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PreachingToday.com:What is relevance?

Don Sunukjian: Relevance is when the listener realizes, I see how this message applies to me. " See " is the operative word. The listener thinks, I have a mental picture of where this fits in my life. I see the guy next to me at work. He comes in, sits down in that seat, puts his brown bag in the third drawer on the left side, turns to me, and complains. I see it. Relevancy is when the listener can say, " I see where God is speaking his truth and where it fits my life. " It's not that the listener can see it in somebody else's life, or in Czechoslovakia, or in Victorian England, or in sports metaphors.

I, as the listener, have to see it in the specifics of my life — otherwise it stays at a level of generality, abstraction, pious clich. We nod and say, " Uh-huh, uh-huh. " But we have no idea how it shows up in our life.

Without relevance, it's just knowledge. It's information. But the Bible passes judgment on an information and knowledge-based ministry. In 1 Corinthians 8:1, the apostle Paul says that knowledge puffs up, but love edifies.

The goal of our preaching is not knowledge. The goal of our preaching is not Bible instruction. The goal of our preaching is to teach people how the Bible fits their lives. Knowledge is only halfway to our goal. If we stop at the halfway point, we produce an arrogant, proud people who have Bible knowledge but who have not yet become Christlike. Knowledge alone does not change us.

It's hard to be relevant. There are no books to help us. It's something that, as we sit down to work on our message, requires us to pray, " Spirit of God, help me. "

There are some skills that can help us learn how to be relevant. One skill is to think about who our listeners are. Where are they in life? We need to rummage through their lives. Take the men in your audience, for example. Each man wears a different hat. Some men are fathers. Some are sons. Some are husbands. They are providers, neighbors, hobbyists. Take one of those areas. For instance, think about their work. Then break down that category. Most of the men in your audience work. Some own their own business, but most of them work for somebody else. Some of them are unemployed. Some of them are retired. Now rummage around in that information.

What if my passage is a passage about contentment? How do I rummage around in the life of a man who worked for someone else and struggles with being content? What is there in his work that would cause him to be discontent? Maybe it's the money, or the boredom of the job, or the commute, or maybe it's the boss. Now, why would the boss be a source of discontentment? I keep breaking down my categories, rummaging around until I find a picture in his life where God may be addressing that passage.

For instance, the Bible says, " Blessed are you when you are persecuted for righteousness sake. " Where would my people face persecution for righteousness sake? It's easy for me to think of businessmen being persecuted because of their integrity. Or I can think of a teenager. I can think of lots of easy examples.

But where would a young mother fit into that picture? She's got a 6-year-old, an 8-year-old, and a 12-year-old. Her husband is an elder or a deacon in the church. She's a godly, stay-at-home wife raising good Christian kids. Where does she experience persecution for righteousness sake? I'm at the pulpit saying, " Blessed are you when you are persecuted for righteousness sake, " and she's sitting in her pew thinking, My husband loves me. My kids are growing up well. I'm active here in the local church. My family and I have a nice home in a nice neighborhood. She doesn't feel persecuted in any way. There's no relevancy for her life. So I've got to ask myself, Where would this young mother feel persecuted?

I try to visualize a situation. I might say, " Imagine that your 12-year-old daughter comes home with a birthday invitation. It's from the most popular girl in the sixth grade class. Your daughter's so excited. And you're happy for your daughter. You say, 'Oh, Honey, I'm so glad you got invited to this birthday party.' And you notice on the invitation that you're to drop your daughter off at five o'clock and pick her up at nine o'clock. So you think, I'll call the mother who is hosting the party. If I have to drive my daughter over there, I might as well stay and help with the party. So you call the other mother and say, 'My daughter is so pleased to have this invitation. Would you like me to stay and help with the party?'

" And the other mother says, 'No, no. That's all right. Thank you. That's very nice of you to offer, but you can just drop your daughter off. I've got a couple of vans. We're going to Chuck E. Cheese's, and then we're going to a movie. Then we're going to come home and have ice cream and cake. And you can pick her up at nine o'clock.'

" But what did you just hear? That mother said, 'We're going to go to a movie.'

" So you ask, 'Oh, what movie did you have in mind?' And you discover they're going to a movie you don't want your 12-year-old daughter to see. So you try to probe gracefully. 'Have you seen this movie?'

" 'Oh, yeah, my husband and I saw it. Our daughter wanted to see it, and she wanted to have all her friends go. So we're going to take them.'

" 'Do you think that's an appropriate movie?'

" 'Well, what's wrong with it?' And all of a sudden — judgment.

" So you say, 'I just don't feel comfortable with my daughter seeing that movie.'

" And the other mother says, 'Well, I don't know what kind of a parent you think I am, but' You get persecuted, which is nothing compared to the persecution you're going to get when you have to tell your 12-year-old daughter you're not going to allow her to go to the party. "

That story becomes relevant to that mother. All of a sudden this young mother hears what you are saying, and she understands, she connects with it. That's a realistic example.

But if we have a church of 100 or 200 people or more, how can we possibly give enough examples for every person in the congregation — with their various backgrounds and experiences — to get that mental picture? How can we make it a relevant experience in every person's life and circumstance?

There are two ways that happens. The first way is to try to create relevancy for people in every major category. I give an example for people who are in business. I give an example for young mothers. I give an example for teenagers. And in the congregations I pastored in which we had a large collection of career singles, I would give an example for them.

The second way is to give an example that may not be for them directly, but is close enough so they can connect. People glom onto the scenario, and they see an area in their work in which it fits. For instance, I may give a work example about how you may be the administrative assistant for an entrepreneurial start-up company, and your boss asks you to lie to a client who comes into the office. He tells you, " Tell the client I'm stuck in traffic and won't make the meeting on time. Keep him in the office until I show up because otherwise he'll leave and we'll never get him back. " You realize the boss is asking you to lie because you know he's not caught in traffic; he's double booked his schedule and won't be in the office for another two hours.

Somebody may hear me give that example and think, I'm not an administrative assistant who's being asked to lie to the client. I work in a branch office. But my supervisor wants me to write reports back to the home office in a certain way that I know is not true. I gave an example that was close enough for people to glom onto it, and they brought it into their life.

So when we speak in generalities, giving an abstract principle, it's harder for people to see what's relevant in their own life.

They won't do it.

It's better if you're really specific.

That's right.

Then they'll be able to bridge that specific thing to their own experience.

Yes. You must make the application. If you're too general, the people will not make it. You may think I have a poor view of God's people. No, I have a high view of God's people. But I know God's people will not apply the application to their life if you don't.

So if you're a preacher and you find yourself at the end of a sermon saying something like, " May the Spirit of God apply this to your life, " what you're really saying is, " I haven't the vaguest idea where it fits. Maybe you'll think of something. " And they won't. We have to be relevant.

Is there any difference between relevance and application?

In my mind those are synonyms. There is, however, a difference between illustration and application. If somebody thinks I've been relevant when I've told an illustration, he's mistaken. I have only been relevant when I've given an application.

Now, what's the difference between an illustration and an application? An illustration is a story from other areas of life. For example, I might say, " The Bible says we are to restore someone who is caught in a trespass, " and then give a picture of what the word " restore " means: " 'Restore' was used in the ancient world in the fishing industry to mend a broken net. When you pull the net up off the ocean floor, and it gets caught on a log, putting a hole in it, you would restore the net. To restore was to mend the net, bring it back to a point of usefulness and original function. It was also used in the medical industry to set a broken bone. To restore a bone was to set it so the bone would come back to full strength. " I've just illustrated it. I've given pictures, but they're from other areas of life, from fishing and medicine.

And then if I say, " So we are to restore one another when we're caught, " and I leave it that general, the people have no idea how to restore somebody in the congregation caught in sin. The person in the congregation is not a net. He's not a bone. He's a person. She's a teenager who got pregnant out of wedlock. He's a man who worked in the finance office, who borrowed money so he could pay for an operation, intending to pay it back, but an audit came through, and he's accused of embezzling. How do we restore that person? My listeners don't know because I haven't used application.

Illustrations can be fun; they can be interesting. And people will be fascinated and say, " What an interesting speaker. But I don't know how that looks in my life. " An application is a picture in my mind of what the message looks like in my life. That's when I've been relevant.

You mentioned some tools for us to be relevant. One was to rummage around in the lives of different people you're going to be preaching to, looking at their circumstances. Give us some other tools.

Another tool would be to always give details. Extend the application. Don't make it brief. It's in the details that we're relevant. It's in the pictures that we absorb it. If I say, " Be honest on your job; be honest at school; and be honest on your taxes, " I haven't been relevant. Those are so brief that nothing lodges with the listener. It's when I start developing it at length. It's when I give an extended picture. It's in the details. A quick picture doesn't do anything for us.

For example, you're looking through a news magazine and you see a photo of a starving child in Africa — protruding belly, skeletal frame. Your eyes register on the child, then you turn the page. You went by it so quickly that nothing happened. It's only if you linger on the photo and look at the details, and think about a warlord who is siphoning funds for his Swiss bank account. Then you visualize what would happen in your life if that was your child. All of a sudden that photographic image goes from your brain, which is the mental switchboard, down into the thoracic region, down into the belly, which is where the adrenaline is. The Scripture talks about bowels of mercy. It's only as we think about it long enough and it gets down into the lower gut area that something happens. And that only happens when you dwell on the photo. It's the details that make it happen.

This article is a transcript of the Preaching Today audio #217 workshop. To order this Preaching Today audio tape, e-mail your request to store@ChristianityToday.com.

Donald R. Sunukjian is professor of homiletics and chair of the Christian Ministry and Leadership Department at Talbot School of Theology in La Mirada, California.