Recently I asked 20-35 year olds to share why they read this blog. Is it simply curiosity, the connection and relationships thing, or is it providing insight to navigate a changing world? Their response (as well as comments from older readers) offers insight into, as one put it, “A shallow spiritual and psychical malaise that runs rampant through younger people.“
Here’s their story:
Tyrone, a passionate 40ish father, reveals an attitude that may be at the root of this spiritual shallowness and Gen Yer’s malaise:
“I look at the church like, the disciples that were in the boat when Jesus came to them on the water. Peter represents the young people today. They want to jump out of the boat and show the world what they can do with Jesus. They want to do some bold stuff.
Then you have the other disciples ( traditional church) that says “I’m not getting out of the boat, and Peter you better get back in here”.
We’re shocked by the blindness in Jesse Jackson’s survivor mentality. Could it be that’s how many Gen Yers perceive us?
Nick, a 26 year old, opens his heart and pours out an unvarnished perception that I find quite common among young people:
“I think we both recognize the same symptom: a shallow spiritual and psychical malaise that runs rampant through younger people. We were told that there were answers, and then given phrases and sound bites that would’ve been better suited on a crackerjack box. The only reactions suited to youth would be skepticism, rebellion, or apathy. Each is much better at destroying than preserving. Sure, there are enclaves that have managed to preserve some identity well into the postmodern wasteland, but they tend to be the exception, not the rule.“
Marla, a 40 year old mother, ponders:
” It isn’t a question of whether our young people are connecting online, it is only a question of who they are connecting with. That raises an important question for all of us;church leaders and parents alike. Are we building the relationships necessary for the influence we need and desire?
Lex, a 24 year old, offers valuable insight into building that influence:
” I also feel the tension in our society right now as we shift from TV to Web. Everything is changing, and I see the church on the verge of falling behind. We’re at this amazing moment in time that, decades from now, we’ll look back and either say,
- We stayed in the world but not of the world. We heard the voice of God and moved where we needed to move – even though is was uncomfortable and awkward.
- Or, “We missed it. We were too comfortable to get up and go with God, and who knows how many were lost.”
So I come here because I’m interested in what older people are learning, and because – like Nick – I appreciate that some are really trying. It’s insulting and demeaning when an older generation points at a younger and says, “Your life experience is wrong.” And in that vein, I also come here to be encouraged that there are people in leadership in the body of Christ who don’t blow us off.”
I may not share these thoughts if they were only surfacing here. But I hear similar expressions most places I speak. Gen Yers routinely come by, some with tears welling in their eyes, to say thanks for the effort to understand them.
So the lesson here may be, are we trying, listening, engaging, and learning. Or, are we simply another fading Jesse Jackson with emotional outbursts that further erode the remaining trust we have?
Is this your message Gen Yers? And if so, what does it look like to do “bold stuff with Jesus” and move with God “where we need to move”?
Ed,
I agree with what you and the other readers have said about the difficulties the modern American church is facing: no one can deny that it’s running the risk of “falling behind” in a rapidly changing world. I’m somewhat leery, however, about the assumed solutions, which seem to be in the vein of “change more quickly.” This has been the answer for the past century. I’m not confident that it works.
The more current something is, the more quickly it goes out of date. A church tailored specifically to suit the perceived needs of my generation will grow crusty and immobile just as we do–sometime in the next twenty to thirty years, tops. It’s happening now with the Willow Creek model, and, in the Catholic Church, it’s happening with the post-Vatican II “renewed” churches. It happened when the Anglican Communion took its historic steps forward over the past 80 years–we’re witnessing the final dissolution of that body today. And, unless we change our modus operandi, it will happen again.
There’s truth in what Lex says: “It’s insulting and demeaning when an older generation points at a younger and says, ‘Your life experience is wrong.’” But it’s only true insofar the older generation is speaking as an older generation: that is, when a Boomer tells it to someone of my generation, speaking in the capacity of a Boomer–not as a repository of received truth. As such, it sidesteps a critical question: are our life experiences, in fact, wrong? We’re changing, sure, but are we actually making progress–are we advancing towards any goal? We can’t answer these questions while marching in lockstep with the spirit of the age. This shouldn’t be read as pessimism towards my own generation (though it is that, too) but rather pessimism towards the whole modern project.
I won’t deny that American Christianity needs to respond to the changing world–it needs to change, too. But–and here is the crucial question–in which direction?
Its possible that being bold, today, may consist partially in being archaic. The hard decision we have to make might be to break not only with a set of practices and traditions, but with a whole set of assumptions: to shift from drive to reverse.
“Men invent new ideals because they dare not attempt old ideals. They look forward with enthusiasm, because they are afraid to look back.” –G.K. Chesterton, 1910.
I absolutely agree that “moving forward” in our context and time means moving backward in some ways. We’re seeing parts of the body do just that. While branches of the emerging church may have gone off the deep end, the movement was birthed in a desire to get back to basic, “archaic,” vintage Christianity. You also have the New Monastics, and I love what they’re doing.
That said, I don’t think the “critical question” is “are our life experiences, in fact, wrong?” The critical question is, how is the Church responding to the life experience of a new generation?
Jesus never asked if a person’s life experience was wrong, but He used it to minister to them in love. He didn’t question the woman at the well about her many husbands, but he used her situation to share the kingdom of God with her. He didn’t ask the woman caught in adultery if she realized her crime, but He used her circumstances to communicate God’s mercy and forgiveness (and THEN, He told her to to change her actions). He didn’t ask Zaccheus about his life, He just went to eat at his house and Zaccheus changed when he experienced the unconditional love of God.
Questioning or accusing someone’s life experience won’t draw them to God. Telling a new generation that this is how church goes because this is how we’ve always done it, is an invitation to stay away.
I agree that we need to hold fast to Biblical truths, and that there are certain Christian practices that the Church has lost over the years in the name of being relevant that we need to reclaim.
But Jesus calls us to share the good news and serve people, and that looks different now than it ever has before.
Sic et non.
It’s true that, in the three particular instances you cite, Jesus does not begin by challenging life experiences. But I think you could make the claim that the greater part of Christ’s ministry consisted of little more than challenging life experiences–not of particular individuals but of an entire generation, or maybe the entire human race. And certainly, there are plenty of examples we can point to in which Christ says directly, to individuals, that their experiences are wrong–to say nothing of what we find in the Prophets, John the Baptist, and Acts.
On a similar note, the question of whether our life experiences are right or wrong cannot be avoided: it’s the fundamental question. We can’t know how the Church ought to respond to the modern age without knowing what the modern age is: it would be like attempting treatment without having a diagnosis first.
That said, I agree that our particular age presents particular problems, and that the solution will probably look quite different from those attempted in the past. Again, it’s just a question of what the proper solution might be.
I imagine we agree on most things, but are being stymied by poor communication. Shoot. I don’t even have a clear idea what a “life experience” is supposed to be–it doesn’t factor into my everyday vocabulary.
Thanks for the dialog Ben and Lex. It’s thought provoking for sure. It’s critical to gain Biblical clarity on such issues. What we say here, and day to day matters. We need to do our best to get it right.
I have meetings today, and need time to ponder, but will weigh in tonight or tomorrow. I just wanted to say thanks and please continue the conversation until we separate the wheat from the chaff. That may take some effort. Back soon.
Ed,
I’m guessing you remember such conversations thirty years ago.
Youth has always desired to jump out of the boat, walk on water, and brashly confront the perceived issues of the day. Sadly, the experience to comprehend the issues is often missing. So, many times the confrontation only addresses the most superficial problems. As with many human endeavors, the pendulum wavers from one extreme to another – first looking to “Innovation” and “Change” – and when that fails to address the spiritual malaise, returns to “Ancient Secrets” and “Tradition” and calls it “Renaissance”.
The efforts of men to address spiritual malaise are never sufficient. I don’t think it’s crackerjack to believe that real faith changes lives – and lights a fire that destroys spiritual and physical malaise. I don’t think it’s a sound bite to proclaim loudly and repeatedly …
“I AM CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST: nevertheless I LIVE! Yet not I, but CHRIST LIVETH IN ME! and the life which I now LIVE in the flesh I live by the faith of the SON OF GOD, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”
As long as I am dead and HE lives, it is IMPOSSIBLE to be either spiritually or physically lethargic. I believe the answer is not in radical innovation, nor in embracing the mystical mumbo-jumbo of the ancients – (both approaches appeal to our pathetic human pseudo-intellectualism) – but in embracing the eternal and unchanging truths of:
loving God with everything in us, and
loving our neighbor as ourself, and
demonstrating both through action.
(faith without works is dead)
Hope that isn’t too much of a rant! I’m enjoying the conversation.
@Ben – I agree that we probably agree and are hitting a communication barrier. When I initially threw out the phrase “life experience” I was referring to the culture/society/worldly-worldview (because our worldview should be a Christian one, but that takes a renewing of the mind that can only start when we give ourselves to Christ) that a generation of teenagers and young adults is being raised in today.
Every generation is different from the one prior, but I believe that especially now, as we are on the verge of becoming a digital society, the young generation is exponentially different. We experience different things growing up – that inevitably shape, to some extent, the people we become – than our parents or grandparents. The digital revolution has compounded the differences.
So my initial comment meant to communicate that I believe it is demeaning and not at all helpful when the parents and grandparents in a local church shake their heads at the teenagers and kids for not doing church their way. Teenagers at my church take sermon notes on their cell phones, and adults scowl at them because they assume they’re text messaging/playing games and not paying attention.
I’m talking about resisting multi-media during a worship service, or implying that a house church is not as good as an “established” local church. A new generation is experiencing network and multitasking and collaboration like never before, but in many cases (certainly not all) they’re not being allow to incorporate it into their faith. Or their being told it just doesn’t, and they have to chose one or the other.
Certainly, as I think you were discussing, there are aspects of our society and culture that are, biblically speaking, wrong. Much of a young person’s life experience (promiscuous relationships, casual drug use, media over-dosing, etc.) should be challenged by the Church – absolutely.
I guess I’m talking more about the communication tools, and less about the behavioral choices. ‘Cause we can’t effectively talk to young people about their choices until we can effectively talk to them.
If any church is not equipping it’s people, young and old and then sending them out to change their community, that church is actually working against the “Great Commission”.
That’s what Jesus did, He trained the disciples and sent them out. Very simple.
This is how the church can eliminate this malaise.
The young and old want to know “who they are in Christ, what they can do in Jesus’s name, and what Jesus can do through them”. IF those questions are answered and then demonstrated to them and through them, the church will have them for life.
Tyrone,
I really like your thought above regarding equipping and engaging people. I do believe it’s at the heart of the malaise. Dead center at the heart of it.
You suggest….If any of us grasp and believe:
-Who we are in Christ
-What we can do in Christ
-What Jesus can do through us
and…if these questions are answered and demonstrated the church will have us for life.
That may be as clear and concise as we can get it. Thanks!!