What Is Relevant?

There is a great buzz word that has been gaining favor in the Christian community over the past 8 to 10 years. Every day this word is heard in regards to how it compares to this subject or that subject implying that it is the measure of excellence, aptitude, and etc. for the day. That word is “relevant or relevance”. The great idea is that a ministry seeks to be relevant in today’s society. There are magazines, webzines, podcast, radio shows, ministries, groups, and like media all seeking to point to what is relevant or who is relevant to you the reader or listener. An advertiser’s job is to determine for its client how to prove their product relevant to a prospective buyer.

If you would bear with me for a spell, I would like to take a deeper look at this word and its application to our personal lives. How do you determine what is or is not relevant in your life? Well, first let’s look at the word “Relevant” and its meaning. The word relevant can be defined as having significant and demonstrable bearing on the matter at hand; affording evidence tending to prove or disprove the matter at issue or under discussion (www.merriam-webster.com). The word demonstrable stands out to me in this definition, demonstrable meaning to be capable of being demonstrated. If I can demonstrate something and my intentions are to prove something then I must be sure that I am absolute in my motives and in the purpose of the demonstration. For this reason let’s begin to look at the term relative as a demonstrable absolute truth. I don’t think I’m taking anything out of context here but please bear with me as I utilize my liberty.

Now, if you begin to look at something as being relative in these terms then things begin to take on a fresh, new, albeit simple meaning. There are some absolutes in this life that I know that I must adhere to. Gravity for example is an absolute and we all adhere to it or suffer the consequences. There are other absolutes, such as water has more hydrogen than oxygen therefore if I try to breathe it I will drown. Water is heavier than oil, the earth is round, and etc, etc… O.K. so you say “Well, this is all well and good Bryan but how does this apply to my life.” Here is the question again, what is relative? You say, “I don’t know it depends on what we are talking about.” You now have the entire point of this essay or blog. You see we want to say that, “To be relative is subjective.” It has to do with whatever subject is at hand. This is true to a certain extent but I would rather put this in the category of relevantism. Relevantism is when we begin to say that all truth is subjective to circumstance, personal taste, historical interpretation, personal perception, and etc. For example, I say that chocolate ice cream is the best, yet you say vanilla ice cream is the best; both are true statements. This is what I call relational perceptive truth. In that, how I view something as according to my personal perception is what is true for me and this is relevantism.

Relevantism is a great danger to society when it begins to co-exist in the presence of real relevance. This is what has happened to religion in America. Society has promoted that all religions are relevant. Because they have a right to exist and have massive amounts of followers then they are viewed as relevant. We’ve created the notion that religion or spiritualism is much like ice cream and whatever flavor you choose is relative. You alone have that choice and that choice is perfectly fine because you have that right. This is a relational perceptive truth, in that many are being led down false trails of relativity because they have perceived a false truth through some relational outlet that they were led to. Because of this they are on a path of which the only relevant fact is how it relates to true relevance.

What is relevant? Absolute truth is relevant! The only absolute that we have in this life is that God is God, the Alpha and the Omega, Jehovah, Abba Father, the creator; and that He sent His son Jesus Christ as the propitiation for our sin (1Jhn 4:10). That God loved this world/ His creation so much that he gave His son that we might have salvation (John 3:16). Everything else including gravity could change at any given moment compliant to God’s word and command. Having said this how do you determine what is relevant?

There is only one way the question of this article may be answered and that is first through the admittance and acceptance of the one true absolute fact that was mentioned in the prior paragraph. If we are going to measure our personal relevancy or the relevance of anything else, the first question must be does it have relevance in the truth of the gospel? When you begin to measure things by this standard suddenly this great word to be “Relevant” takes on an entirely new meaning or at least we’ve certainly raised the bar. If I am to be relevant then I must be a follower of Christ. In survey after survey to “Christians” the followers of Christ 30% or better will say they believe that Christ was who he said he was yet there may be other avenues to God. We are seeing these same numbers through our Insight surveys we are currently running. What has happened? What has and is happening is that we the “Church” have gotten caught up into societal relevantism and have allowed society to have a greater influence over our views and opinions than we have over it. In a recent Insight survey 95% Christians agreed that Jesus was the messiah and exactly who He said He was. Yet, in the same survey when asked the question about their faith 30% agreed that Christ might not be the only way. Christ position is the only relative point in this discussion in that He said, “I am the way the truth and the life no man comes to the father but by me.” (Jhn 14:6)

Now that we’ve established what being “relevant” is, how do you use it? Christ asked the question, (paraphrasing) “Who do you say that I am” to Peter. Peter’s reply was that Christ was the Son of the living God. Christ reply to him was that upon this rock He would build His church. He wasn’t referring to Peter as the rock but rather the truth of what had been revealed to Peter. If we are to determine whether something is relevant or not then we must determine how it stands in truth. For example you may ask the question, “Is what I do for a living relevant?” The answer would depend on how you reply to the question. If you said, “My job is relevant because it provides for my family”, then your answer would be wrong. If on the other hand you said, “My job is relevant because it serves as an opportunity for me to provide for my family, as per God's directive and for the finance of the gospel” then yes your job is relevant. Now this is a harsh reality. We must move from a state of allowing our “jobs, hobbies, and etc.” define who we are. Rather Christ, must be the true and final determination in your relevance. When everything in your being is concentrated on the provision of the gospel in your life and to the world you then become relevant to those around you. You are relevant in Christ eyes, but do you not have a greater calling? I know this sets a high bar and no you aren’t going to comply with this at all times because we are human and of a sinful nature. I believe this is what is implied when we come to that place of praying without ceasing. You realize that you are always in God’s presence and that He is the reason and rationale for everything.

Simply stated something is relevant in your life when it is based in absoluteness. That absoluteness is Jesus Christ. So when you are trying to determine the relativity of something be it personal, an individual, a church, or even ministries take a long look at how it stands along side the absoluteness of Christ and the word of God. If it is relative to you then your determination must begin here.

There is much more to come on this subject. I intend to do at least a three part series on our podcast “The Basin Broadcast”. The first installment will be out by the 3rd of April. I would invite you specifically to subscribe to our podcast by searching for the title through iTunes. It’s free to subscribe. This way you can be sure to get all three installments on this series and all other future podcast. Download them to your iPod and listen to them on the go, listen to them on your computer, or lay them on a CD to listen to at your leisure. Anyway you so choose, I hope that you will listen in. I’m sure God has something special in store for you