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Today is the second Sunday of a summer sermon series I’m sharing on the Core Values of Chain
of Lakes Church. You can read our Core Values on the back of our bulletin and find them on
our web site. At Chain of Lakes we have eight Core Values. I am preaching eight times this
summer. So this seemed to be a natural time to teach about our Core Values.

These Core Value sermons are culture sermons. We are still establishing the culture of our new
congregation. What I mean by establishing culture is we are establishing our identity as a
congregation. Every congregation has Core Values. Many congregations don’t know their Core
Values, or only a few people have Core Values which they impose on the rest of the
congregation. I want every person at Chain of Lakes to know and live out our eight Core Values.

You might ask the question, “What is a Core Value?” A Core Value is a principle, quality,
belief, and or/attitude that is foundational to our community. A Core Value is not a goal, a
strategy or a tactic.

Core Values are like goals, but goals and strategies can be changed. I anticipate that we will
have different goals for different years. But every year that we exist our Core Values will be the
same.

These Core Values will form the essential bedrock of who we are as a community at Chain of
Lakes Church.

Last fall we had a group of people who developed our eight Core Values. It took us a while to
arrive at Relevance as a Core Value. I’m very pleased that we did because too few churches see
relevance as import.

Each of our eight Core Values has explanations. We explained relevance like this:

“Jesus successfully communicated his message by using examples and symbols of first century
culture. We will be open to using examples and symbols of our culture to communicate Jesus’
message.”

Today I’m looking at relevance.

In your bulletin is a devotion. The devotion is a way to learn more about the theme of the
sermon. This week I was completely jazzed as I wrote this devotion. The Scriptures share so
much about this value of relevance. I love talking and writing and teaching about relevance. It
was hard for me to limit myself in the devotion. I strongly encourage you to use it this week. If
you lose the devotion by the time you get home, you can find it on our web site.

Let’s pray:
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When the group who developed our Core Values talked about Relevance, some folks

pushed back about using relevance as a Core Value because it’s trendy value that many

organizations use. People rightly wondered whether we at Chain of Lakes are using relevance

just because it’s a trendy.

That’s a very good question. I would respond to this question by asking a question. Who

are some of the most relevant leaders in the history of the world? If we as a group made a list of

the five most relevant leaders in the world’s history, who would make that list?

There’s no doubt in my mind that Jesus would make this list. I could share an entire

sermon series on the many ways that Jesus used the value of relevance in his ministry. Let me

start out by sharing just one way that Jesus was relevant. Jesus was relevant in the way that he

taught. He used parables.

I talked about this earlier this year when I shared a sermon series on Luke. A parable is a

story using symbols from the culture. Often Jesus would walk into a village of Galilee and share

a parable. It’s as if Jesus would say, “let me tell you a story about. . .” These stories were short,

they used symbols of Jesus’ culture, they were easy to remember, and he shared them orally. He

didn’t write down his stories and then ask his followers to read the story.

Jesus understood the people to whom he shared these parables. Think about it. Were the

people with whom Jesus shared parables able to read? No. So Jesus told stories. How well

would these people do on a modern IQ test? They wouldn’t have done well. So Jesus shared

simple stories using examples that the people understood. Parables are intellectually very deep,

but on the surface we can grasp them? Was Jesus going to stay with the people? No. Jesus was

an itinerant preacher, so he had to give them something they would remember after he left.

People could remember parables.

People did understand parables. Here it is over 2,000 years since Jesus walked on earth,

and we’re still talking about his use of parables.

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At Chain of Lakes we’re not relevant because it’s trendy; we want to be relevant because

Jesus was relevant. Being relevant is not a secular task—it’s a spiritual task. That’s why we

explained relevance in terms of how Jesus was relevant.

Question. Is the church thought of as relevant? Let’s be honest. Is the church usually

thought of as sharing our message by using the symbols of our culture?

I’ve mentioned this book before. It’s called Unchurched. A few years ago a man by the

name of David Kinnaman did a study of young people who are outside the church. He found

that the perception of young people who are outside the church is that the people of the church

are sheltered. Unchurched young adults think that Christians—that’s you and me—are boring,

unintelligent, old-fashioned, and out of touch with reality.

This hurts. Do you identify yourself as boring, unintelligent, old-fashioned, and out of

touch. I don’t. But it really doesn’t matter how I identify myself or how we as a church identify

ourselves. If young people perceive us this way, then even if we don’t agree with the perception,

then this perception is reality.

It’s painful enough to be thought of as boring, but it’s even more painful because Jesus

wasn’t this way at all. So here we have Jesus—one of the most relevant leaders in the history of

the world. And we have the church—who is called to be the body of Christ or Jesus. The church

is perceived boring, unintelligent, old-fashioned and out of touch with reality.

Why the disconnect? I want to drill down on this because this is disconnect is important

to understand. Let me share how we become out of touch.

Say you’re in a church meeting and someone comes up with a really creative idea. Then

someone throws cold water on the idea by saying the last seven words of the church. You know

those words, right, “we’ve never done it that way before.” Can we make a commitment at Chain

of lakes that we will never say the last seven words of the church?
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Or this happens. A group gets together to some planning for an event. The group has

done the event before. What’s one of the first questions that is asked? How did we do it last

year? So groups plan events just like they did the year before. We have these annual events that

are pretty much the same. There’s nothing wrong with this. Over time we develop an event that

worked well in 1990, but we find the event doesn’t work in 2010. Why? Not because the event

is a bad event. Life in 2010 is a lot different than life in 1990.

What often results is we have churches who live in 2010 with ministries that were geared

towards 1990. We churches are sharing our message—spreading and creating the Kingdom of

god—in a delivery method that is outdated.

We in the church have failed to be adaptive leaders.

Let me tell you what I mean.

We all know what this is. A record. Let me ask a dumb question. What do we hear on a

record. A record is a way to listen to music. Records were played for a long time on a

phonograph. We might call it a turntable. I remember when I was a kid my sister and I wold

listen to records on my parent’s phonograph. It was a big brown piece of furniture that played

records and had a radio. How many of us listened to records? How many of us have listened to

record in the last month?

We all know what this is, right? This is a picture of an eight track tape. What do we hear

on an 8-track tape. An 8-track tape is a wonderful way to listen to music. 8-track tapes were

started in the 1960’s. When eight track tapes were introduced they were very innovative. How

many of us have listened to 8-track tapes? How many of us have listened to 8-track tapes in the

last month?

We all know what this is, right? A cassette tape. What can we hear on a cassette tape?

Music. A cassette tape is a wonderful way to listen to music. I remember when cars had cassette

tape tracks. I would listen to cassettes for hours. At the time they were very innovative. How
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many of us have listened to cassette tapes? How many of us have listened to a cassette tape in

the last month? Cassette tapes were eventually replaced by CD

We all know what this is, right? A CD. What can we hear on a CD? Music. A CD is a

wonderful way to listen to music. CD’s came out in the early 1980’s The first album released

on CD was Billy Joel’s 52 street. When they were release CD’s were very innovative. How

many of us have listened to CD’s. How many of us have listened to a CD in the last month?

We all know what this is, right? A computer. What can we hear on a computer? Music.

A computer is a wonderful way to listen to music. Listening to music really got going in the mid

1990’s. At the time downloading music files on the computer was a very innovative way to

listen to music. Today I will listen to music on my computer for hours at work while I’m

working. 20 years ago I listened to the radio at work. How many of us have listened to music on

our computer? How many of us have listened to music on a computer in the last month.

We all know what this is right? An I-Phone. Part of an I-Phone is an I-Pod. What can

we listen to on an I-Pod. Music. I-Pods were launched in October 2001. At the time listening to

music on an I-Pod was very innovative. They’ve been successful. Seven years after the launch

of the I-Pod Apple had sold 220 million I-Pods. How many of us have listened to music on an I-

Pod. How many of us have listened to music on an I-Pod or I-phone or on our cell phone in the

past month.

We have this concept—listening to music. Look at innovations that have been made in

listening to music. Phonograph, 8-track, cassette, CD, computer, I-Pod. These are unbelievable

changes that help us do the same thing..

Now if you wanted to start a company that was successful in getting people to listen to

music, would you start by producing phonographs? I doubt it. You and I could do a great job of

making phonographs. We could hire the best marketers in the world for phonographs. We could
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have the best publicity plan that we could imagine. If we were launching a phonograph company

we would probably go bankrupt. Why? Our culture isn’t interested in phonographs.

The phonograph companies that didn’t adapt are no longer in business. Why does Apple

constantly introduce new products? They want to catch up with it. They could rest their laurels

on the I-Pod. At some point the I-Pod won’t be popular. Now they’ve introduced the I-Pad.

Too often the church has a ministry that looks like a phonograph when the world wants to

listen to music on the cell phone. We in the church have great phonographs. But people aren’t

waiting for phonographs. We don’t adapt well in the church.

Somehow the church has become known for preserving the past instead of following the

Holy Spirit into the future. We don’t do a good job at adapting.

At Chain of Lakes I want us to be a place that is known for adaptive leadership. We are

continually asking ourselves what are the needs in the community, how is our community

changing. Then we are not afraid to adapt to meet these needs. In doing this we aren’t changing

our Purpose. But we are very willing to change our methods. If a ministry isn’t working

anymore, we’ll stop doing it. We’re not about continuing traditions that don’t work. We adapt;

we’re relevant.

Adaptive leadership is a very biblical concept. In today’s reading we heard how the

apostle Paul committed himself to do whatever it takes to adapt. In chapter 9 of this letter we

know as 1 Corinthians Paul shared some remarkable thoughts about his own understanding of

ministry and willing he was to adapt to meet the needs of his culture.

He wrote “To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews.” Let’s think about this.

Was Paul a Jew when he wrote this letter? No. Was Paul encouraging the people to become

Jews? No. Paul wanted people to follow Jesus. Why would Paul say to the Jews I became a

Jew. Paul wanted to understand the needs of the Jews so he could win them to Christianity. Paul

was willing to enter the culture of another person to win that person to God.
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This isn’t about Jews. He went on, “To those under the law I became as one under the

law.” Did Paul want to be under the law. No. In some of his later writings Paul was highly

critical of people who used the law as criteria for their faith. He shared two more examples of

this literary convention. He wrote, “to those outside of the law I became as one outside of the

law.” Then he wrote “to the weak I became weak.” He concluded I do it all for the sake of the

gospel, so that I may share in its blessings.

Paul concluded this chapter by sharing an story of a runner competing in a race. The

runner competes to win. The race is a metaphor for the church. We compete to win. Paul was

willing to do whatever it takes to win; the church is called to do the same.

We win when we live out our Purpose. We adapt to live out our Purpose.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t talk about fathers today. My word to fathers is to continue to

strive for relevance for being a father. We have to adapt because being a father today, no matter

what our age, is a lot different than being a father a hundred years ago.

Recently my daughter, Hannah, and I have been reading the Little House on the Prairie

books. You probably remember Laura Ingalls Wilder. How many of you have read those

books? Hannah and I are trying to read a chapter a day.

I love these books because they give a clear description of life in the 1860’s & 1870’s. It

is fascinating to me to read about the pioneering spirit of the Ingalls family.

I can’t be a father like Pa Ingalls was a father to Laura. First of all, the fact that Laura

calls her dad, “Pa,” explains how she views him. There is a deep sense of devotion, even fear.

Often Laura will do something and her “Pa” will give her a look. Laura knows she has done

something wrong and will immediately correct her behavior. Or Pa will say her name, “Laura,”

in a certain way and Laura will know her behavior needs to change.
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Let me ask all dads. How many of us can just give a look to our kids and our kids will

immediately start behaving? Hello. None of us. If I said, “Hannah” with the expectation that

she would stop misbehaving, she would be clueless about what I’m communicating.

This doesn’t mean that Pa Ingalls fathering style was right and our fathering style in 2010

is wrong. Our culture is obviously far different today. To be an relevant father in 2010 we have

to adapt to what works. This doesn’t mean that we throw out the ultimate purpose of what we

are trying to accomplish with our kids. We don’t stop trying to have our kids be loving and

respectful and caring for others. We don’t give up on our Purpose. We have to use different

methods.

Is this hard? Of course it’s hard. We have to look constantly into our present and discern

where God is leading us into the future. Sometimes we’ll make mistakes—churches are fearful

at making mistakes

Remember that we have God is on our side. This isn’t our work—we are following God

into the future.

Relevance is a key value where we partner with God to look into the future. May we at

Chain of Lakes always keep this value in front of us!!