Lifeway: Of the hundreds of ideas raised in our survey of Top 10 Issues Facing the Church, ministry leaders have identified "Relevance" as the eighth most pressing issue.
In the 1980's, church leaders wrestled with the realization that they could not reach "Generation X" with games and skits seemingly written for youth of the 1950s. In the 1990s, churches created more accessible "seeker services" with casual dress, chorus-based worship, and overhead projections rather than hymnals.
Today, ministry leaders are reaching out to a post-Christian, or post-modern society in which individuals favor experience over ideas and do not presume the Bible to be a source of authoritative truth. Some Christian leaders ask, if we seek to make ourselves relevant to all, then what will we have become? Others point out that the Gospel itself is as suited to a postmodern era as it was to a pre-modern age.
