There is a fine line that I cross all of the time as an ecclesial dreamer. It is the line of relevance. I cross it when I become overly critical of all of the ways I perceive that my church just isn’t “getting it”. I cross it when I start to think, dream and plan how I would structure a community of faith if I were the pastoral leader. It is so easy to cross this line because it makes so much sense. I am beginning to see that there is an eerie connection between the way we recommend “alternative worship” experiences or “house church models” and the way those terrible moderns market the “purpose driven” church. In both cases we are being called towards relevance.
I recently re-read Henri Nouwen’s, In The Name Of Jesus and was reminded that the way of Jesus was not one of relevance. Nouwen reminds us that it is more important to love Jesus than to be relevant. This push for relevance is what turns us into marketing strategist rather than ecclesial dreamers and pastoral leaders. Relevance requires us to be competitive. We begin to rationalize ministry in a way that does not make any sense. “If giving a cup of cold water is good than certainly giving more than one is better.” “If church A has 100 people mine would be so much better with 200…” Perhaps this tendency to evaluate how well a ministry is doing by how many people they minister to is really the temptation to be relevant. Influencing large numbers of people is proof of our relevance. It affirms our importance. It reassures us that we are indeed important. (It also makes us more vulnerable to the second and third temptations Nouwen addresses in the book—to be popular and to lead)
So maybe there is no problem with alternative worship experiences or purpose driven church models if they are built on the foundation of loving Jesus. Perhaps it is time to rekindle and reignite the desires of pastors and dreamers to follow Christ away from relevance and towards something else. Could we begin to imagine building our faith communities on a foundation of love for God and a desire to exercise our giftedness in service to others in the name of Jesus instead of the desire to influence a lot of people? Thinking like this is dangerous. It may require us to go in directions we would rather not go. Of course, Nouwen reminds us of that as well…