Me or Thee? The P-Generation

I’m in the business of spiritual growth. I’ve realized recently that I have given up any chance of the American dream for the sake of walking with individuals as they seek to know Jesus. My house is sold, my car is sold, my cable is gone, there’s no pipeline from our folks, and vacations consist of Golden Spoon or maybe camping. Not that I’m great or noble but I am totally committed to building Christian community and my wife and I are content with being poor for the sake of the gospel. The hard thing about this pursuit is the realization that most ‘Christians’ might not really be into developing Christian community.

Let’s face it, we are a consumer driven culture both secular and Christian. Things happen at such a fast pace these days that if the attention isn’t grabbed in a few minutes then people move on.

How does the Church survive? I guess the road is long and narrow and few will go down it…some hippy looking guy must have said that!

Our culture places a high value on self and the nuclear family.

I recently read an article that was labeling the ‘Next Generation’…so cheesy, as the P-Generation. P stands for producer and the article referred to how younger people, anyone for that matter, can simply produce their own life however they want. No longer does one need to buy a full CD, they can simple grab 1 or 2 songs from an artist off I-tunes and move on. Social networking has also created an interesting ‘me’ culture. Do we really care about Sally dropping her kids off at school or Rick trying to figure out what to do for dinner?

I like the I-tunes analogy because I believe it’s this very concept that is threatening the foundation of community, especially within the church.

Now, don’t freak out and think I’m being legalistic….I-tunes are cool, I’ve neve used it bu it’s cool….don’t worry.

The church has been going this direction long before Steve Jobs or Facebook. The church has succumbed to the fact that as congregations we simply can’t all sit under the same roof and worship God. Let’s be honest, this is why we have traditional, contemporary, emerging, blah-blah- blah services within the same church.

Keep em’ happy.

In our post-modern culture it’s both funny and depressing to watch how the church responds. I’ve seen everything from worship teams that will cover Guns N’ Roses but switch the lyrics to be Christian, to ‘Come to Church and win a car!’

Lame.

It’s actually really easy to build a large church these days, just don’t place a high value on relationship and just target one audience (18-35, hymn crowd, etc).

We, the Church, need to realize that the best thing to give away to this post-modern, confused, everything’s cool culture are answers. Let me get really cliché; Jesus is the answer. Commitment to Jesus, the Church, and our community is the answer….yes, all 3.


How serious do we take our faith? Do we know how, or do we, pursue God outside of gathering times? When Jesus came He showed how the law was a spiritual issue, not a legal issue. You know the story, Murder – Hate, Adultery – Lust, etc. Well, Romans 12:1-2 describes worship as a heart issue, a being issue not an instrument issue.

If we are learning to spiritually worship God shouldn’t that make us accommodating with others? Shouldn’t we always yield our desires to see our brothers and sisters blessed? Meekness allows us to worship in different genres, befriend difficult people. It’s not my will but Thy will.

We HAVE to figure out how to do this together. Everyone suffers because of this immaturity and lack of personal devotion. Pastors have become slaves to appeasement, churches have become homogenous, and the world continues to see the church as powerless.

Too Much Cream in the Coffee

So I'm on the verge of no longer being a 'Christian' but being a follower of Jesus. I live in America so naturally I am a part of the Christian movement here in the United States, but I am really starting to feel like a foreigner in my land.

When I look at Jesus and I look at American Evangelical Christianity I barely see the same thing. Jesus taught that the pursuit of happiness was to rid our self of all exterior affirmation and solely find our identity in Him. He called us to sacrifice everything, our time, pursuit of happiness, our will...everything to follow Him.

To the Christian this is absolute death to self and it SUCKS.

To use a Mark Driscoll analogy; the Christian is the only one who has the right to complain about following Jesus. We all choose hell. We all want nothing to do with God. BUT, God intervenes in our life and saves us from our self. Literally, He took our free will of not wanting to follow Him and overwhelmed us with His grace to follow Him.

Somehow, A.E. Christianity has done away with surrender and allowed us to continue to have both. We can now be 'Christians' AND pursue our own desires.

The foundation of our country was a little about religious freedom and A LOT about pursuing happiness.

Sure we had to have a little genocide and get rid of those red people, sure we needed those dark people to build our empire....BUT we can practice our religion free from the Queen AND pursue our life, our liberty, and our happiness.

So now-a-days the church isn't as racist as it used to be but, boy, we sure like to pursue our 'self'. Sure, we're a generous people that donate money to causes but we'll leave it up to 'those people' called to serve the poor. Sure, we like new 'sexy' words like community and discipleship but we don't actually have to do it outside of Sunday's.

I've realized something about myself. I've always wanted to live more radically but have always been scared. I've tried to attach myself to communities that can pursue surrender together but I realize others are scared as well.

I just want to be able to pray with people, worship God, LEARN who Jesus is, and go freaking do the stuff! And I don't just want to do this once a week. The really hard thing about this is that I have to sacrifice myself and my impulse. My 'old creation' is always beneath the surface. My old creation just wants to surf, drink beer, and watch porn. I'm just being honest. My old self doesn't want to gather with people and pray, worship, learn about Jesus, and serve others. My my old self, surely, doesn't want to do that daily.

This is probably why Jesus calls the road "narrow and difficult" and "FEW will go down it."

Maybe this is why I'm so skeptical of Christian's, because FEW people actually will follow Christ. Jesus might me our 'homeboy' but are we willing to give up all of us to live in community with Him and others?

This is why I say I'm on the verge of no longer being a Christian but being a follower of Jesus: It's just too EASY to be a Christian in our society.