5 Ways to Be Relevant (Again) in Advent

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After 8 years in full-time ministry, there’s a question that continues to both challenge and irritate me: How can the church be relevant?

It’s an irritating question because too often this is the right question asked for the wrong reasons. “We need to be relevant so…we can we can continue to keep our doors open…so we can preserve our history…so we can promote a Christian culture.” Of course we don’t name these reasons outright, but they’re there. Relevancy becomes about US and not about those we want to connect with. The presence THEY (whoever “they” might be) just become a means to our self-serving end.

It’s a challenging question too, though. Some may argue that the church’s job isn’t to be relevant so much as it is to be holy. I agree. But if we can’t communicate that mission in a way that connects with others, then it becomes all about us again and that’s not the purpose of the church at all. Relevancy, while an over-used buzz word in church circles, is also a litmus test that should challenge the reasons for why we do what we do. Is it all about us in the end? Or is it about God and reaching others?

I haven’t blogged in a long time (almost 2 years!) but an early morning article in The New York Times compelled me to scratch out some thoughts. After a nasty election cycle, a growing frustration with anger on social media, and a growing desire for clarity around a vision for what I want my local church to look like and be like this article is timely.

It’ll soon be Advent and, for many of us, it’s the busiest time of year. In our busyness, I wonder if we couldn’t also see this season as an opportunity to (re)discover our relevancy as the church this holidays season. Here are 5 ways we could start with:

Specialize in creating real and authentic community

If this article has any truth in it, then everybody carries with them a certain level of loneliness. Sometimes it’s of our own doing (stay busy, unorganized with time, etc.). But sometimes it happens naturally (new to town, new job, new phase in life, etc.). If we could get past our own self-serving needs in the church to meet budgets, grow attendance, and survive we might see every person as an opportunity to offer authentic connection in Jesus’ name. I can’t think of any greater mission the church can undertake than to facilitate hope and opportunity for healing around struggles of loneliness. But creating real and authentic community can be messy. It means welcoming people’s struggles and questions and doubts along with them. It means stretching the culture of the church beyond the narrow Christian worldview in order to truly engage with the world Christ comes to love and save. How could your church create new space to welcome new people in order to offer a sense of real and authentic connection?

Go out of your way to be welcoming of ALL people

If your church doesn’t share anywhere and everywhere that all people are welcome, then you’re missing out on important opportunities to grow in your mission. I know there are some who might squabble over who’s welcome, what lifestyle or orientation is acceptable, or how we’re supposed to be welcoming. But think about it from strictly a pragmatic sense – If you’re not going out of your way to be inclusive, then you are risking appearing to be exclusive to someone who might be searching for community.You can package this welcome however you want, but make it contextual and make it as radically open as possible. As Jon Taffer from Bar Rescue says, “A bar can’t be something for everyone, but it can be everything to someone.” A church can be that way too. Don’t be so rigid that you miss the someone who is searching for God through you. How could your church maximize its welcome this season when new people are searching for God and for connection with others?

Teach people how to share their hope in public ways

Forbes recently published an article about the coming demise of Facebook. Beyond the privacy issues, more and more people are finding that Facebook is a place where angry people hang out to wallow in their anger. Combine the increasing levels of loneliness and the “outrage industrial complex” manufacturing anger by the person, Facebook and its massive popularity (for now) becomes the soil where all of this nasty fruit is planted, sown, and harvested. But what if we could make intentional efforts to encourage and even train people to use social media mediums to share hope instead this season? How could your church create a culture where people feel empowered to share hope in the world, and not just their anger and frustration?

Invest in your local community

This is a big one I’m slowly starting to understand more and more. Church website and social media pages are little more than billboards advertising what’s happening at your church and how people should come. But what if you used those tools to promote yourself less and promote your community more? I absolutely love the #FOR campaign originally launched out of Gwinnett Church because it’s purposefully NOT about the church at all – it’s about the community. One of the tips I heard Jeff Henderson, lead pastor of Gwinnett Church, share is to make promoting something in your community a priority in your church’s social media plan. Instead of just asking people to come whatever is happening at the church all the time, take the initiative to promote something that doesn’t directly benefit you. In other words, make an effort to be a good neighbor in your community this season. What could your church do this season to promote businesses, causes, and events in your community? 

Emphasize ways people can BE a neighbor

Don’t just invest in your local community in word alone! Find some areas where people can give back and push people to make room in their lives to serve this season. Mike Slaughter nails it in his book Christmas is Not Your Birthday when he emphasizes the point that if Christmas is Jesus’ birthday, we should strive to give Jesus gifts and not just ourselves. I can’t think of a better gift to give Jesus this season than to serve and spend time with people who are in need of love and mercy. The author of the Times articlesays, “Each of us can be happier, and America will start to heal, when we become the kind neighbors and generous friends we wish we had.” As we plan for Christmas parties and Christmas offerings, could we also plan Christmas service projects and encourage people to serve and be good neighbors this holiday season? 

Instead of giving ourselves over to despair in fear of shrinking sanctuaries and offering plates, we can invest again in God’s mission for the church. And instead of just “doing Advent” in the same, tired, too-often self-serving ways, we can broaden our vision and, maybe, rediscover life as God’s church living for the sake of the world this Christ child seeks to enter into again this holy season.

The Rev. Ben Gosden serves as lead pastor at Trinity United Methodist Church in Savannah, Ga. This post is republished with permission from his website, Covered in the Master's Dust.