“For centuries, most Christians have been eager to adapt the ways of the world and tell it that it is right. So doing, we make ourselves redundant.” Rodney Clapp, A Peculiar People
The quote above is a powerful one, one of those quotes when you read it you think ‘they just put into words something I have been thinking for a while!” The world has changed the church, not the other way around. I think in our attempt to be gracious and to make faith more attractive we have compromised many of our views. Much of this comes from our treatment of the Scriptures. We have been eager to adapt to the world and give it permission for almost anything. This has made us redundant because we then are no different than the world. I would also add to what Clapp is saying here adding that we have also become irrelevant as well. In our attempts to be relevant we have become irrelevant. As a result our churches are in decline while the world continues to seek community and something bigger than themselves, but cannot find it in our religious institutions because we have lost sight of the source, of the movement, of Jesus Christ who is the one who can actually meet the needs of the church and the world. The Kingdom of God is like opposite day. The Kingdom of God is an upside down world, a different kingdom. May we become more like the kingdom.