Getting Real and Being Heard

Tough call this–how do you stay contemporary and relevant and yet radical and different. For instance I love my church because it is missional, contemporary and positive. And yet we know we need only lose balance a fraction and we become superficial, cheesy and hyped.

Jesus was missional, contemporary and positive. He lived for others, spoke their language and introduced them to grace. But He was also counter-cultural and challenging. His message was out of step with what both the religious authorities and the man in the street really wanted to hear. And His challenge crazily unrealistic- “If any man would follow after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.”

Today we are tempted to apply that verse in one of two ways. We either take it as a challenge to live an austere life of denial in stark contrast to the contemporary ethos of unashamed hedonism. Or we apply it to our worldly value system, and see denial as a sort of trade off- give to God (or more precisely to your pastor), and you will get back a zillion times more.

There are of course problems with both approaches. The first sounds more noble, but often isn’t so much a response to Christ’s work of salvation as part of our own- in other words religion. The second- well honestly its hard to know where to begin!

The third way is by far the hardest. It isn’t a sixties style drop out of society, nor is it a trendy buy in. It is in fact: Stay in but don’t buy in. Jesus is our model. Our lives are connected enough to be visible, and our message contemporary enough to be intelligible. Yet the challenge is unashamed and undiluted. It is utterly counter-cultural. It isn’t more of the same old same old, appealing to a worldly mindset by justifying and even fueling our selfish ambitions. It is a message of denial, pain and oh yes reality. Real because it is a genuine response of love to a Jesus we’re proving relevantly and visibly in our day to day lives. Real because the reality is seen in us. Now that is attractive. Tough, but hugely attractive.

Written by Colin Piper