Ecclesia semper reformada est

The church is always losing its relevance to the world around it. While the culture around it moves in light speeds, the church is often accused of being irrelevant and unable to adapt to the needs of people. What's popular one day is out the next.

The church often seems to be the antithesis to culture and change. And to some extent, this is good. Church often has a staying power in our culture that prevents it from being blown over by the changing tides. It is good for the church to stand out, but often it appears archaic and irrelevant to people in our culture, as if some notion of a previous, simplistic civilization.

The obvious downside to the stability of the church is its perceived lack of relevance to those outside it. Church doesn't speak to many people anymore. And those in the church often fail to speak wisdom and light into a culture. And many churches have walled themselves in from the culture around them, only to find the church's resolve and message shrinking.

The church is always losing its relevance. Constant reform is needed to keep the church relevant. The moment the church assumes it has succeeded, it has failed. If the church is not constantly on its guard, looking for relevance, it is irrelevant.

This is why the church must listen to the prophets. The church must be called into the streets, to reach out to people, to change society. The words of Jesus had little to do with religious practice, and everything to do with establishing a radical way of life and of dependence on one another. The church must follow the voice of Jesus, and of modern day prophets to remain effective in its mission.

The minute the church thinks it has arrived, it will probably lose its relevance. And so, the church must constantly be reforming itself to maintain its relevance.

Ecclesia semper reformada est
"The church must always be reformed."

Where have all the prophets gone?

They're not in our church. They never were.

The real prophets are out on the street. The real prophets are being Christ to the world. They're leading our urban governments, they're leading our nonprofits. They're in rural Africa teaching sustainable development. They are creating social change and bringing justice to the world in a way the church never could have imagined.

Jesus understood the radical change necessary in our world, to remove the yoke of oppression from our fellow man and remove the chains of injustice while throwing away the religious garbage.

Sadly our churches just don't get it. We're too busy determining the color of the baptistry and ensuring we have the right color carpet. Modern day Pharisees.

I used to love listening to preachers, going to youth rallies. Those people could get me excited about God. It just doesn't work any more.

I guess it's why I don't listen to preachers much any more. I'm kind of skeptical about them. The real preachers, the real prophets, are out there on the streets.