Every time we present a Bible study here at Disruptive Reality, we seek to come away with a relevant lesson. In other words, how can we apply what the Bible is talking about to daily life? What we don’t do here at DR his attempt to inject cultural relevance into Christianity. We don’t do it because it’s a trap.

God, by his very nature, is relevant. Everything he says in his Word is relevant to daily life. There is no need to inject cultural relevance into Christianity just to make our faith attractive to the lost world. And in fact, cultural relevance actually makes Christianity no different than pagan worship. Therein lies the trap.

Topical vs. Line-by-Line Study

It is my personal opinion that the need for cultural relevance was originally born out of topical preaching as opposed to line-by-line Bible study. By extension, the habit of pastors preaching topical messages was born out of confusion about the purposes of preaching and teaching.

Preaching is for the lost. What do we preach to them? Messages about sin, salvation, and the gospel. Preaching is not for the saved. Did Paul or any of the other apostles preach to a Christian audience? No. The apostles taught God’s people.

Ergo, pastors should not be preaching in their pulpits on Sunday. They should be teaching God’s people. Furthermore, the only correct way to teach is line-by-line. Yet line-by-line teaching is a lot more work. It’s more work for pastor and church member alike.

Topical messages are a lot easier. They are easier to prepare, easier to listen to, and easier to be emotionally attached to for a few hours before forgetting them and moving on. This takes us to the idea of cultural relevance.

It Makes People Happy

It’s obvious that most Christians don’t care for line-by-line study. It’s evident just by measuring church attendance. Churches that teach line-by-line have comparatively low attendance. Meanwhile, churches that do topical have higher attendance. But wait. Let’s go one step further.

The biggest churches, what we would consider today’s megachurches, go beyond topical. They combine the topical teaching mentality with cultural relevance. And guess what? That makes people happy. Teach a 4-week series based on the most popular TV show at the moment and you will draw a large crowd. Follow that up with a 4-week series based on some other icon of pop culture and the folks will keep coming back. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Why It’s a Trap

The title of this post proposes that injecting cultural relevance into Christianity is a trap. Now let’s discuss why. It boils down to the fact that culture changes. God does not. Scripture tells us that he is the same yesterday, today, and forever. God does not change with the times. He does not modify his character, principles, or will to keep up with our cultural norms.

When we attempt to inject cultural relevance into Christianity, we ignore the God of the Bible – or at least those parts of his Word and character that don’t align with the culture. For example, the dual goals of promoting feminism and emasculating men are directly contrary to God’s Word. So culturally relevant pastors ignore that part of the Word so as to allow the church to promote feminism and male emasculation.

Whenever we do that, we are no longer serving the God of the Bible. We are creating for ourselves a new god in our own image. My friends, that is idolatry. Among all the sins God hates the most, idolatry is near the top of the list.

Pagans With a Christian Dressing

In short, injecting cultural relevance into Christianity pulls us away from the genuine God of the Bible and encourages us to start serving a god of our own imaginations. Then we really aren’t Christians after all. We’re just pagans who put a Christian dressing on our worship.

My advice is to stay away from cultural relevance. God is, and always will be, relevant by the mere fact that he is God. He does not change. He does not adhere to our cultural evolution. In fact, the whole point of Christianity is to align us with him – not the other way around.

Posted on: April 13, 2024