How do we make church relevant to people, especially to young people? I encounter this question weekly—sometimes daily—and it’s nonsense. How do we make church relevant? What are we asking when we say this? Are we speaking of the institution, building, or the Body of Christ? If we are speaking of anything other than Christ, we are missing the point. What we are actually saying is, how do we make Jesus relevant? If we are asking this, then how relevant is Jesus in our lives, and how much does our faith inform our lives?
My belief is that Jesus is relevant to everyone, and not only relevant, but also dwelling within all of us. This whole notion of relevance is not of God, because in speaking of relevance, we objectify one another and only see that which can benefit us. What makes me relevant: my family, vocation, or nationality? All those things can be taken away from me, rendering me irrelevant. But those are only aspects of who I am; they are not the totality of who I am. I am relevant because I am; my existence is what makes me relevant.
Relevance is a nice way of saying, “Why should I care about this? Why is this important?” How can we make church relevant? Why should we care about church? Lots of places have fellowship, music, and events. Fellowship can be found in little league, the country club, or on the pickleball court, and there’s no shortage of places offering programming and live music. It’s our faith in and love of Jesus that sets us apart from everyone else. Yes, our faith is incredibly personal and sometimes closely guarded, but we are not meant to keep our love of Christ to ourselves. Jesus tells us not to put a bucket over our light—we are meant to let it shine.
How could Jesus be any more relevant to our lives than He is now? He who loves us all because we are, who says to everyone, “You are worthy, loved, and forgiven.” I cannot imagine anything more relevant than that. The question we should be asking ourselves and one another is this: how are we presenting Jesus to the world around us, and how can we confidently tell people about our love of Christ? The latter answers will be different for all of us, but the former is something we do together. At St. Francis, we present Jesus as loving, forgiving, and welcoming, and so long as we keep doing that, our lights will shine bright.
—Fr. Jason