Ingredients To Successful Ministry Part Two

Almost all growing ministries are using media to illustrate their teaching and preaching. It is almost necessary in this media driven culture to communicate using videos, music, movie clips, etc. to convey our Biblical messages. Computers and video projection have become a vital part of our communication within the churches and ministries. It is part of being "relevant". Jesus was relevant to his hearers. He used seeds, harvest, and sowing to communicate to the agricultural culture of his listeners. He spoke of nets, fish, and spoke from boats to the fishing communities. The challenge is staying relevant without crossing the line of being irreverent. We must be careful that in our effort to be relevant we do not compromise our Christian values.

A number of years ago my family moved into a new area. We were church hunting. Many people were talking of a new church that was meeting in a local YMCA. It was the fastest growing church in an area that had an abundance of churches. We decided to give a try on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. As we drove in the parking lot we were warmly directed to a parking space by the parking ministry. We were greeted at the door with a strong handshake, a smile, and directions to the Starbucks coffee and donuts (Yea!!!). So far this church was doing great in the second "R", being relational. I was even allowed to take my precious Starbucks coffee into the sanctuary! Awesome! The service began without a prayer, Hmmm? An acoustical group came forth and opened with a song made popular at that time by the Dixie Chic’s, "Landslide". I have used secular songs and changed the words to convey a Christian message to reach kids. I heard that "Amazing Grace" was once a bar song and the writer changed the words. No words were changed in this song, but I thought that the pastor was going encourage us on how life's challenges can come land sliding down on us but Jesus can pull us out of the rubble. I was trying to stay open. The liturgy was not what I was accustomed to as I thought praise and worship was next, but the pastor followed up the song with an introduction to a video clip on the big screen. The clipped rolled and the popular characters from the show "Friends" came to the big screen. I am not too pious to say that I have not watched and enjoyed the show, but there were parts of the show that sometimes I got convicted for watching and enjoying. On this clip all the characters were sitting around a table trying to celebrate Thanksgiving. Someone had forgotten the turkey and they were sharing a grilled cheese sandwich, each making a comment as they passed it around. The last one to get the sandwich and make a comment was Chandler. His comment was "This s__cks!" The line of being relevant and reverent had been crossed for me. I half heartedly tried to stay open thinking, "I would not have used that clip but surely the pastor will redeem this as he used the clip to illustrate his message. He preached a good message about the memorial stones that Joshua pulled from the Jordan River. He never used the "Landslide" song or the video clip as part of the illustrations to his sermon. They were there just because they were relevant to the culture of that time. Did he cross the line? Was being reverent compromised to be relevant?

In my first blog I used the illustration of a cake recipe. Too many eggs and the cake is no good. Too much sugar and only we sugarholics will like it. We must always measure and evaluate our ministries. In our zeal to communicate relevantly we must be careful to not compromise our being reverent towards Jesus. I believe this is one of the greatest challenges to those called to teach and preach today. How far can we go to illustrate our messages before we compromise our Christian values? Please, preachers and teachers, do not stop in your efforts to relevantly communicate. I personally enjoy a good object lesson or video clip when you communicate. We need to just prayerfully evaluate our efforts and ask the Holy Spirit to help us communicate so we do not bring an offense to our Lord or others.

In my next blog I hope to reverse this thinking and see that we can be so reverent (religious) that we can become irrelevant.