Authenticity, not relevance

I have enjoyed the weeks off from writing I have had during my short Gen X Rising sabbatical in the United Methodist Reporter. It has also been nice to read the stuff from the guys who have filled in for me. This week the column is penned by a friend and fellow Th.D. student at Duke, Jeff Conklin-Miller.

Jeff looks at the distinction between relevance and authenticity in the church. We often focus on relevance, wanting to keep up with the culture and compete with what the world has to offer young adults. This is a losing proposition, of course. The church can't really compete with what the world offers, and we shouldn't want to. What the world is offering is a large part of the problem!

Instead, we should be focusing on living authentic Christian lives, as Jeff suggests. And we should be moving the church toward more authentic witness to the world. If we do that, the world might just realize that the true relevance it should be striving after is authenticity to the gospel. This is what God's children need to hear.