Romans 15:4
For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction.
One of the issues that is often raised for those of us in the church is about being relevant. Yet being relevant is not about doing away with what has gone before. I have come to understand that what are doing is we look back into the scriptures and through the lens of those stories see the promised future which meets us in the present. It is about encounter and revelation.
The story does not lose relevance in its being written in former days rather it loses relevance when we fail to tell the story in ways to which people connect. Transitions in how we teach and communicate the scriptures and their importance might at some level be aligned with what purpose we are trying to achieve.
In this short video we hear Ken Robinson exploring what lies behind out modern education approaches and the associated issues. It makes me wonder not about the relevance of the things written in former days but how we go about sharing them as hope and good news.
http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_changing_education_paradigms.html