Todd Hiestand had a post on 7 Big Questions that were asked to major leaders in the Christian community. He wondered if some of us ordinary folks who blog would tackle these as well...getting some responses from folks not in the spotlight. Since I fit the "not in the spotlight" qualification, I figured I'd give two of the questions a shot.
1. What is a negative tendency of this generation as it relates to the faith?
Simply: the church has become irrelevant to the ins and outs of their lives.
What I mean is this...God is an addition to what's already going on...school, families, dating, career, etc. God is not the center of it. God has moved to the periphery, and while they seek for God through the above things, God is not central to these things. Character is shaped by the crowd...worth is shaped by companionship...and lack of worth is based on the same.
I don't think it's that they don't want God, but they don't know how to go about the pursuit. They don't know what's entailed or expected. They see Christianity as do's and don'ts instead of being...a being where one is present with God in all things, at all times, and in all places. So there really shouldn't be the separation of God here, work/relationships/school/etc. there, but that's the separation that we tend to see as we grow up (as I am a part of this generation...however an older part). When we see that sitting through an hour in church doesn't solve the problems, and no one tells us how Jesus matches up with the complexities of life, then I believe this group ends up right where it is...confused and bewildered.
One of the responses to this is simply through relationships. This generation, if they've been in church at all, was probably raised up on programming...school/tv/home/church...everything was a program. The thing about programs is that they're segmented and uncohesive. Programs don't translate well into all areas of life, because life is just not that structured.
A return to relationships and community is a must. Faith cannot be a Sunday gathering, it must be lived out and exemplified by the parents and the larger faith community every day. Being able to do life with others is where discipleship happens, and it's where Jesus meets us. Faith has been isolated into a neat box and that paradigm of thought is being done away with, especially in my generation. Jesus needs to have something to say to the totality of our lives...and He does. Our generation needs folks who will help us hear what Jesus is saying...and that comes from the one-on-one friendships we have that guide and shape us.
