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.

I'm not that good at math but...

I know that I have 7 friends who are divorced or separated and waiting for a divorce. I also have countless friends who are on the verge of trading in their faith for good. I was never any good at math but I'm pretty sure these are not positive numbers.

With each case the church has played a major part in these peoples lives. My 7 friends who are divorced were ALL staff members in their church. One of them was also a Marriage Family Therapist.

All divorced.

Each one of these people have had deep encounters with the Lord but still gave up.

Some of the offspring hate the church and mom and dad because of this.

Sometimes you work through a situation and you identify who you're mad at, what they did, how this affected your relationship, pray a blessing and forgive them, and then identify what character flaw was revealed in you. This last step is how we learn what the root of our problem is. There are instances, however, when you realized that actually there is no character flaw in you. An example of this would be physical, emotional, or sexual abuse. When this is present you simple say, "Mom and/or Dad are sick." This means that their sickness is so disturbing that it abuses the innocent which is totally out of your control.

For so many that have been chewed up and spit out by this beast we call church we simple have to say that mom and dad are sick. This act is on of spiritual abuse. Many families go to church looking for a new life or to further their growth in Christ but the church has been ill-equipped to solve their problem.

The church can teach us the do's and dont's but not how to deal with the root symptom. For example, men often struggle with pornography. The solution often taught is confess when you've fallen, put spy ware on your computer, look down when an attractive woman walks by, etc.

NONE of this is the root problem.

You haven't dealt with the source.

This is why spiritual step work is vital to Christian living. When we understand what drives us to act out (lust, anger, gossip) we are able to find victory. The source could be a variety of things; I am lonely, I am controlling, I am arrogant, I am scared.

These are all character defects and they are the source to our brokenness. Most churches do not teach you to embrace your brokenness but to suppress it and 'try harder'. Soon enough this leads people to self destruction because ultimately they can find no victory.

The goal is not 'Victory over my character defects', the goal is 'Victory in the midst of my character defects'.

Being a new creation doesn't mean the old isn't still present. It means that we are walking in a new way under new principles. Our old creation pops up all the time. Suppressing that or being condemned by that is a bad understanding of grace.

The principle of Poor in Spirit.

Total surrender.

This is not weakness but strength.

Hmmm

So, my main passion is discipleship. It's kinda all I think about. I use to be really political a few years ago but I began to see how the church can actually be more influential in society than some suit, if she wants to be. So, now, I have become much more self critical on our methodology as a church rather than getting fired up over how legislation will help solve the real problem in America. I don't seek to take away from those who enjoy politics but rather I hope to always remind the bride that she is the salt and the light and how by putting our faith in the principles of the Christ, we, as a community, can become a much greater movement.


I have heard it said from many grass root type of Christians that the church, for too long, has just focused on herself and cared only for the sheep and how we need to move away from that paradigm of church and become more focused on become intertwined with society. Also, we have focused on discipleship but now it's time to get outside the walls.


At first I buy into the heart of moving from being an exclusive community to being a community that becomes all inclusive by seeking out and rubbing elbows with 'non-Christians'. One thing that is important for us as believers, to be self-critical. This attribute is not negative but actually very positive. It' s hard to be self-critical because of, well, us. When things are going well then being self critical is easy because we really don't have to do anything different, however, when things are at an impasse or simply not working being self-critical is a difficult task because we all have ego's.

So my initial question is: If we understand the tenants of being a disciple of Jesus and we understand how cultivate these principles with others (this comes from the premise that the church has been discipled and it's time for the next step) then why is the church highly irrelevant within our culture?

My initial thought is: In the spirit of being self critical, and how that's a good thing, maybe we've missed out on some key principles of Jesus which prohibits us from being salty.

I hear it left and right, and I am guilty too, of how 'our church is striving to be the Acts 2 church'. I often wonder to myself; really? So does that mean your church is seeking to gather daily and worship, pray, and receive the word? Are you really sharing your goods in common or even selling your homes and giving the money to the elders in the church? The church that lives in that manner is truly distinct. Being that the early church was one step removed from the Christ they understood His principles in a practical manner. The early church served as the means of the social welfare system, and they didn't even have political power! It was an act of disciples who understood the cost of what it meant to follow the Christ and the willingness to surrender their identity for the sake of the kingdom.

This act of kingdom living is inspiring to me but I am selfish and struggle with my own identity crisis. I like the principles of the Christ on one hand and I know that a church united around building the kingdom can have more influence than a Democratic or Republican majority. However, the reality is that because these principles are so hard to live by, because we are weak, the concept of community (one which understands and follows the principles of the Christ) is what keeps us accountable to remembering our role as a body.