Thesis: How do we bring the younger generation to church?
More than music and the call for the new evangelist
It is assumed that the younger generations (high school and college aged) are desperately in need of the salvation of Christ and, therefore, are in need of being in a church. Are these ages in need of the gospel? Do we need to continually preach to them about the salvation that can be found in Christ? Or, can these be deemed in another category? Are these the unbelievers that we are trying to reach, or are these the saved, yet unchurched?
To be saved, to be born again, to know Christ, to receive the Holy Spirit, to be on fire for God, to be baptized in the sprit. All of these are phrases used across the church denominations to deem the people that are the believers vs. the non-believers. These are the people that we deem as the mission of the church – we are called to reach the unsaved. These people in this younger generation are without a church, they are in no desire for church activity, so they must be in the category of the unsaved, the non-believers. Isn't this a logical way of looking at things? No, it's not. If it is not the case that these are people that are not non-believers, yet they are deemed as saved, yet unchurched, then why is it that they are not in church? That is what I want to present. This includes the problems with this generation, the things that this generation is in search of, and the areas in which the church seems to lack that seemingly pushes this generation away searching for other things that are outside of Christ.
The future is on the minds of this generation daily. We have started much earlier thinking about the things of tomorrow than the generations that preceded us. There are programs going on in schools across the country starting in the 6th grade talking about a child's future career. There have been computer programs created to test a child's preference for careers based upon personalities, hobbies, interests, and skills. This is happening not in the 12th grade. It happens 6-7 years before that. Careers are explored by learning the salaries, the college choices, and so on. Students know their majors in college by the 9th grade, not the 11th grade as they did in the past. College is no longer done by the question of, "Are you going to college?" It is started by, "Where are you going to college?" It is no longer a question. We learn more sooner.
Because of this, the opinions we hold have been formed much sooner than they were in previous generations. We know about homosexuality, gay marriage, evolution, sex before marriage, abortion, alcohol, drugs, and so on long before we hit college. College is no longer that time to form opinions by the studying of different fields. College is the time to voice opinions and find those that are like-minded. The College Democrats are not recruiting people at 18 when coming into college to explain the party differences, nor are the college republicans. Long before someone hits the age to vote, they know how they would vote. They know what they believe about issues. They are members of parties before they are able to vote for that party! It is no longer the fact that going into college means that someone is a blank slate. This is the case on the opinions like these, but this is also the case on the opinions of the gospel.
In the 1960s and 1970s, college students were blank slates, what psychology calls tabula rasa, which comes from Descartes. The mission of the evangelists of this time were to pull these students to their arms and preach them the saving grace of Christ, to teach them that there is a hell and without this they are in danger. I praise these people for doing this. They have done their job well. Because this generation of evangelists preaching to the 18-23 year olds in the 1960s and 1970s, there has been a tremendous trickle down effect that means that the 18-23 year olds of today are already making a choice about following Christ long before they are reaching college. The evangelists have done this job. The message has been reached. However, the mission has to be changed for this age group. The evangelists of the 1970s need to continue with their work; however, their mission has been done so well in the past, that they need to lower the age group to whom they are preaching. The evangelists need to move to the younger students, and another new brand of evangelist needs to come upon the scene. Who are these people? These are the people that are in the church currently. These people are you. But, what does this new evangelist teach? What do they need to do?
The evangelist from the 1970s (noted as the 1st generation evangelist) preach one key sermon: you must be saved. This message is true! This is the absolute truth. However, there is much, much more to it than this. The 2nd generation evangelist (the new evangelist that I am speaking of) needs to pick up at this point. College students and high school students aren't in churches because the 1st generation evangelists have birthed the pastors of today and they are still preaching one sermon: you must be saved. My generation is tired of hearing this sermon. We get the message. We are saved! We are Christians, now, what is next? Isn't salvation more than this? This is the job of the 2nd generation. The church, having been taught by the 1st generation evangelist, needs to stop preaching salvation to people that are already saved. Unchurched does not mean unsaved! There is nothing more insulting than for a pastor or a church to assume that because someone is young then he gospel has not reached him or her yet. This attitude is keeping my generation out of church, it isn't bringing us to it. Why would we want to come to a place where everyone believes we are the category of "non-believer"? Just as we should never assume that because someone has a glass of wine that they must be an alcoholic, we cannot assume that because someone is 18 that they have never heard the gospel and haven't already made a choice about it. The 2nd generation evangelists is first called to stop witnessing to Christians. We need to come up with a better sermon message than "you must be saved" alone. My generation longs to have an answer to a very simple question, "I am saved, what is next?" This is what the church lacks in teaching. We are begging someone to tell us, "Now what?" Don't neglect this calling.
We are the generation of unspeakable crisis and pain. The 1st generation of evangelists is of the mode of thinking that we should simply pray about it all and it will work out okay. This is the generation that has witnessed so much chaos that is unspeakable sometimes. We are the generation of AIDS. With the epidemic starting in the early 1980s, there isn't a college student or high school student that has had an existence outside of this pandemic. This is the generation that has witnessed more war in a smaller amount of time than any other generation. The warfare may be different, but the quantity of declared wars are greater in the last 2 decades than ever before. We have watched the embassy bombings in Africa. We have watched the USS Cole get bombed. Operation Desert Storm, Operation Iraqi Freedom, Bosnia, Afghanistan, and now the Russian-Georgian conflict causing the question of intervention in this country causing the fear to spread across this age-group. We are the ones going to war. We are the ones dying in the wars. We are the ones scared to see friends that are our ages go off to war and deal with the very real chance that he or she may never return. If someone is dead, prayer isn't going to bring them back to life. Darfur is still in a crisis. We are still at war. We are still dealing with childhood poverty.
Does this mean that prayer has failed? Never! This means that Christ was right! He said, "The poor you will always have." He knew this was the case because we are failing at doing anything about it. My generation is not the ones wanting to go to a prayer vigil about the child dying of hunger. We are the ones wanting to know what to do about it. Our salvation was never meant to be a spectator sport. We are given the 3rd class ticket on the stagecoach and asked to get out and change the wheel when it breaks. We are asked to work! My generation wants to know what to do in the crisis that is more than going to a prayer vigil. We want to know how to live out our salvation because we desperately want to know that we can make a difference. We are crying out about how to make a change. To call us apathetic is totally false. To believe this fallacy is not only foolish but insulting. We are not working because we do not know what to do. We are crying out to everyone looking for a plan! Give us a plan! Tell us what to do to make it where we know we are doing something right and doing something that was born out of our faith that makes a difference in someone's life. We are not apathetic about things around us. We don't know what to do. Show us what to do. While you are at it, do it with us.
My generation has been accused of being politically apathetic. This isn't true. For the last several elections of our lifetime, there has been the choice between one conservative white male versus liberal or moderate white male. The names have changed each election, but the choice is the same—until now. Now, we are more excited than we ever have been about an election. There is a difference this time! The two leading candidates in the Democratic primary didn't look like ANYTHING from the past. One was a woman. One was a black guy. Now, on the Republican side, there is a chance for a female vice-president. We aren't apathetic. It is insulting to call us that. We have lacked excitement because it's been the same thing over and over – until now.
The view of the church is that they care about only a few things: don't have sex before marriage, don't be gay, don't have an abortion, and don't believe in evolution. Why isn't everything on the table? Why can't we be a scientist and a Christian? Why can't we be a Christian that has made a mistake? We do we have to fear being shunned and shamed. Shame and guilt isn't of God. Conviction of the spirit is of God. Guilt is not. Psalm 43 states that with forgiveness, even the guilt of our sin is taken away from us. Why does the church dear force someone to be ashamed for an action? Aren't there more important things? The view of the church as being only concerned with these things and never wanted to answer "Why?" has pushed my generation away. We are no longer the people that only want to know if we are able to do something, but we want to know if we are not, why is that the case. Why can't we have a discussion about what sex actually is rather than just telling people not to have sex? What is sex? Or, perhaps, a better question is, what is intimacy? Rather than telling us what to think about the hard topics, tell us what we can do to help the crises that are going on around this world. Why not talk about the things that can help us now? Why don't you let us know where to start with reading a Bible? We got the message about the gospel. We went out and got a Bible, now, what do we do with it? Help us. Don't miss our cry.
On top of this, we are the generation of the latchkey kids. The economy has been made in such a way that it is nearly impossible for a family to have only one income, unless that income is so much over the median income of families that it is able to compensate for the lack of the second income. For the most part, for most families, this isn't feasible. This just doesn't happen as much as it did in the 1950s and before. The mother sometimes doesn't have the choice about working or not, just as, for the most part, the father never had that choice. Now, more and more mothers do not have the choice either. The latchkey children put on buses to ride to an empty home with older brothers and sisters are left to figure out things in the afternoon on their own. Because of this lack of time with the children, parents no longer have the time to have the deep relationship with a child. This is not an argument meant to blame parents or blame children. It is just the facts of the situation. The result of having two-income homes is having less time between parent and child. The result of the lack of time with parent and child is the lack of a deep relationship. We are lacking that relationship; therefore, we are seeking it somewhere else—anywhere.
To identify oneself as a Christian means that you are saved, but as I have already established, with no churches truly teaching what this mean, the label of Christian makes no sense anymore. What does it mean to be a Christian? Does it mean that you are someone that goes to heaven? But, what does it mean for now? Does it mean you are a good person? If that's the case, then what's all this talk about being sinners? It doesn't make clear sense anymore because people are not finishing the talk about what it means to be a Christian. They are getting to the point that they fear only for the salvation dealing directly with eternity rather than dealing with the here and now. We are losing the talk about the here and now. However, for us, there are some labels that make plenty of sense because they are defined. Mother is one of those labels. Father is one of those labels. Girlfriend is one of those labels. Boyfriend is one of those labels. We know what to do with those labels. We don't know what to do with the label of Christian. More and more college aged students filling out forms asking about 'religion' are stating phrases such as "I love Jesus" or "I believe in God" rather than saying, "Christian". That label is no longer being explained like the other ones are.
Within the label of girlfriend, boyfriend, mother, and father, and other things there is a deeper thing going on. There is a clearly defined relationship and a role that we play in that relationship. Everything I have stated up until this point boils down to the seeking of relationships where we can make a difference. Having little deep relationships with parents cause us to seek elsewhere. Having the crises of the world causes us to want to make a difference, to care for someone, to nurture, to be nurtured. We can help a child and care for a child. We can deepen a relationship with a boyfriend or a girlfriend. We can seek guidance from him or her in crisis and discuss the crises that no one else wants to discuss. They would rather just pray about it. We are seeking a relationship, one that is deep, one that makes a difference. Why can't that relationship be with the church? More specifically, why can't it be with the members of the church? Why can't it be with you?
The Great Commission never said that we need to go to all the worlds to save everyone that moves. It states that we need to go and make disciples of all nations. In order to be a disciple, it requires action. It isn't action for the hereafter. It is action for the now. We, as a generation, are asking how to be disciples. We are asking how to be servants to those around us. When I hear that the reason why we are not in church is because we don't like the music, there is precious little that upsets me or insults me more. It is shallow to think that is all we care about. Look at everything on this. We care about a great deal. We aren't being taught what to do with our caring hearts and turn that into actions. We are a generation of actions – not words. Don't talk about it. Show us what to do. Don't discuss poverty. Come to the soup kitchen with us and serve someone.
There is a good reason why one of the most popular songs in my generation is "The Servant Song". Let me be as Christ to you. Christ did things. Christ did miracles. He didn't sit around talking about the sick. He went to them and healed them. He didn't sit down praying for the children. He brought them to him even when others didn't understand what he was doing at all. His disciples didn't sit. He sent them on a mission. They were busy men. When Christ left, he told us to be disciples. Being a disciple is costly! It takes work and sacrifice. It takes time and effort. It takes tears and cries. It takes so much more than sitting in the church wondering why no one is coming through the door. As Christians, we are taught to move. Move to my generation and show us how to move as well. Show us that the deep relationship we want can be with the people of the church. It isn't about the label on the door. It's about the people inside. It's about finding nurturing, non-judging relationships with people from all age groups that can come down for a common cause – to figure out, together, what is next. I have a sneaking feeling that you want to know what is next as well. So, let's figure it out together. Bring my people in your arms and in your churches and let's make a difference. Let's be disciples! It takes getting dirty sometimes. But, that's what we want. Show us how to do it, and walk beside us as we do it together. The best way to do the call of Christ, to make disciples, is to first be one yourself.
It is more than music. Don't narrow your thinking to this. It is so much more than this.
AmandaThere is an optimistic belief widespread among the generous-hearted that the average human being has only to become sufficiently acquainted with another's trouble or danger to transfer it to his own shoulders not merely unhesitatingly but gladly. --Margery Allingham
Bear one another's burdens. Galatians 6:2
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