I recently have been thinking a lot about my generation and
how we as twenty something young people are probably some of the most in your
face, open about our opinions, generation the world has ever seen. We are also
as a whole, the most tech savvy, Internet literate group to ever populate
America and planet earth as a whole. Taking all of these factors into
consideration, I have been thinking about how they play into specifically my
friends and the common denominator that many of us share: our Christianity.
You see, we as a whole are a product of coming of age in an
era of church history that will now be known as “The Seeker Movement” that
dominated most big churches around America for about ten years between
1996-2006 approximately. This movement was for all intensive purposes in my
view and the view of many of my friends, an all out disaster. Instead of
developing disciples like the Church was meant to do as taught by Paul in many
of the New Testament Epistles, the American Church at the time put the highest
priority on getting people ‘Saved’ and very little priority on anything beyond
that. Therefore, many, many people my age simply ‘prayed a prayer’ and then
went on living their life no different than they had before.
However, there was a small remnant of us who, began reading
the Scriptures on our own, as well as other solid Christian authors, and
understood that Christianity was about a whole lot more than just ‘praying a
sinners prayer.’ In fact, a ‘sinner’s prayer’ isn’t even mentioned anywhere in
the Bible!!! That small remnant is now, in my view, helping to shape the next
generation of Christians, and we are all in, committed to following Christ and
loving His Church as best we can, considering we are still imperfect people.
I think it would be fun to do a documentary on us, and the
way in which we are living out our lives as Christ followers in a generation
that in many ways in more crooked and twisted than ever before. We tend to be
more comfortable talking about what we believe and why, and aren’t as intimated
by people who disagree with us. We enjoy keeping an open dialog with those who
are not Christians and also feel comfortable going to bars, having a beer and
reassuring people that alcohol is not a sin in moderation.
We also have begun taking the concept of living in community
with other Believers as a great idea and therefore the practice of four or five
guys or four or five gals living under one roof, splitting rent, utility,
internet, and food costs into affordable payments for each involved is becoming
more and more common. This also is helping the fact that we graduating college
at a time when we as a nation are still recovering from one of the worst
recessions in recent history. Jobs are kinda sparse, so we are unable to
financially afford to live out on our own like our parents generation often was
able to after college.
What others might seen as a major problem, my generation has
seen therefore as an opportunity; an opportunity to live together with other
Godly men if you are a guy, and Godly women if you are girl. All throughout the
New Testament, from Acts, to Ephesians to Hebrews we as Christians are told of
the importance of two things: community and unity within the body. My friends
and I have taken this to heart, and are seeking to learn how to live alongside
one another despite differences in sleep schedules, tastes in movies and music,
as well as being introverted or extraverted.
Unity though is my next point. My generation is looking at
different church denominations that have been in existence and caused many a
worship and doctrine war for centuries, and begun asking: ‘hey, you love Jesus
right? I do too. Can’t we just focus on that common bond and yes, friendly
debate one another, but ultimately stay friends despite those differences in
whether you believe in speaking in tongues or are Pre-millennial or
A-millennial?” In Cleveland, OH we
actually had several churches partner for bi-monthly worship and prayer nights
for a while called “Unite: Cleveland” where city and suburban area churches
from varying denominations got together to pray collectively for Cleveland and the
people in it.
Conversations and discussions about how to better serve as
witnesses of the Gospel of Christ, serve other people period, and general story
telling sessions are often the main discussion topics at various Bible Study
groups, coffee shop meetings, wing and beer sports bar hangouts, and post
church Sunday night Applebee runs. The topic of conversation can turn instantly
from serious heart issues to the viewing of a funny YouTube clip in a heartbeat,
and we are okay with that. Using humor to lighten the mood is a common anecdote
to otherwise hard times in the lives of friends.
As I said earlier, we are comfortable with people
disagreeing with us. This is especially true when it comes to sharing our faith
with non-Christians, where we tend to take the approach of never denying we are
Christians, but not ever forcing what we believe onto anyone. We simply state
that we love Jesus and do our best to live up to the teachings of the Bible,
while being the first to humbly admit that we fail to so often. We allow non-Christians
to feel we are approachable and welcome discussion and questions from them,
while remembering that we can’t expect them to think like we do, without the
help of the Holy Spirit. Thus, we aren’t offended if they tell us that they
think the Bible is completely untrue and that they doubt the very existence of
God. The fact that they enjoy talking and feel safe talking to us is enough to
keep us happy to share our views on matters in society and everyday life.
Ultimately, we want our parents generation to know there is
hope for the future of the Church in America. A great majority of our
generation has completely turned their back on the Church, and we realize this
every day from simply living and going to work in our society today among our
peers. While many have chosen to compromise and assimilate a good majority of
what the culture teaches while still claiming to be Christians, we are choosing
to stand firm and ‘fight the good fight of the Faith” and the Apostle Paul told
his young prodigy Timothy two thousand years ago. Yes battles are coming, but
we are going to stand united in our love and faith in Christ, knowing that
divided it would be impossible to stand.
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