Making Church Relevant

Should churches make use of all of the talents of their members? Sure. Should they strive for inclusion and making people feel at home culturally? Probably. Should the compromise the mission of the church and futhermore Christ so that people are "happy" at church? Absolutely not. 

This project on the Mosaic church and Mars Hill in Seattle made me think about the way that we use our members to structure the church at large. Both of the churches, especially Mosaic really reached out to their community in that they were versatile and open to what all members could bring something to the table. They were open-minded and seemingly very busy. They had members involved in the arts, medical missions, graphic novels, singing and audio-visual things all across the board. I really appreciated this about the church. They had venues for all people to serve in all capacities and seemed to be dreaming up new ways in the mean time. 

The only critical argument that I would have is that this might not challenge people to invest and try new ways of passion and service. I think it is great to get plugged into a group of people like you in a ministry that you have God-given passion for. But I think that it would allow people to get plugged in and never leave their area of service to explore what other things they might be good at. 

Scripturally, I think of I Corinthians and how it says that we are all part of a body and how that body functions together. I think that this is a great image (obviously, it's God's image) but I think that we can look at it like, how do we know that a finger isn't a toe. Well, it works on the hand and not the foot. It might kind of work on the foot, but not really because it is meant to be a part of the hand. If the finger never tried working with the other part of the hand, but on the foot, it would serve and do great, but never fulfill what it was truly made for. 

I think that a balance of assimilating the culture and remaining intact in the message of Jesus is the best way to go. The answer is not black and white, but grey, as it usually is. I would advise any minister, church, family, and Christian to evaluate if this ministry is congruent and vital to loving God and bringing people to Him through Christ and if so, do it with all your heart, mind, and strength; if not, step back and think about why you are really pursuing this.