Irrelevant

For the word of God is living and active – sharper than a two edged sword piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joint and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.  Hebrews 4:12

Randy and I recently took a fabulous cruise to the Baltic Sea countries.  One of our stops was St. Petersburg, Russia.  We took a tour of the churches, palaces, and museums, and I was awed by the opulence and beauty.  Every structure we entered was huge, trimmed in golf leaf, and dripping in wealth and affluence.

One of the buildings that had been a church in years past was now a museum.  The guide said that in these countries, you don’t ask people if they are religious, it is not discussed.  It appears churches and religion have become irrelevant to many people in this country and in many other places.  Irrelevant is defined as not important or not connected.  It’s hard to believe that those beautiful places no longer connect to people or are important to them.

On our return, I was thinking how fortunate we are in this country that churches are still relevant.  However,the next day as I was talking to a neighbor of mine, I discovered that he is in the art production business.  He was telling me how his million dollar job at this moment is in a church where  they are replacing all the beautiful windows with new lighting and sound equipment, remodeling the altar, and making the church more relevant for the times.  He went on to say that it has to be done because the old way of doing things is irrelevant and that churches can’t make any money unless they keep up with the times.

I’ve got a couple of problems with this so called irrelevance.  First, when did churches exist to make money?  Secondly, who decides what is irrelevant or relevant?  Is it society, media, culture, or maybe the churches themselves?

It is disturbing to me that church attendance has become optional in this day of electronic access.  We are made to feel that it’s okay if we stay home and stream the service, but we are missing the point that the church itself is God’s place of encouragement and strength.  If we only attend fifty per cent of the time, we are missing the bond that binds us as Christians.

I actually can’t think of a time in our society when the need for churches and religion has been more relevant.  People are hungry for truths that are the same yesterday, today and forever.  Before we brand churches and religion as irrelevant, we need to remember that it’s the job of Christians to spread the good news to everyone who has eyes to see and ears to hear.  It’s up to us to help insure that churches and other places of worship are never branded irrelevant.