"Practical, Engaging, and Relevant?"

I've been writing responses to a blog by Kevin DeYoung over the last week. Not as a rebuttal, but more simply using his words as a spring board for my thoughts.

"What do buzz words like practical, engaging, and relevant actually mean? Is not the gospel of Christ crucified supremely relevant all by itself? Or is “relevant” another way of saying “new” (which may or not be a step in the right direction)?"

- Kevin DeYoung http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/2011/10/19/listening-to-and-questioning-the-seeker-church

If I were to give definitions to these terms, I would say...

PRACTICAL - Teaching which people can act on

In simple terms, practical teaching is teaching which the audience knows how to put into action. I don't think the preacher needs to change what they teach to make sure it's practical. The teacher needs to discover what the truth they are teaching has to do with how people are living.

The holiness of God changes on a practical level how I live.

The sovereignty of God changes how I live daily.

Practical teaching is teaching which takes theoretical ideas and explains how the affect every day life.

ENGAGING - Teaching which keeps the audiences attention

Since we're dealing with preaching, being engaging means you're keeping their attention. There are many ways to keep peoples attention. I would argue that if your communication isn't engaging the person receiving it, you aren't really communicating.

RELEVANT - Teaching which connects with the audience where they're at

Being relevant gets a bad reputation becomes some people have compromised content for the sake of being relevant. Instead of discovering how a truth is relevant, they look at the lives of the people and simply preach about what they're currently dealing with.

I would argue that all biblical truth is relevant (though not equally relevant) for life today. Part of the communicators job is the show the audience how the truth connects to their life.

• Preachers don't create relevance, we reveal relevance.
• People think doctrine is irrelevant because they've only seen it taught poorly or intellectually.