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.