"Relevant" Preaching

What passes for "relevance" is too often irrelevant to real needs.

by Rod D. Martin
October 13, 2013

I'm in church, listening to the testimony of a woman who has lived a life of brokenness and bad choices, beginning with an abortion at 18. This morning, having received Christ, she is being baptized: joyful, crying, and openly confessing the sins of which she has been forever and freely forgiven. It is moving, in the way that only redemption can be.

The most striking part of her testimony, to me at least, is this: though she knew all along that she was doing wrong, what convicted her heart and finally "put it over the top" was one sermon by our pastor, not on platitudes for "better living" (he doesn't do that) or the pet theological topic of the day, but on sin: specifically the sin of abortion. Not in general, but with specificity, toward those actually present in the room. He addressed sin head on, and with it, he preached the forgiveness, mercy, redemption and joy of our Savior.

We're always told the church should be "relevant." And in this respect we …