Unavoidable Relevancy

"Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, 'The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.'" Matthew 9:35-38 (NIV).

God desires us to reach out to the lost people of this world. Jesus Himself had compassion on the helpless because they were like sheep without a shepherd. Since we are called to be like Christ, we must have the same view towards the people of this world.

It is easy to use these verse to build a barrier between Christians and the world. Just because the people of the world are referred to as a "harvest" doesn't mean that they are an object to be won. These people are in need of relationships and a God who cares about them and offers salvation. We must carry this message to these people.

In order to reach people with the God's liberating grace, we must do a number of things. First, we need to get out of our box and build relationships with people in this world. This can be done through missions trips, community service, conversing with co-workers, and creating opportunities to connect with the lost. Second, we need to shape the church with cultural relavency. The apostle Paul writes that we are called to live in the world and not of the world. In other words, as Christians we need to be emmerced in culture in order to make a difference. Although we live in today's world, we do not follow the ways of the world. Instead, we are to live a life the reflects the life of Christ. Again, Christ befriended the lowest of the low in his world. He had compassion on people that the rest of the world rejected. Our calling should be the same. We need to reach out to the culture we live in.

We cannot ignore the needs of the culture. Our churches cannot be caught with a complacent attitude that desires to stick with the status quo. Culture is changing, therefore the way we reach out to the lost is changing. This does not mean that we try to follow trends or fads. We just need to be aware of the fact that the church needs to change in order to most effectively reach our culture. We need to be the church in the world. This change may be painful, but we need to be constantly seeking to refine how we fulfill our purpose in order to be effective. But our message does not change. God is still the same and He offers us an amazing gift: salvation.