Saturday, October 18, 2008

Relevant?

Wow have I been slack or what? I have been completely unmotivated to post anything recently. The biggest obstacle has been a feeling that I don't have anything worth saying.

That may or may not be true but I've realized that this is another assault against my self-esteem by the enemy...and I've succumbed to it! Damn it!!!

It became clear to me as I was reading "Pop Goes The Church" by Tim Stevens this week. What a great book. In it Tim discusses the What, Why, and, most importantly, the How around engaging popular culture inside and outside the church. He has some great insights in here and there are tons of concrete examples of what they have done at Granger Community Church and what other churches have done as well.

So why did this book open my eyes to myself? One word: Relevant. Tim's discussion in his book is about finding ways to show people how relevant God is to them. For example, he describes a series that they did at Granger using a different Beatles song each week:
In one service, "Eleanor Rigby", a sad song about the lonely people of the world, was performed. We followed with a message about the amazing love of God and the relationship he wants with each of us. The next week, the familiar Beatles' words, "You say you want a revolution" were sung, connecting with virtually everyone in the room who could identify with this desire to change our broken world. The service ended with a message which acknowledged that the world is broken but which described the revolutionary love that Jesus offers.

OK, maybe you're thinking it's a gimmick. One more way that Christians use ambush or bait-and-switch techniques. But it's not. It is about a real desire to reach people with the good news of the Gospel and finding ways for people to make up their minds that it is relevant to their lives.

And that's were I come back to me. In reading ""Pop Goes The Church" I realized that I had slipped into a sort of "maintenance mode" and each day that I wasn't actively praying, worshiping, seeking was another day that I viewed God as less relevant to my life. And one way that I was active in my relationship with God is blogging, reading other blogs, commenting on them, etc. I effectively pulled the plug on seeking. I was even getting to the point of letting several relationships just slide.

Well, my eyes are open now. I don't have to figure out how to be relevant to an audience on the interwebs. I need to focus on the relevance of God in my life and keep actively seeking Him.

Father God, I pray that you will strenghten and encourage my heart in always seeking after you. I ask for your help in quieting my restless and noisy mind so that I can focus on the relationship that you want to have daily with me. I am sorry for how lightly I have taken your Love for me and I don't want to do that again. Thank you for blessing me and my family. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

whoa, love the prayer at the end.

keep blogging. everyone has an audience (metrics proves this to be true).