The Church and Irrelevance

As you may know, I’ve been wading through the book by James Montgomery Boice; “Foundations of the Christian Faith.”  In the book, Boice goes into great depth on many topics having to do with Christianity and the Christian faith.  In one chapter, he talks about “The Secular Church.”  That is, the church that is abandoning divine authority in favor of the voice of human reasoning and understanding.  He outlines four consequences of that abandonment and substitution of humanity’s reasoning.

First, he says it produces “a pitiful state of uncertainty and insecurity in church leaders.”

“Church leaders,” says Robin Scroggs, professor of New Testament at the Chicago Theological Seminary, “find ourselves in the abyss of a continual uncertainty…we have no assurance that where we happen to be is the best or final place to stand.”

Second, he says that the church turns “to the world and its values.”

“The secular world,” he says, “with its vacillating but audible words (is) the only place to which one could turn for direction.”

A third result, he says, “is a pragmatic dependence upon the fifty-one per-cent vote, the validation of values, goals, objectives and programs by consensus.  Earthly authority will inevitably take Scripture’s place.”

The fourth and final consequence Boice outlines comes from a quote by Peter Berger of Rutgers University.  Berger criticized the lack of authority in the church, which leads to irrelevance.  It was the word “irrelevance” that caught my eye and forced me to thoroughly digest Berger’s quote in the book by Boice.  Here is the quote.

“If there is going to be a renaissance of religion, its bearers will not be people who have been falling all over each other to be ‘relevant to modern man.’  Strong eruptions of religious faith have always been marked by the appearance of people with firm, unapologetic, often uncompromising convictions—that is, by types that are the very opposite from those presently engaged in the various ‘relevance’ operations.  Put simply:  Ages of faith are not marked by ‘dialogue,’ but by proclamation….  I would affirm that the concern for the institutional structures of the Church will be vain unless there is also a new conviction and a new authority in the Christian community.”

This is Jay again.  The church has been, and continues to struggle with irrelevance in today’s society.  I had a conversation just today with our pulpit minister on this topic, and he told me of a recent minister’s conference where the topic was the decline of the church.

Instead of installing more lighting, buying more instruments, putting on more pageants, and engaging in more concerts, perhaps we need to come down firmly on doctrine and the authority of the Scriptures…and do so with conviction…unapologetically.  I’m not talking about the dogma and traditions that have invaded Christendom for centuries…I’m talking about the foundations of the Christian faith.  God, Jesus Christ, the Atonement, Grace, Adoption, and the like.  Leave instrumental music, the name over the door of the building, the way we do communion, and women’s role in the church behind.  Concentrate instead on those things “which pertain to life and godliness.”  Preach them.  Speak them.  Live them.  And we may yet see that renaissance that is wistfully and longingly spoken of by so many.