Several times each year, I receive a letter from the editor of Evangelicals Today magazine assigning me deadlines and topics. During the many years I have been a regular ET columnist, this is the first time I remember ever writing on the assigned topic. As usual, I missed my deadline by a week and a half.

Here’s the topic they gave me: “Keeping Your Relevance as a Christian in the 21st Century.” In stark contrast to most of His modern followers, Jesus was relevant to the people and issues of His generation, and every generation since. He related well. We don’t. Too often, we seem to be caught in a time warp.

Jesus’ original followers turned the world upside down. More recently, it seems the world has turned the church upside down. Church is no longer seen as relevant to everyday life. The average guy on the street thinks, “Maybe, the church has something to say about life after death, but not life on earth.”

Two thousand years ago, some people liked Jesus, others hated Him. Some enjoyed His company, others avoided Him like the plague. Some were attracted to Him, others were offended by Him.

Think for a moment, who was attracted to Jesus? Who liked to hang around him?

I can think of two types of people who were attracted to Jesus: children and “sinners.” In fact, it seems that the more youthful and the more sinful, the more they were attracted to Jesus.

Mark 10:13, 14 People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”

Young people enjoyed Jesus, but His followers got in the way, thinking that Jesus was an “adults only” kind of person. Warning: when church people act like Jesus is only interested in old people, watch out, because this really ticks Him off.

It was not only the youth who were attracted to Jesus, but also the “sinners.”

Jesus related so well to His generation that He was accused of being a “friend of sinners.” Modern Christians who are friends of sinners are endangered species. Forget being a friend of sinners, most Christians attend too many prayer meetings to ever meet an authentic card-carrying non-religious sinner. Furthermore, the few Christians who actually meet a sinner or two really don’t like them. The strange colors in their hair, the hole in their ear, the tattoo on their skin, and the cigarette in their mouth is offensive to the Christianese-speaking church person.

Jesus was able to relate to His generation because He was not afraid that contact with them would tarnish His holiness. Rather, He knew that His holiness would cleanse their filth. He was relevant because He walked where they walked. He spent time with drunkards, but never got drunk. He ate with corrupt tax officials, but He was not corrupt. He empathized with prostitutes, but never compromised His moral standards.

Jesus was called a friend of sinners because He deliberately spent time with them. We are irrelevant to our sinful generation because we spend too much time around Christians and not enough time around sinners.

Scripture states that sinners and youth liked to hang out with Jesus. Now think about who did not enjoy His company? Who hated Him? Who couldn’t stand to be around Him? As hard as it is for church people to grasp, the fact is, the more religious the person, the more he hated Jesus and everything He stood for.

Youth and sinners liked him, religious people hated him. How opposite it is today.

Who is repelled by church? Who gets dragged to church against their will? Who finds church painfully boring and irrelevant? You guessed it: sinners and young people.

On the other hand, who loves church activity? Endless church meetings? Christian TV?  Right again, religious people.

Isn’t it strange that religious people hated Jesus, but 2000 years later, they love church? And, originally youth and sinners were attracted to Jesus, but today they are repelled by church?

If we are to regain our relevance in the 21st century, we must learn to reach youth and we must be friends of sinners. In other words, Christians must once again become like Jesus.