Some thoughts on relevance

My friend Kat mentioned on her blog that she's heard a bit about the word "relevance" coming up more in churches. I had some thoughts that I posted on her blog, but I thought I'd put them here too. I think, for those of you who read this who are Christians its good to think about these things. For those of you who aren't Christians I'd be curious to hear if you think the church is relevant in the culture at all and how it is or isn't. (And don't worry-i'll put pics of Erin up soon and our trip to CA :0) But, here's what I wrote:

we talk about that idea [relevance] here in Greeley a bit. to us it means being important in the life of our community - hoping that if we weren't here people would miss what we do that enriches them (even if they never come inside our building). to be a church that is for more than just protecting and building up it's members and to engage the culture around us is what "relevance" means to us. it doesn't mean caving into relativism.
the Truth is still the Truth. the Gospel can't be compromised, but our comfort can and our preferences can too (and probably should a lot more often than we'd like to think). we are called to be salt and light and i don't think that means just yelling the Truth louder to a culture plugging its ears to us. instead, we should give them a reason to listen. how bout loving them? oh, and loving them right where they are (yes-right in the middle of their mess and brokenness even when they don't see it as such) without demands for them to change to suit our ideas of "good people". that's much more difficult to do and to do it we actually will need what we preach-a great Savior for a great need.