Relevance for Malaysians Except God

 


In Malaysia, there is an overuse of a certain word: "relevant."

Christians here are so saturated with "relevant" teaching that they've forgotten how to be relevant to God. That's the irony nobody wants to name. Most Malaysian built entire ministries around being relatable, relevant, accessible — and somewhere in the process, we stopped asking whether any of it is relevant to Him - the Holy Almighty God.

Part of the problem is entitlement. Not the loud kind, but the quiet kind that seeps into how people expect to be taught. Pastors are expected to speak and teach at the level people are already at, rather than the other way around. People don't work towards the level of the saints. And this isn't only happening in churches. It's happening in educational institutions too. Standards, doctrines, curriculum — all lowered, again and again, so that people don't have to stretch to catch up.

Here's the problem with lowering the bar: it never stays neutral. When standards drop, substance dilutes. And it doesn't stop at dilution — often it gets augmented, padded out with something else to fill the space where depth is meant to be. Let me say it out straightforwardly - shallow and low standard.

What the Apostles Would See

If the early Church, if the Apostles themselves, walked into some Malaysian churches today, I don't think they would recognize what they were looking at. I don't say that to be harsh. I say it because it's true, and because someone needs to say it.

Some Malaysians hear a statement like that and feel offended — as if they're being written off, discriminated against, treated as some third-world afterthought. That is not what this is. This has nothing to do with where we come from geographically. It has everything to do with how badly the church here has failed to do the job it was actually given: to lift people up to the level of heaven.

He Did Not Stay Low

Think about what Christ actually did. He incarnated Himself as a lowly servant. He suffered. He died. He went as low as low goes.

But He did not remain there.

He was resurrected. He ascended into heaven. That is the whole arc of the gospel — not God staying at our level to make Himself relatable, but God lifting us to His. And the Apostle Paul tells us plainly to have that same posture of mind and soul:

"If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth." (Colossians 3:1–2)

That is the trajectory every Christian is supposed to be on. Down into humility, yes — but then up, ascending, seated with Christ in the heavenly places, mind set on things above.

Stuck in the Limbo

This is exactly where I see so many churches in Malaysia stuck. Not at the Cross. Not even at the Resurrection. Stuck somewhere in between — a kind of spiritual limbo — never actually ascending to where Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father.

We keep serving people milk because we've decided they can't handle meat. We keep running the same elementary doctrines on repeat, the same youth-camp-level content, dressed up for adults who have been sitting in the pew for twenty years. We call it relevant.

It's Time to Ascend

It's time to believe — really believe, with our whole hearts — that Christians are meant to be in high places. Our minds and our hearts are meant to be lifted to lofty places, not kept comfortable in the shallow end.

It's time to put away childish things. Time to move past the elementary doctrines that were only ever meant to be basics and foundation, not a destination. Time to stop treating years of church going believers like they permanently belong at youth camp. It's time for solid, orthodox doctrine. Real education. Real substance.

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