One of the main messages I’ve been hearing since we started attending North Coast Calvary Chapel in Carlsbad, CA is making our faith relevant to our surroundings. This does not in any way mean compromising our faith to fit in to the culture but to be “in, but not of” the culture. Hugh Hewitt’s book, incidentally, is called “In, But Not Of” and has really added to my learnin’ lately. This big question that I, as a Christian, must answer is, is my faith relevant to others or will I sit back in the comfort of “churchianity”.
Now, how do we go about being relevant? That’s a question I’m still having answered but some things I’ve discovered include what information I take in. No, I’m not going to say out with the “secular”. In fact, I think there is a lot of energy wasted in the US church over things like end-times speculation, worrying about things we can’t control, looking for magic formulas, protesting too loud about things that really don’t matter and being “offended”. To most of these things I am or have been guilty.
What are the things that matter? Bottom line, it’s people and their lives here on earth and where they will spend eternity. Does it really matter to the person in Africa who has AIDS and will be dying soon that there is a big conference where more information about the second coming of Christ will be revealed? No, this person needs physical and, possibly, spiritual help. What am I doing to further my growth that will enable me to fulfill God’s plans? Am I spending too much energy on one thing that can have no real effect on eternity when I should shift that energy to something else?
I’m all for having a good time but how much of what we are ingesting is of much use? I know my weaknesses include too much TV, music and Internet browsing. None of those are bad themselves but if I spend 2 hours just reading about auto racing on the Internet and don’t take some time to read about the news or other relevant items then I’m out of balance. I even have to make sure my blogging is worthwhile for me. Am I just “adding to the noise” or do I really have something to say either to myself or to others?
I’m finding that my generation (I’m 39) is, for the most part, pretty darn immature, lazy, undisciplined, easily swayed and lacking a lot of knowledge. I find myself feeling that way too much. We don’t control ourselves very well, we eat too much, spend too much, watch too much TV and waste too much time on ourselves. I won’t be relevant until I can get the focus off my sorry self and start thinking about others. What can I do? Am I doing enough? How much time strikes the balance between time with my family and doing other things to help others? What’s my latest cop out? Is my life something others would look at and see Christ or just a judgmental jerk? What’s the balance between faith and politics? Do I really love the sinner and just hate the sin? What type of credibility do I have with others?
Intellectually, I think I know what it takes to make my faith relevant, but it’s just that my heart is too hard, lazy, busy and shallow to follow in a consistent way. The question I sometimes ask my kids is “how far is it from your head to your heart”. That’s a question I need to ask myself a bit more often.
How can my faith in Christ be of any relevance to the man dying of AIDS in Africa or to the friend down the next few cubicles who may not be feeling so well about themselves or to my sons as they grow up and decide is the faith of my dad worth anything? This is the question I need to answer with my heart not just my head.
