[7] Is the church relevant today?

Is the church relevant today and should the Church change to attract more people through their doors?
Is it relying on gadgets and technology to attract and keep the people?

1. Rapidly changing times, is the church relevant today?

Things are changing so rapidly, so should we stick to our traditions, or cast them aside?
TV Commercials tells us:

• new improved
• new ways
• new methods
• new discoveries
• new breakthroughs
• new records broken
• new and better techniques
• smaller, better, and more compact gadgets
• super improved products, etc.

How much of this has come into our Christian thinking?
We are told that we are in an ever-changing society.
The old ways are out of date, we’ve got to have new methods and better techniques.
How can we make the church relevant today in this 21st Century?

2. Does the Church need to modernise or keep doing it the old way?

Some people will be violently opposed to such change, others insist that we are failing God if we don’t use all the latest things.
Who is right?

Can we make the church relevant today so younger people aren’t turned off by the church?
We want to put across the Christian Faith in such a way that people will stop and listen.
Also, they will, by the power of the Holy Spirit, be enabled to understand it.
But the way we ‘present’ this is an area for disagreements.

3. What is the Church’s message and its method?

The first thing to do is to separate the message from the method and look at them as two distinct parts:

The never changing Gospel message.

Our Gospel message (which is the message of the whole Bible – the whole counsels of God) does not change.
See the article: What should the Gospel message be?

To reinforce the idea about the preacher’s message being right, I found a short article on the BBC News website dated September 2001 ¹ which was taking the lead from Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, the head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, who said that Christianity has been ‘all but eliminated’ as a source of moral guidance in people’s lives.
It wasn’t this that I found interesting but it was in the comments of that article:

I think the church should stop trying to portray the teachings of Jesus as a source of moral guidance and try ‘the source of life’.
After all that is how Jesus put it.
You don’t just find relevance in God, you find the reason for being.
We were born to be friends of God.”

Naomi, UK ‘Is Christianity still relevant?’ BBC News.

That hits the nail right on the head!
It’s not about ‘moral laws’. Christianity is not about obeying laws to gain salvation.
May the preachers speak out about Jesus’ saving grace and forgiveness.

To demonstrate the non-Christian viewpoint here’s the next comment:

It’d be great if we could all be how God wants us to be but that is never going to happen.
One or two rules to live your life by is good.
But the Bible promotes thousands.
And if breaking even one of these rules means eternal damnation then we’re all going to hell for sure.
Why follow rules you don’t believe in?
Seems to me like Christianity is creating an unnecessary strait jacket.”

Sarah, England. ‘Is Christianity still relevant?’ BBC News.

The true gospel has obviously not reached Sarah.

The modern church needs to have a relevant gospel message based on the old biblical truths, but not have old-fashioned language.

The evolving methods of presenting the gospel.

Our methods may change to relate to a society that is very different from a few centuries ago, and even from a few decades ago.

Christians are using the Internet as a means of reaching out to people, which is good.
‘PowerPoint’ is used to give more visual presentations which can either enhance the speaker’s points or be a total distraction to what the speaker is saying! (I expect we have all experienced both of these).

Sound effects and different lighting with audio and visual effects can be used.
Also, drama and dancing are not uncommon.
All these things can be used in a good way or in a distracting, blocking way.

4. Worship, or presenting the gospel, or both?

The second thing to do at our Church events is to sort out whether we are having an act of worship or an event which will be aimed at non-Christians.
I’m NOT saying it is wrong to have unbelievers in a worship service.
From my own experience, I discovered the reality of Christians singing hymns in worship to God in a small chapel and it was at this point that I was challenged to believe in Him.

I am saying that we need to be aware of what our aim is, otherwise, it becomes a confusing mishmash of worship, presentations, special effects, etc.

I believe we need to be careful not to go too far into giving ‘presentations’ when it is a time for worship.
Otherwise, the danger is that people will ‘watch’ rather than worship, or follow everyone else in copying their actions without the heart being involved in worship.

5. Technology at Church events

Technology is brilliant if it is used well and helps to fulfil the aim of the event.
Quite often technology can sit very uncomfortably within a service if it has just been pushed into it.
There is a need for someone to stand back and rationally look at it.

There is also a danger with technology to put the methods on a higher level of importance than the message itself.
If the technology is offered as the initial attraction without a good message, the people will come for the technology until there is a bigger and better place to go to.

If technology becomes the focal point it can lead to a lot of hype with no substance.
Technology is not wrong in itself, but it must point towards Jesus Christ.

6. Are traditional services still relevant?

Many people like a more formal, quiet service and that is not wrong, provided everything is done in an engaged way and not just spoken without any thought.

How many people hang onto traditional formats because that is a ‘safe’ place for them?
The congregation know what is going to happen next.

That may be okay, provided we aren’t putting God in a box and dictating to Him what happens.

In services like this, enthusiasm and emotion can be frowned upon. To challenge that stance, listen to what Jesus said:

You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet.”

Luke 7:45 NIV

7. Is enthusiasm in church services centred on God?

It’s good to have enthusiastic people, but we need to remember this:

It is not good to have zeal without knowledge, nor to be hasty and miss the way.”

Proverbs 19:2 NIV

It is not good to create excited people without a foundation of biblical knowledge.
Without the latter, the work won’t be strong and won’t last into eternity.

In an atmosphere of huge enthusiasm, it can be difficult to question what is going on, because it can be seen that the zeal is being quenched.
But remember a zeal without knowledge is dangerous.

True knowledge is getting a balanced understanding of the Bible, which creates true and everlasting zeal.

8. The most important thing is to know what the church is!

As soon as we start to focus entirely on ‘Is the church relevant today?’ and what does the world think about us, then we start to let go of what our main purpose is.

The world may see us as groups of people who want to help others.
That is partly correct, but that is not our main focus.

The world may see the church as wanting to restrict what people do by enforcing laws on what they can and cannot do.
Speaking about what God requires is a part of what we do, but again it is not our main focus.

The world may see us as yet another club of similar-thinking people who like to meet together.
This may be part of the idea of fellowship but it is not our core, fundamental focus.

The early church was a blessing to those around them, but it was never their focus, it was a byproduct of their servant hearts in putting the Lord first.

Ryan Denison makes a good point here:

…the church’s greatest mistake is often losing sight of what makes it unique in its attempts to make itself relevant.
Efforts to care for the poor and the needy, provide a place of community, and help people live more moral lives are all important pieces of what it means to follow Christ, but they cannot serve as the foundation of what it means to be the church.
The reason is that those services, as vital as they are, can be found in other places. They’re not what makes the church distinct from the world around us.
As Sanders, notes, people’s physical and emotional needs are important, but ‘spiritual needs are the ones that only the church can meet’…
The church matters because only there is the truth about the world spoken—because only there is the Lord proclaimed as King.”

‘Does the church still matter today? Why that’s the wrong question for us to ask.’ By Ryan Denison. ²

The church is the only place where the Lord is proclaimed as King!

We are a group of people who acknowledge Jesus as our King, Saviour and Lord!
At the centre of this group is God dwelling by His Spirit:

For through him [Jesus Christ] we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.
In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”

Ephesians 2:18-22 ESV

The disciple and apostle, Simon Peter, wrote some important verses about the church – the people of God:

As you come to him [Jesus Christ], a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ…
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles…”

1 Peter 2:4-5 & 9-11 ESV

We are all together to offer spiritual sacrifices to the Lord God through Jesus Christ.
We belong to God, we are part of His huge family, and we come together to proclaim the greatness of God.
We realise that our home is in heaven, so we just live temporarily on this Earth.

Most people won’t understand that – they didn’t understand Jesus either.
The crowds followed Jesus because he fed them and performed miracles, but because they had such self-centred lives they could not see beyond that.

Jesus never gave up on them, he kept going to their homes and speaking with the rich, the poor, and the rejected ones, but he also never strayed from his purpose of being a light for them.
He kept showing them that he was the Way, the Truth and the Life and he kept worshipping God his Father, and praying to Him and trusting Him.

In serving others, we must not forget that the church is a group of people who acknowledge Jesus as our King, Saviour and Lord and who have the living God amongst them.

More detailed articles covering:
Church leadership problems and church issues
The unwritten behaviour of Christian groups can be very controlling. 
Christians can behave very badly with their selfish ambitions…
Views on what makes a sin terrible or acceptable
Gays can’t stay at Bed and Breakfasts or hotels?
Should a Minister of Religion wear a uniform?

References and credits – open in new tabs:

1. ‘Is Christianity still relevant?’ BBC News  ↩

2. ‘Does the church still matter today? Why that’s the wrong question for us to ask.’ By Ryan Denison. Denison Forum. 15 March 2023. ↩