Christians are other-worldly and irrelevant to life in the 21st century ?

Myth # 5: Christians are other-worldly and irrelevant to life in the 21^st century.
This accusation often rings true. But while some Christians may seem other-worldly, and even irrelevant, they do not reflect the main Biblical teachings. Biblical Christianity emphasizes the importance of this world.
First of all, the Bible claims that the entire universe is created by God and is therefore good and important. Far from negating and devaluing the world, the Bible teaches that God loves his creation and sustains its continued structure and existence.
But the importance of the world is supported also by the doctrine of the incarnation – that God became man in Jesus Christ. The authentic humanity of Jesus is affirmed by the Bible. He was not some spiritual manifestation or temporary avatar, but a real flesh and blood person.
This is the tremendous message of Christianity. Humanity has chosen evil in rebellion against its Creator, and the world is no longer totally good. Yet God has not given up on us. God loves us to the point of becoming a human being to free us from evil.
The salvation God offers constitutes the third way in which Biblical Christianity affirms the importance of this world. Though Christianity is often characterized as a pie-in-the-sky religion, concerned with a hereafter of disembodied existence in an ethereal heaven, this is a gross distortion of its message. The Bible describes theKingdom of Heaven in the most concrete terms. It promises the resurrection of the body and the renewal of the entire creation. Salvation is holistic. Christ came to restore the creation to what it was meant to be, and that includes every aspect of human (and non-human) life.
This means that there is an important sense in which Christians must be other-worldly. Precisely because they envision a world free of evil, both at the beginning and at the end of history, they cannot accept this world at face value. They are other-worldly in that they look beyond the distortions and pretensions of this world to the one which is to come. They know there is something better.
But that means that they are fundamentally this-worldly. Christians are called to oppose evil in all of its individual and socio-cultural manifestations. They work toward healing, love, and justice in this world. In the context of our 21st century civilization of violence, oppression, and narcissism, this call is neither other-worldly nor irrelevant.