Reading this commentary on reaching the 20’s generation in the church today, I had this crazy thought: what if one of the big reasons 20+ year olds drop out of church is because we aren’t idealistic enough? We don’t challenge them enough? We don’t give them a cause worth living for or dying for? What if they see college, sex, entertainment, travel, gaming, etc., as being far more exciting, diverse, and self-fulfilling than anything the church has to offer?
We preach a lot about denying self, but what we don’t preach about as much is what joy, reward, and self-fulfillment there is in taking up the cross and following Jesus. Nothing that the world has to offer actually is self-fulfilling: it’s a lie. The glory of God and the beauty of His handiwork is more exciting, more diverse, and more worthy of extreme passion than rock music, Halo 3, Las Vegas, organic food, degrees, skateboards, or any other thing that Americans worship rather than the One Who created billions upon billions of stars, set the planets in orbit, designed the human brain, and loved each one of us so much that He materialized as a man just like us and died so that we might live forever.
I’m 25. Want to get people like us involved? Give us an idea worthy of our time. Sittin’ in a pew on Sunday morning and listening to another dull “spiritual” sermon or feel-good pop psychology pitch ain’t gonna cut it.
Follow me on Twitter
Subscribe to blog feed
6 Comments
I think you may be on to something, as far as the need for idealism, even passion. In the old days, we would have interpreted that as a need for revival. Perhaps we could say we’re guilty of offering playtime instead of pressing for revival? There are many ministries trying to capture the imagination of the young and vibrant with the big plans, but it seems to me, the lustre of that wears off if Presence isn’t in it. However, once the fullness of God is experienced, nothing else will do.
Thanks slw for the comment…yes, certainly we need the Spirit of God to move and empower us for anything we might do. It’s not enough just to dream big and try to “make it happen” — Lord knows I’ve been guilty of that. But you’re right, if we’re just playing around and not pressing for revival and idealism and passion, then we’re just not going to retain young people. Of course, the flip side is that churches that do capture a mighty vision from the Lord often lose members who just want to do the ol’ Sunday-go-to-meetin’ churchianity thang.
It seems to me that church done right can’t be boring, but rather it must be the most incredible thing going. If young people just aren’t getting into it, I think we need to question if it’s due to more than just them wanting to go off and party or play games or fool around in the bedroom (pardon my bluntness).
I’m more than 20 years your senior, and have a lot of relevant training and experience that fools find impressive, but you are well ahead of me in your thinking. My compliments!
You and your correspondents are so right to point to the spiritual fulfillment that awaits those who turn away from the shiny baubles the world offers them. Now, if you all don’t mind my getting down to it, how might we operationalize these findings of yours? How do we reach those approaching, and in, their early Twenties, and get to them where they are, instead of expecting them to reach us on our terms? I’d invite you to interpret the phrase “where they are” as broadly as you may wish. You would know what that means; I can only speculate from afar.
Incidentally, the header of this piece is amusingly odd. I won’t bore with the theology, but I’d feel more comfortable were it to read, “Do Churches Think Small Enough?”
Do Churches Think Small Enough? That sounds mischievously interesting. Fill me in.
Anyway, I’ll confess I haven’t put pedal to the medal yet in terms of outreach to youth, but our church is in general trying to shift from a club-mentality to a missional model, so part of that will be increasing connections with youth outside the church. If I gain any amazing insight over the coming months, I’ll certainly be blogging about it!
Well let’s please keep this string active, then, Jared, to encourage others to contribute whilst we collect sparks and fire from here and there. You gave me a bit of a chill with your reference to your church’s transition from clubby to missional. My beef with my own church is that it cries out for the same transition. They take the position that, no, it is I who sorely cry out for them to make that transition. The club set likes it just the way it is, which is just the way it has been since its founding more than 150 years ago.
Here’s a painfully specific idea. Have young believers from any of the Abrahamic traditions keep an eye out for advertising that directly contradicts their tradition’s doctrine. Then, they can call out the ad in a dedicated blog controlled by the young believers, advised by their elders in faith, and explain in a post why the ad is anathema to their beliefs.
Here’s a current favorite (as it were) of mine: Dow Chemical’s television ad campaign valorizing people as the grand “Human Element”, warranting even their own symbol in the Periodic Table of Elements. Humans in the image of God? No, mere elements, raw materials, heaps of “human resources” awaiting productive use.
There are many such nihilistically banal commercials and magazine and online ads like this one, and the world makes new ones every day. We should use these as counterfoil texts that can deepen our faith, and our understanding of The Word.
And as for churches thinking small enough, I believe that the arc of the story of Acts of the Apostles—from the Holy of Holies in Jerusalem to the home church in Rome—invites us to anticipate, and even participate in, the melting away of the institutional church. Counting churches, or even presumed converts, by the numbers is really an outrageous way to count the countable while saying that the uncountable things that matter to God don’t really count. Kierkegaard hit this hard in his 1855 “Attack upon Christendom”, a surprisingly readable and caustically funny collection of broadsides from a great philosopher mistakenly perceived as esoteric or obscurantist. Kierkegaard derogates the “statistical Christianity” of his spiritual mentor, the Reformed Bishop of Copenhagen and his successor to the bishopric. The two divines are reminiscent of Robert H. Schuller, another pastor of considerable statistical accomplishment.
Big not only is not good, it probably is undesirable. Keep it small. When your church becomes more lay-missional, it will be doing that in a creative way that sends up an antenna array, instead of a sole lightning rod, to the Spirit—a worthy aspiration worthy of inspiriting. On scale, remember which is the business end of the spire.
One Trackback
[...] Jared White wonders if my post isn’t pointing out a bigger problem: The church isn’t thinking big enough. [...]