Can we be Relevant by being Different?

Often we associate Relevance with being 'of like mind' or being 'similar'.
As churches we have sought to have the same methods as the world with a different message. But perhaps as churches, by trying to be 'similar' and 'like minded' we stopped being Relevant at all? Is Relevance actually best located in difference?

...I mean most Christians and our churches look exactly like those who don't profess faith in Jesus. Think about it... we have the same houses, the same cars, the same jobs, the same toys and technologies...except we believe in sex only within the boundaries of marriage; we don't drink to excess and if we are uber cool Jesus followers we might buy more 'fair trade coffee'...essentially then, we look the same except we don't do 'all the fun stuff'. And some of our churches have more multimedia and a bigger band than you'll find in pubs and at concerts.

Maybe we wouldnt need to sit in meetings and work out ways to be relevant if we lived different.

I wonder if we can redefine a new way to live. I wonder if by being different we are actually 'relevant'.

The Kingdom of God is anti-empire isn't it? It always has been? Jesus is Lord - Not Caesar!

I mean, since whenever has the Kingdom of God been 'relevant' to the ways of the world? ... It's relevence is in it's difference.

When I explore the scriptures I see the rule and reign of God being something which is counter-intuitive... counter cultural...something that actually goes in the totally opposite direction of consumerism and accumulation. So perhaps in being different - in speaking against the prevailing western culture - we are essentially being relevant.

Maybe as churches we have sought to 'look' like our world ie music, sound, promotion etc in an attempt to be relevant and 'in' so that we can reach people with the gospel, when in actual fact all we have done is 'look' like our world except speak against all the 'fun stuff' and so no one is really interested.

Perhaps by being different, by moving the beat of a different drum, we are in actual fact being 'relevant' and actually looking like the Kingdom of God - and therefore offering something refreshing and restoring...something that others might want to actually break into and enter.