Is what we do relevant?

Richard Hardy asks what matters to people, and why it matters to the church.

Recently someone said something which made me want to cry. He said:

“I was deeply involved in church for years, and then one day I sat in the service listening to the sermon and thought ‘what relevance does all this have to my daily life?’ So I stopped going and I’m not going back any time soon!”

I heard a stat the other day that said there are 1,000 people a week leaving churches for almost exactly the same reason.

We can talk at length about communicating in a ‘relevant’ way, but realistically how we communicate cannot be more important than what we communicate. Yes, we need to communicate in a contemporary and engaging style, but this alone is not enough. We also need to start talking about the things people want to talk about – the things that matter to them.

In a survey of its readership, The Sun revealed that 85% of people said their family is the most important thing in their life. So if we want to address the issues that matter to people around us, we need to start talking about family life and the pressures people face. It seems crazy to ignore the one thing the vast majority of people want to talk about.

And the great news is that family life is something we all have in common. Being married or in a relationship, becoming new parents, family breakdown, stroppy teenagers, caring for elderly parents, grandparenting … the list goes on, and everything on that list affects people both inside and outside the church.

Family is part of the common ground upon which we can meet people, get to know them, serve them in their situations and live out God’s love in the way we engage.

Every church can do this. The question is: will yours?

Last Updated 30 November 2010