Welcome! In this post Josh shares nine ways Christians can show Christ relevant in our secular culture.
We can’t just claim “Christ is truth” anymore, says Josh. We must provide historical evidence for the truthfulness of the Bible, but also share the deep and personal convictions we’ve gained through our committed walk with Christ.
Is Christ Relevant in Our Modern World?
Sadly, many young people have bought into the secular idea that there is no absolute truth. But God’s standard of truth has not changed. What has changed is our tolerance for “situational” truth.
But when “truth” is situational, is it really truth? Vegetarians, for example, believe their “truth” that it’s wrong to eat animals. Nudists believe their “truth” that clothes are a hindrance. Abortion centers believe their “truth” that killing babies isn’t murder. Scammers believe their “truth” that it’s acceptable to steal what doesn’t belongs to them. Each is simply citing the “truth” of their personal values.
Tolerance used to mean respectfully acknowledging other viewpoints without endorsing them. Now tolerance is defined as needing to respect all values, beliefs, and lifestyles as equal and valid. This only works in Fantasy Land. We know this, but we’re trying to live like boundaries don’t matter.
So why are we still sending people to prison? We are lawyers still arguing on behalf of their clients?
If there is no real truth, Josh reminds us, there are no real answers. Which leads to society spiraling ever lower. “People say, ‘I’m smart enough to create my own moral code,” says Josh. “But if we accept that norm, we justify even the actions of mass murderers.”
“Truth” is not what we simply choose to believe it is. That’s opinion.
Josh’s 9 Steps for Showing Christ Relevant to the World
Step 1: Create Community
Our society is full of broken people from broken homes suffering the fallout of dysfunctional relationships. How do today’s youth view success? One of the top rankings is a happy home life. People want to experience real love. You and I are to commit to loving so fiercely that people take note and wonder, “How is this possible?” We will sometimes fail — but even in messy brokenness we can point to our source: Christ. Invite people into your life. See them as God sees them: as worthy and loved and cherished.
Step 2: Demonstrate Christ-like Compassion
Josh reminds us that it is only when we are convinced that another cares about us that we allow them to have influence in our life. Our churches should be known for their outreach ministries — but you and I need to be the ones signing up to participate to give these ministries life. We also need to minister in our personal lives. Are we good neighbors? Are we good friends? Are we willing to help a stranger, just for the opportunity to be like Christ? Ask God to help you live selflessly like Jesus.
Step 3: Context Truth Relationally
Bottom line: we must live out the truth of Christ through loving relationships. Do we allow others to take up our time when they need a helping hand or shoulder to cry on? Or do we live conditionally, only “serving” when we feel like it or because we think we’ll benefit? If you and I are to have the honor of showing Christ relevant in other people’s lives, we must do from a position of authentic relationship. We can build trust with people through grand gestures, but we build real intimacy by showing up, again and again, over time.
Step 4: Creatively Communicate Your Personal Testimony
Nothing will have more impact on showing Christ relevant to others than our effectively sharing our testimony. Can you confidently share ways that Christ has/is making a difference in your life? “Some people try to tell me they don’t have a testimony,” says Josh, “but I say, ‘Yes you do! You’re just being lazy. Set aside time to identify how your life was before Christ, how you came to know Christ, and how He’s changed your life.'”
It is because Josh has put in so many hours thinking about concrete examples to answer these questions that his personal testimony rings with authenticity and power. Because Josh KNOWS how Christ is relevant in his life, he is ever ready to share his testimony when asked. You and I should be just as prepared and hopeful at getting the chance to share ours. Start with this post about answering questions about Jesus.
Step 5: Demonstrate Caring Relationships
In our high-tech world, people crave caring relationships. As Josh puts it, “High tech calls for high touch.” The Church has the unique opportunity to meet this craving through loving community. But, again, entering a church can be an intimidating experience — especially for a non-believer who assumes s/he will be outed for not know when to sit, stand, pass the offering bucket, or even which book in the pew is the Bible.
People! We need to make sure we’re making it easy and comfortable for anyone to kick the tires of a church. That doesn’t mean we soften the message of our need for a Savior. It means we lead with caring. So the next time you go to church, don’t just say hi to the people you already know. Say hi to at least five people — especially those who look a bit anxious. Your friendly gesture of inclusion may be the single reason they decide to come back.
Step 6: Be Christ’s Love
It’s no big deal to love the lovable. But we enter a whole different ballgame when we show grace and patience and kindness to people who aren’t. The world is watching how you and I respond to the rude grocery cashier or jerky driver who just cut us off. The world is watching how we treat the homeless, convicts, and the adulterer next door that the neighborhood is having a field day gossiping about. “It’s loving the unlovable that will reach people’s hearts and minds to consider Jesus as the source of true love,” says Josh. “That’s the supernatural truth about the Christian faith.”
Beth Moore’s story about brushing a stranger’s hair in the airport always strikes me as the perfect example of showing Christ’s love. As Beth says, “When we are filled to the measure with the fullness of Christ, you cannot believe the needs we can meet. We can do what we know we can’t.” When we allow it, God can do through us what we simply can’t do on our own.
Step 7: Demonstrate Conspicuous Christ-like Marriage and Family
There can be no argument that America’s acceptance of easy divorce has severely handicapped the stability of the family unit. Why work hard on something that is just so much easier to leave behind? Kids suffer from the decisions of their parents on so many levels.
Today, youth truly don’t really know what the word “committed” means. They throw away their water bottles, they toss their barely used clothing, their gadgets, and their friends, when convenient. It’s the model society has shown them to follow. But Christ-followers can make a difference by giving power and purpose to the word “committed.” We can demonstrate Christ’s humility and selflessness and generosity.
We can demonstrate sticking to hard stuff because it’s the right thing to do. We can offer selfless love. We can demonstrate the joy of living within God’s boundaries. “What has opened more doors for me to impact culture,” shares Josh, “has to do with the love I demonstrate for my wife and children.”
Step 8: Develop Credible Convictions
Before you and I can share our faith or testimony, we have to put in the work of growing the convictions we hold. As Josh mentioned above, some Christians have gotten lazy. To them, Christianity is a passive relationship, not an active, living/breathing relationship that gives their life peace and clarity and power.
Some Christians have never even read the Bible!
Here Josh gets very direct: If someone asks you why you take the truth of Christ at His word, and your reply is, “Because that’s what I was taught,” you prove the weakness of the foundation for your faith. Two other “dumb answers,” says Josh, are “Because I believe it” and “Because I have faith.” Muslims have belief and faith. So do Mormons and Hindus and Buddhists and the New Age crowd. So how is your faith in Christ any different? “Faith,” says Josh, “doesn’t make something true.” Only truth makes it true.
It’s a problem when the Church teaches a belief system without conviction. A conviction, explains Josh, is not just what you believe, but why you believe it, and how you’ve experienced it in your own life. Take the phrase “Jesus saves.” In your own life, what does that mean?
How has God showed you that 1) you matter to Him, that 2) He is changing you, and 3) That you can trust Him. Are you convinced, for example, that God is good, even when you don’t get what you want? The conviction that God is good, all the time, can only take root in our lives when we let go of how we think God should show up. We take Him at His word that He has a good plan for our life.
Step 9: Congregate With People
Jesus didn’t check into a hotel in each town and tell the crowds to grab a number to visit with Him. What Jesus did do was make Himself accessible. He risked hanging with people that the religious leaders viewed so beneath them that interacting with them would soil both their fine clothing and their souls. But what they should have done, says Josh, is “throw the pearls, and let God decide who is swine.”
The point is to not set ourselves up as better than others, and to seek to create relationship with anyone needing God — even those that society disrespects or ridicules. Do you volunteer at church as a teacher or greeter? Have you served at a homeless shelter or food bank? Have you delivered meals to a shut-in?
Have you participated in a prison ministry or a home for unwed mothers? Jesus loved loving on “sinners” because He felt compassion for the hurting. He was always on mission to draw them into loving relationship with God.
Is Christ relevant? Yes! Yesterday, today, and tomorrow! Let us wisely show this truth to the world. God, alone, does the drawing of people to Him, so don’t feel like you have to know exactly what to say. Just be an open conduit that God can use, and God will will work through you to change hearts and minds.
NEXT STEPS
> Interested in knowing God personally? Get started with this really good info.
> Need prayer for more power in your faith? Contact us. We would love to pray for you!
> Connect with our Resolution Movement. Find freedom from your sin!
> We invite you to read Josh’s book, More Than a Carpenter. This short apologetics classic examines the historical evidence of Jesus. He died. He rose. He lives. He is our hope and example!
