I just got out of the first keynote session here at Echo Conference in Dallas, TX. The keynote speaker spoke on mass media and the importance of relevance for Christians in today’s culture. The crux of his message was that if Christians do not understand the language of this culture then their message will be ignored by the general public because it lacks relevancy and the ability to connect with their audience. While I agree with the intent of that thesis, the speaker, Dan Merchant, missed something important.
When my brother-in-law met my sister, he wasn’t a Christian. He tells a story about how when he started to become interested in Kelsey, what made her different than other girls he’d met was that Kelsey was not like other Christians he had known. Other Christians, he says, acted no different, talked no different, behaved no different than the people he’d go out with on the weekends. The only thing was they’d go home with a guilty conscience while he and his “unchurched” friends knew no different. He said he didn’t want to be a Christian who acted like everyone else just to be accepted by non-Christians or tried to be relevant to be equal. It was the convictions Kelsey and her friends had that pushed him into having a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Those convictions are what Merchant is ignoring. Relevancy looses its power when they make you compromise on your convictions. If all things are permissible, but not all things are beneficial, then what determines when something is beneficial? Your convictions. If relevancy is your excuse to go out clubbing, date half the town, and drink till you forget your name, then where is the power in your testimony? Sure, these are exaggerated examples. But substitute clubbing with what show you watched last night. Replace drinking with the music on your iPod right now. What is the difference between your lifestyle and the guy next to you at the bar? Is it only that you go to church on on Sunday and laughed at half of the crude jokes?
The world is tired of Christians who want to be like them. They are tired of titles, rules, and regulations that are void of change. If they have questions that we are the only ones with answers to, but we try so hard to be accepted by them, then why would they consider listening to us when we try “to give an answer for the hope we have in Christ Jesus?” (1 Peter 3:15)
Is relevancy redefining your convictions and as a result, nullifying your testimony?
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