Sunday, May 20, 2007

Relevance?

Some say that the church should be more relevant to the culture and surrounding society: Address felt needs, adapt message to audience, be encouraging and non-confrontational.

Others say that the church should instead not be too focused on being relevant, but being faithful to the biblical truth first. That one should not compromise biblical truth, that one should not be worldly minded, and be concerned more with the truth rather than making this truth 'relevant' to the world, according to world understanding.

Who is correct?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

My two cents: I think it's a false dichotomy; truth is relevant. I'm just thinking about the universality of great literature: Shakespeare, Homer, Milton, Vergil, etc. However, packaging does help (whether or not it should is a separate question). Truth can be made boring; beauty dull. -Joy Morris

Conrade Yap, (Dr) said...

Joy,
It has been a long while. Hope all is well with you.

Interesting comment you made, which should provide food for thought for both groups. I remember hearing from some professor that truth is only truth if done in the right manner, by the right person, in the right time, at the right tone, in the right context, with the right people, using the right content... and so on. Context is key. I like your last statement. Great contrast.

c

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