Am I Relevant?

I think I have had just about enough of that word. Everywhere I go I see it. I think most of the time it can be pretty egocentric. For the church it has come to be a morally and spiritually cosmetic term. It has always been used in the past for politics and economics. It is now a crossover buzz word. I am not so sure it is so healthy. I am not sure I know what it means. It seems to breed discontent and inspire imitation. Maybe we have needed a good buzz. Who knows? It is hard to keep up. I guess that could make me irrelevant. I know what I need. Does knowing what I need make me relevant or does how I get what I need make me relevant? What is a relevant Christian? Is the Old lady living down the street who had been the nursery worker for the church, for free, for the past 20 years relevant? Is the church with all the lights, camera, action that money can buy as relevant?

I also know that I am not about to start church bashing. That might make me irrelevant as well. We have all had our times of discontent with the Church. "I just got tired of all the show" or "I had heard it my whole life and was sick of the hypocrisy." or "It was so old-fogey that I found another hip Church." "He is too prosperity." "He is too judgmental."

With the help of God, I will not become cold and hardened to the Bride of Christ like I was 8 years ago. I would still be mad at the Church if it weren't for that little African American Church in Waco Texas 8 years ago, that hired me to play piano for them for 100 bucks a week.

I took the job because I needed the money, desperately. Prior to the Job, I had decided that I didn't like Church. I arrogantly thought that I had a better grasp on theology than most of the preachers that I was hearing and I didn't need to hear them yapping false or incomplete doctrine. I prayed, daily and I felt God's presence when I did. In fact, I was so Godly that I thought it was OK to date who ever I wanted, Christian or not. Right in front of me, the enemy had dug a trench and was starting to fill it with troops and supplies for a full out invasion. All because I felt the church had become irrelevant to me. God had not given up on me though, and was already planning the counter-offensive.

He did it with a job offer through a friend. I said yes. Taking that Church Job changed and saved my life. The first few Sundays were nerve-racking. I had to play with the preacher. Now if you are as white as I am and you have to play "soul music" while the preacher gets fired up, ON THE PIANO, NOT EVEN THE HAMMOND, then you might get nervous as well. I was forced to pray for help. "God what in the H-E-double-hockey-sticks do I do? I don't know when to play the soul chords???? I decided with the help of the Holy Spirit to play whenever I felt the urge to say "Amen." It worked! The pastor and I got worked up to a frenzy and emotions ran at 7000 volts that Sunday. However, as fun as all that was I left that Sunday just as calloused as ever. I walked away and decided to write a piece of art music for piano and a taped-black church service.

Finally two Sundays later, God broke me. I sat in awe that Sunday as a black man in his forties got up to give thanks. He had a limp so he hobbled to the stage and with his big booming voice he began to testify. I expected him to ask for prayer, to ask for money, healing... something that resembled what I had grown used to.

Instead he began to speak of how grateful he was that God had saved him. He had been in jail for 5 years and after he lost everything from a drug addiction he found his Savior, Jesus. It wasn't a dramatic overblown rehearsed testimony. It was simply stated. It was almost understated in fact. It had the power of that still small voice hidden in its subtlety. He was changed. He was thankful for everything that he had at that time, and it wasn't much. Then he gave thanks right then and there. Each thanks was accompanied by a thunder of "Amens." He thanked God for the roof over his head. He thanked God that he didn't have to be afraid anymore. He thanked God that he had food to eat. He also thanked God for small things like when a woman bought him a pack of cigarettes the previous day and that it was helping him not to want to smoke pot. He thanked God that his children were speaking to him again. He spoke as if he had the wisdom of something ancient. Powerful and clear, his simple words cut right through me. Scripture flowed from his mouth as though he had known it his whole life when he had only read it days before. It was the Spirit of the living God that was shooting me in the heart through this Saved by Grace Sinner.

I began to understand that nothing but that can change a man. This was something unique to meeting together as Christians. No matter how relevant your service gets. There is nothing more powerful than the Holy Spirit speaking through a changed life. Whether in words or in action.

From the day I stepped foot in that Church to the day I left, that Church Loved me. They welcomed me and thanked me for my gifts, every week. A few weeks after his testimony I sang a solo. I was nervous. I had decided when I was 13 that I would never sing in Church. At 13 I begged God to remove the desire to sing in church from me. For some reason, I sang that first "testimony in song" in that church 12 years later. The hymn was "He Leadeth Me." As I sang, they verbally confirmed that message. Every Sunday, they loved me again and again. That Love broke my heart. I began to see the Church again as it is and as it will be. I began to Love God again because he first Loved me. He loved me right through my sarcastic and calloused indifference. Never has a Church been more relevant to me in my life, my pilgrimage to the gates of heaven, than at that time in that little 40 member church in East Waco Texas.

I always hope to be that kind of relevant to the people I meet until the day I die. I hope they see how grateful I am that Jesus saved me and He saves me everyday. I hope that the Light of Christ shines so bright, that it can shine into the darkest, jaded heart. Then I will be relevant. The Love of Christ that flows through me becomes manna to a hungry world. It is what people really want. We don't want relevance. We want God. It is that simple.