This is a short article by Derek Webb. It is wonderful!
"German theologian Martin Luther was once asked by a member of his congregation why he preached the Gospel to them week after week, thinking that surely they were ready to move on to some deeper, more spiritual teaching. Luther’s reply was, “Because beloved, week after week you forget it.”
Luther’s church back then was just like our church today, and his response is still so appropriate. Throughout our history, God’s people have exchanged one idol for another.
In preaching and practice, the church today works hard to be ‘relevant.’ At first glance, it’s a noble cause. But with some reflection, we find that the compromises that appear to make us ‘relevant’ can also strip us of our distinctive and transcendent characteristics. Our hope of being truly relevant to our ever-changing culture here in America, is to be who we are as the Body and Bride of Christ. Franky Schaeffer in his book Addicted to Mediocrity said, “The church’s effectiveness in the world is stifled proportionate to the extensiveness of its blind spots.” Maturity is learning the language of repentance and reformation as we uncover our spiritual blind spots.
Contrary to appearances and “best selling book” racks in Christian bookstores, the church’s greatest need is not spiritual stimulation. In fact, I’d say that we are thoroughly over stimulated. We’re just dying to hear and experience new things, to have our spiritual lives revolutionized, and to be in the ‘inner circle’ of the latest spiritual trends and ideologies. It seems that every few weeks there’s a new book outlining the newest spiritual formula by which we can get all that God has to offer us, be it ‘victorious’ Christian living or spiritual blessings of all kinds. And we can’t wait to get on the bandwagon hoping that maybe this will be the missing piece that we’ve been looking for.
But for the same reason the newest mouthwash or soft drink can’t make us more confident and assertive as their marketing promises, these spiritual ‘products’ can’t satisfy us. The good news is that new soft drinks, best selling books, and failed church formulas expose the fact that we never get over our need for Jesus. Nothing else can satisfy us.
So maybe our blind spot is that we’d rather be a “sub-culture’ than a ‘counter-culture’. When we make an idol of ‘relevance’ we become a Christian ghetto enslaved to the rules of pop culture. But Jesus makes his Kingdom to be a ‘counter-culture’, where every order of this world is turned on its head. The poor are rich and the broken ones are exalted. The church community is not like a membership to a health club of your choosing. It’s not like a shopping mall where you bring your visa card. The gospel shows us that we can’t heal our sickness, we have no money, and we have no heart. But the gospel invites us to a great feast, teaches us how to love, and trades consumerism for service.
The 21st century church still needs to hear the same gospel that Luther spoke of week after week. Will we confess the sufficiency of Christ or will we continue to worship a false sense of relevance? Will we continue to put warm coats on spiritually dead people or will we preach to them the Gospel in all its offense and beauty? Come to Jesus and find maturity in repentance, vision through scripture, and mercy in our great Savior. By His grace alone, His church will be victorious, and she will be set free." Derek Webb (2004)
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