OK, this is a little study :) I'm teaching with a friend on Sunday night. Just thought I'd throw it out there for 'whoever' to see and comment on. Yes, I'll welcome comments.
Opener: Have someone tall like Sam try to read a book to one of the kids while standing (not at the same level) maybe a computer tech manuel, then at a lower level... a kids book.
1. Marcia: Relevance is a term used to describe how pertinent, connected, or applicable something is to a given matter. A thing is relevant if it serves as a means to a given purpose.
Alicia: God has always humbled himself to the level of humanity. Therefore, as imitators of Christ, we should meet others where they are. We must follow his example of self-sacrifice. We should meet all people in the middle of their problems, insecurities, and confusion. We do not have to clean up or achieve a certain level of maturity before God will accept and embrace us.
Key Thoughts: God is always relevant.
Always meet people where they are.
2. What attitudes does it take to be relevant?
Alicia: Love should be our motivation to be relevant. Without love, we'll just be like a clanging cymbol :) People, even those close to us, won't be able to "hear" us.
Marcia: John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever should believe in him, should not perish, but have everlasting life."
Gal. 5:13-14 "For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."
Alicia: Humility frees us up to be relevant. A prideful heart or attitude gets in the way of putting others first.
Marcia: Jesus is the ultimate example again. He gave up everything to become human like us. Phil. 3:7-8 "But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."
John 8:1-11 The story of the woman caught in adultery, before whom Jesus knelt.
Alicia: A servant's heart is needed to be relevant. A servant is self-sacrificing or meek. Meekness is yielding my rights and expectations to God.
Marcia: Paul's teaching in Athens...1 Cor. 9:19-23 "though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings."
3. What hinders us from being relevant?
Key Thoughts: Relevance is uncomfortable.
Most of us prefer rigidity.
Hypocrisy vs. transparency
Convert focused vs. focused on cultivating spiritual relationships
Anti homosexual vs. loving my enemies
Sheltered from sinners vs. becoming part of 'sinners' lives
Too political vs. promoting Jesus
Judgmental vs. compassionate and merciful
Marcia: Reads excerpt from book...
Need
Vision
Initiative
Program
Reinvention
Institution
Tradition
"All human relationships or organizations have a similar beginning that is based on the discovery of a need or opportunity."
NEED--a realization by someone that there is something to be accomplished. A problem awaiting a solution. An opportunity waiting to be seized. A product that needs to be produced. A ministry that needs starting.
A NEED GENERATES A VISION.
VISION--the moment when someone says, "this is what we should do about the need." (Periodically revisit the need and vision, to see if they're still valid. If the need has changed, then the vision has to change.)
A VISION GENERATES AN INITIATIVE.
INITIATIVE--the first experimental efforts that make the vision real. Excitement, involvement. Tryout time. Nothing except the vision is sacred at this point. If it doesn't work, it's changed.
AN INITIATIVE GENERATES A PROGRAM.
PROGRAM--that point where Initiative has been tested; you can do it over and over with the same results. (ex. Sunday school program)
"In the last part of the 18th century, a man by the name of Robert Raikes became deeply concerned about the number of desperately poor children running the streets of the city of Gloucester. These were kids with no hope of education or character training. If they were negleced, they would become a danger to themselves and to the community. For Raikes that smelled like a NEED. His VISION was to start a school that would meet on Sunday when the children were not pressed to be at work. The INITIATIVE--opening a single school--was so successful, that he and his people had almost two thousand kids involved within three or four years.
"When word about this got around England, people began to replicate Raikes' Sunday school in other cities. So the initiative became a PROGRAM--something repeated over and over again in different places. It was phenomenally successful."
How long can programs last? Indefinitely, but only as long as they continue to meet the need and fulfill the vision.
From PROGRAM to INSTITUTION--a bundle of programs that have worked reasonably well over a long period of time. Now things get complicated: you now need strategies (how you animate your vision and resource your programs), space (where the vision and programs take place), and staff (the people who make everything happen).
Dangers: People may become more interested in running the institution than in getting the results defined by the need and the vision. Institutions tend to take on a life of their own. You may end up serving the institution than it serving you. You get bogged down in procedures and paperwork, meetings, rules and policies.
TRADITION: where people do certain things over and over again but have no idea why. They have lost their memory of the original need and vision.
REINVENTION: You take a look at something you've been doing the same way over and over again and find a totally new way to do it that fits the world you live in now. You go back to the drawing board and ask, Are will still confident we know the needs and the vision that speaks to them? ( Put this between PROGRAM and INSTITUTION--the only place where things are like to be running smoothly.) This is the time to take new risks and try new things.
Jesus shook the traditions of the teachers of the law, and Pharisees.
Matthew 23--Jesus' seven woes to the temple leaders. Jerusalem unsafe for prophets. Jesus has longed to show them love. "Your house is left to you desolate." "You will not see me again.." He's "out of there." The temple is going to become like a desert.
Matthew 24:1--JESUS LEFT THE BUILDING. "Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to Him to call His attention to its buildings." Matthew 24:2: "Do you see all these things? he asked. "I tell you the truth, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down." The disciples saw buildings, and Jesus saw only things. From house--to buildings--to things--to stones. How quickly something powerful can become worthless...Jesus is saying to us--the church is not a building, institution or organization. A church is people--a LIVING ORGANISM.
Why can ministries or churches die? How important is relevance to Jesus?
Alicia: Visual demonstration of relevance using a prism
Ephesians 3:9-10 "to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God..."
This illustrates our ability to speak to the point of need in another person. The gospel is like a prism or diamond with many facets. God has given to each of us a special insight into the gospel because of our upbringing, background, struggles, etc. Each one of the reflected lights represent a different person's insight. The cool thing is the unity of where all these insights come from... one Lord. One prism, many lights. Our job is to spin that prism to find the particular angle of the gospel that meets the particular need of the person to which we are ministering. Jesus' parables are an example of this. Key point here: Ask God to give you deep understanding of that one person - then ask God to spin down the Gospel to meet his need.
Discussion Questions:
1. By being more relevant, could we change the world's perspective of how Christians are viewed? Do you have a specific story illustrating how your relevance changed someone's viewpoint?
2. Do you see yourself dividing people up, or separating yourself from people with different needs? What kind of needs do you see in Surry? ex. elderly shut-ins, lonliness, drugs, no goals or vision, racially divided
3. What are some rights or expectations you could give up to be more relevant to someone with a different heart need?
