Being Relevant without Being Important

In a recent conversation with a European pastor of a small congregation I heard an important distinction. "Because we are not important, we try to be relevant." 

It is arguable that American Christians, and American Methodists of all types, have forgotten that our task isn't to be important, it is to be relevant. 

If we look at the ministry of Jesus we find that he never sought to be important. Satan gave him that opportunity from the very beginning and he rejected it. He rejected it at the end when he stood before Pilate and said "my kingdom is not of this world." Neither Satan nor Pilate had the insight to understand the difference between relevance and importance, and the always threatened powers and principalities of the world still don't. But Christians following Jesus should be able to see it clearly. 

From the beginning of his ministry Jesus' teaching and actions directly addressed the needs of real people in real time. If his actions came in conflict with the ideological commitments of those who were important he blew them off with a quick Talmudic aphorism while he moved forward to minister to those in need,. Instead of entering the whitewashed tomb that was their beit midrash he healed and preached in open air beside the sea. And in open air he hung on the cross, his final relevant act, a word, "today you will be with me in paradise," and a breath, "your will be done." 

Servant he was, and called himself, and ask his followers to be. Such are of no account, of no importance, yet supremely relevant. "for he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors." (Isaiah 53)

We forget this when our relevance turns into importance, when our ministries become essential to the functioning of secular society (and funding from secular society becomes essential to our ministries.) With our universities, colleges, and hospitals, we initially served the needs of the marginalized, following in the footsteps of Jesus. But as these were integrated into the fabric of American society (often bearing no more than a Christian name) their relevance turned into importance. And we began to expect to be treated so. With our high steeples in the city center and lining the highways we expected our bishops and pastors to be invited to the Oval Office. We expected that elected representatives would evoke our God in their business and that our officials could stalk the halls of Congress like every other important lobbying group. 

Tasting power, we have sought to leverage our importance in order to increase our relevance. 

And this is the devil's game for us to lose. It is the game that the religious leaders of the gospel stories tried to play with Rome. Do we think they handed over Jesus because they were evil men? If we know our own hearts we should know their hearts better. They wanted to leverage their importance at a critical moment in order to increase their relevance for the people to whom they ministered; to offer a sacrifice that would save their people. 

In reality increasing importance only makes us self-important .  And like the self-important in this world we hire PR firms to create ad campaigns, attack our rivals in social media, go to court with one another, boast of our global successes rather than in the Lord. Generations in need of good news of God's love, the peace that passes understanding, and the healing of the nations grope in the darkness while we offer the heat of battle instead of the light of Christ. Wait, we say, just let us become a little more important and then we'll be even more relevant to your longing for God. If we become influencers then we can use our influence for you. . .

In the depths of the Mekong Delta is a Christian congregation. You never heard of them.  Week by week they worship God, listen for the gospel, and care for their neighbors. Some of these neighbors hear good news and join them. Others, seeking importance and finding none, leave and go elsewhere. For these are not the beautiful people, the high fliers, the future leaders of the nation. They are rough farmers bent from hard work, shy students struggling to make the grade, shop keepers counting out a tithe from the nearly empty till, the wounded for whom there would be no healing but for the balm of voices lifted in prayer, the poor for whom the common lunch may be their only meal on Sunday.

"God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong, God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God."

I at least, am ashamed, and will let those who we have never heard of remind me that being important isn't the same as being relevant.