Relevance
by Pastor Cliff Myers
MC Midweek
May 3, 2023
It was 1995 when by personal choice and God’s leading, I transitioned from fully-funded ministry to co-vocational ministry. How did I make my living at that time? Computers. Yes, computers. Look at the computer room in the picture above.
Yes, there were main frames and tape backups and card readers similar to what you see in the picture at Good Samaritan Hospital’s computer room. And yes, they carried the IBM brand as do those in this picture, and we had operators whose jobs were eventually phased out. Even in 1995, it was like taking a step back into the past. It seemed so irrelevant, but it was functional. Yes, the software we ran was Meditech and it ran on a main frame computer. Now those were not your proverbial boat anchors, but like obsolete tanks taking up space in military storage.
My how things have changed since then. Today it is changing way too fast. AI (Artificial Intelligence) is getting really frightening.
More than in the past, the Church has an incredible opportunity to lead with cultural relevance and to have influence.
I am not sure how one sees things around the curve today, predicting and staying relevant. Relevance is not about being cool, creative, or clever; it is about that ability to connect with others. I believe the Bible says “love conquers all.”
The old gospel is the new gospel. It is never irrelevant. Why? Because being relevant means it matters. God’s word may have been translated many times, but it is still protected by the Holy Spirit. Yes, the culture has changed, the Biblical versions have changed (KJV, NKJV, NIV, NLT, CSB), but God does not change, and the Bible is just as relevant as it was when it was recorded by the writers. Does the Bible change lives? Yes. Then it is relevant. Friends, the Word is still the Seed.
Now we need to embrace innovation and change. The message stays the same, but the methods change as the culture changes. At one time people carried their Bibles to church; now Bibles are in their smartphones and on tablets. When I started in ministry, no church had a website or Facebook page. In fact, it was 12 years after I started ministering as a pastor that the world wide web (WWW) came on the scene. Today, if your website or Facebook is outdated, not user friendly, or not up to date, the church appears irrelevant.
Relevance matters. The Bible matters. Jesus matters.
