The Idol of Relevance

Relevance was supposed to make us relatable. Now It’s made us replaceable.

We used to preach repentance. Now we offer personal growth. We used to talk about sin. Now we call it struggle. We used to confront culture. Now we copy it, with better lighting and a Bible verse for a caption.

What began as a mission to reach people has turned into a performance to please them.

Everyone wants to be liked, especially pastors. But the moment you start shaping your message around what people will applaud, you’ve already traded conviction for compliance. When approval becomes addiction, we end up baptizing insecurity and call it strategy.

We water down our sermons so no one gets offended. We focus on building atmospheres, not altars. We produce experiences that overwhelm but never transform. And then we wonder why no one takes our message seriously.

There’s a subtle danger when every sermon sounds like a TED Talk and every worship set feels like a halftime show. We’ve confused being understandable with being unoffensive. We think the goal is connection, but along the way, we lost conviction.

True relevance isn’t about being cool. It’s about being clear. And clarity doesn’t always make people comfortable. Comfort is never the goal in the first place.

The gospel was never meant to trend. It was meant to CONFRONT.

When Jesus preached, people didn’t always applaud. They left, they argued, or they repented. He was relevant because He was real to His calling and faithful to His message, not because He was relatable.

A faith obsessed with fitting in will never have the courage to stand out. The Church doesn’t lose influence when it stops being trendy. It loses influence when it stops being truthful.

In the name of relevance, we have built churches that are impressive but powerless. Our sanctuaries are full, our content is polished, and our convictions are negotiable. But a leader obsessed with pleasing people can never be a true servant of God.

The world doesn’t need a church that looks like it. It needs a church that loves it enough to tell the truth. Truth that confronts before it comforts. Grace that convicts before it consoles.

We cannot influence a culture we secretly envy. We cannot redeem a world whose approval we crave.

If being relevant means being silent where Scripture speaks, then relevance has become our idol. And it’s time we repent of it.