Brad has written a brilliant book on how to change your church without compromising God's Word. Today I want to share just a few paragraphs from the book about 'relevance'. There's much said about the church being relevant today; but I think Brad says it in a way that we all can understand. Brad writes...
"In order to work right, the church must be relevant. It must communicate God’s truth and hope in the language of the culture in which it’s situated. Unfortunately, many consider cultural relevance a compromise for the church. Though they may be sincerely motivated, they’re wrong. As an incontrovertible example, let me share some words from Jesus Himself on this.
Videns autem turbas ascendit in montem et cum sedisset accesserunt ad eum discipuli eius et aperiens os suum doce bat eos dicens beati pauperes spiritu quoniam ipsorum est regnum caelorum beati mites quoniam ipsi possidebunt terram beati qui lugent quoniam ipsi consolabuntur beati qui esuriunt et sitiunt iustitiam quoniam ipsi saturabuntur beati misericordes quia ipsi misericordiam consequently beati mwido cordequoniam ipsi Deum videbunt beati pacific! quoniam filii Dei vocabuntur beati qui persecutionem patiuntur propter iustitiam quoniam ipsorum est regnum caelorum beati estis cum maledixerint vobis etpersecuti vos faerint et dixerint omne malum adversum vos mentientes propter me gaudete et exultate quoniam merces vesti-a copiosa est in caelis sic enim persecuti sunt prophetas quifuerunt ante vos
Wasn’t that awesome? It defines the foundational message of Christ and explains His life and ministry, doesn’t it? I wouldn’t be surprised if you stopped to read it a couple of times and contemplate its importance to your life. You just read a portion of the greatest sermon ever given by the greatest preacher in history ... the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:1-12). The truths you just read are a part of the foundational hope that Jesus Christ came to give us.
Let me ask you: how much hope did you experience as a result of reading them? How relevant was it to your life? If you’re honest, unless you’re proficient in Latin, it was totally irrelevant. And the reason it was irrelevant is because you couldn’t understand it. It didn’t make any sense. Your inability to understand it rendered it inoperative in your life. Though it contains powerful truths, reading it was boring and a waste of time. More than likely, you either didn’t try or you quickly gave up.
We need to realize that this is the experience of lost and unchurched people when they choose to attend a church that communicates God’s truth in, what I call, “Christianese.”
Continue here to read more of Brad's thoughts on "Christianese" and Church Relevance...
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