One of my favorite Rob Bell quotes is something I heard him say the other week. It goes something like this. "... relevant, by the way, if you use the word, you're probably not."
I love this quote. When I heard it, it was followed by a critique of how we do discipleship. Here's the jist of the continual, cyclical problem. We, as the church, want to reach people. So when those people finally get "saved" we immediately pull them into some sort of program (often held AT the church, or at least usually with only other church people) that takes them out of their community on a regular basis. So... we continue to discipleship them... making sure they've got all the right information so that when they go out of the church, they are ready to do ministry. Unfortunately, we have so repeatedly removed them from their community and culture, that then we must train them on how to be "relevant" to (and catch this) their own culture.
So, I had this rolling around in my head. Then I thought, do the execs at MTV sit around talking about being relevant to their audience and culture... how to make sense in the pomo world? Probably not, though I'm sure they've done quiet a bit of market research. Anyway, I thought more about MTV. You remember when MTV just played music videos... their main shows were like Yo' MTV Raps and the Headbangers Ball? In other words, they transmitted culture made by those often outside their own corporation. Others made the videos, MTV played them. Then something changed. MTV started their own programming... they started creating the culture. MTV doesn't worry about being relevant to culture because they've moved to creating culture. So where does that leave the church? I'll leave that to whoever reads this... because quiet frankly, I don't know if any of this makes sense.
10 comments:
You'll laugh when I tell you who I recently heard using the term "relevant" in the way you describe early in the post.
I've often struggled with the "being separate/set apart" part of the scriptures. In my experience this has only led to a people group that alienates the real world. I think it's because these set-apart people aren't doing it right. I don't think set-apart means not watching cable, only buying cds at Pathway, spending your quality time "fellowshipping" only with other "christians", not wearing tattoos, or piercings...if living in this christian bubble is going to build the Kingdom then I guess I'm not a part of the process because I'm doing everything wrong.
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Mike (McMullin) and I (in company with others)were talking about this, but in the context of worship and church. He used the term "post-contemporary", meaning we don't allow church or any culture to influence how we are/do church, but we set the pace (at least for our community). there seems a lot of push to infuence culture (i.e. having film directors, music artist, etc. in the market), I am not sure if that is the way to go, but I also don't think one can "follow the leader" in the church andd establish a community of integrity.
I love the relevant (Rob Bell) quote by the way.
in response to robb, there is no objective bubble or place that we can stand outside the influences of culture. you speak a language. thus you are being formed and not even knowing it.
culture is a give and take. no i do not agree that mtv only worries with making culture. mtv is worried about making money. yes it influences and makes culture, but i think this is more so because it can identify and implement trends on their way up, and they have the means to disseminate it to a large audience. lets also take into account that the market age group is still developmentally maturing and are much more likely to move with the pack than to draw attention to themselves and this makes MTV the ultimate vehicle for culture and relevancy.
how then does the church wade through these waters? are all of mtv's instruments and methods for brining about cultural change and formation good (i am asking methods not content)?
It seems that we in the church talk often of whether to go with or against "the flow" of culture. The Jesus fish swimming upstream and all that. And then there are those of us (in subtle ways and really freaking huge ways) that are at war with culture. I'd like to piggyback on Nic's thoughts (if this isn't what you meant, Nic, then I apologize) that we cannot be free of culture. The question, "Should we be postmodern?" is moot. At least for me and probably all my age, we are postmodern, or postpostmodern or whatever. I get weary of people in church saying this or that about absolute values, and how society doesn't believe them anymore, and they seem pretty ticked off about it. But the thing is... so what? That's another blog.
I also agree with Bell that if you go around using the word relevant, then you're probably not. I don't think we should worry about being relevant so much as being (to use a very overused phrase, "real." It seems to me that people are searching for something authentic, whatever that may be. Not cool Abercrombie and Fitch pants. Not Fauxhawks. Real. They want to be real and want you to be real in a superficial world.
so...
the part about MTV creating culture wasn't necessarily intended to mean that we in the church should create culture or flow with culture. It was just an observation that I made which I found interesting while thinking about relevancy. Obviously MTV wants to make money, and "creating culture" is by far from their biggest concerns... it just seems to me that MTV creates more shows than it plays music videos. In other words... it develops more of its own ideas than transmits the ideas of others outside the corporation.
Re: the church, my point was this. Often, it is heard about making Jesus, the gospel message, the church, or something else relevant to the culture. But... it seems to me that most people (if just superficially) like Jesus. They think he was a cool guy. They like Jesus' message of love and peace and hope. They even think the concept of church (a group of people, family, joined together around a common cause to bring hope and love to the world). They are all "relevant." WE are the ones "irrelevant"! The problem lies with us. To say it in the (changed) words of Chesterton: "We have grown old (irrelevant), and our Father is younger (cooler, more relevant) than us."
Culture is the given. We are influenced by culture period. I was not talking about objectivity, I was talking about creativity. I did not communicate that well. And "setting the pace" now sounds silly to me as well. But the idea of community of integrity, and not of copyright infringement (in music or other worship-style media) is what I am talking about. The question of whether or not we are influenced by culture is a foolish one: of course we are. But as a community of faith how are we going to channel (?) that influence? How are we to navigate through that influence toward the Mission of God?
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