Why Bother With The Church?
Good question, don’t you think? I thought so.
Our pastor presented that question to us the other Sunday morning during the start of a series in I Corinthians on the significance and importance of the Church. I’ve been thinking about that question and the meaning behind it for a little while now. It is the sort of question that makes you pause for a moment. Why bother with the Church? As if you are asking, “Why should I care if the Church is around or not?” I especially wonder how young adults see the Church. How would a 23-year-old sales clerk answer that question, or a graduate student from a local university? What is their perception of the Church?
When I have talked with those in their twenties who are not part of any church, and I ask them what they think about Christians, their answers are more like a statement. They say something like, “I don’t bother with the Church, it doesn’t have any meaning for me” or “I have problems with Christians; they don’t act much like Jesus did and isn’t that the whole point?” You get a feeling that the Church has no relevance for many young adults, and when I say relevance, I mean the Church holds no importance for them.
In his book, They Like Jesus But Not The Church, Pastor Dan Kimball of Vintage Faith Church shares his conversation and interviews he has had with young adults on their perception of the Church. He gives six reasons why he thinks this generation of twenty to early thirty-somethings does not connect with the Church, us Christians. He calls them Common Misperceptions of the Church. Here they are:
I want you to know that I’m still processing all this for myself and I am thankful that not all young adults see the Church in this way. Some of the fastest growing churches in America are started and filled by young adults, but it makes me think and wonder if a growing number of this generation perceives us in this way. Time will tell if we are more like the misperception young adults have of us or more like Jesus, who they like.
Our pastor presented that question to us the other Sunday morning during the start of a series in I Corinthians on the significance and importance of the Church. I’ve been thinking about that question and the meaning behind it for a little while now. It is the sort of question that makes you pause for a moment. Why bother with the Church? As if you are asking, “Why should I care if the Church is around or not?” I especially wonder how young adults see the Church. How would a 23-year-old sales clerk answer that question, or a graduate student from a local university? What is their perception of the Church?
When I have talked with those in their twenties who are not part of any church, and I ask them what they think about Christians, their answers are more like a statement. They say something like, “I don’t bother with the Church, it doesn’t have any meaning for me” or “I have problems with Christians; they don’t act much like Jesus did and isn’t that the whole point?” You get a feeling that the Church has no relevance for many young adults, and when I say relevance, I mean the Church holds no importance for them.
In his book, They Like Jesus But Not The Church, Pastor Dan Kimball of Vintage Faith Church shares his conversation and interviews he has had with young adults on their perception of the Church. He gives six reasons why he thinks this generation of twenty to early thirty-somethings does not connect with the Church, us Christians. He calls them Common Misperceptions of the Church. Here they are:- The Church is an organized religion with a political agenda.
- The Church is judgmental and negative.
- The Church is dominated by males and oppresses females.
- The Church is homophobic.
- The Church arrogantly claims all other religions are wrong.
- The Church is full of fundamentalists who take the whole Bible literally.
I want you to know that I’m still processing all this for myself and I am thankful that not all young adults see the Church in this way. Some of the fastest growing churches in America are started and filled by young adults, but it makes me think and wonder if a growing number of this generation perceives us in this way. Time will tell if we are more like the misperception young adults have of us or more like Jesus, who they like.
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on Wednesday, April 4, 2007 at 5:50 AM.
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BOB: You and kimball ask: "where did they get the ideas they have about church?" Well,lets' just think about this for a moment. Towards churches that teach the Bible verse by verse, without a left-leaning agenda, devoid of silly attempts at "relevancy" through ridiculous and imposed connections to mass media or pagan writers/scholars, and blessed by the presence of the Holy Spirit who convicts people of SIN when a pastor is truly faithful to scripture, and sends people home full of the true gospel message? Well, the individuals of whom you refer would most certainly be bored to tears in such a church (as would Kimball). Why? First, because the message of the cross is foolishness to many of those who are perishing among them, yet never receive the gospel in their politically-correct emergent circles to alter this reality; second, because the center of attention is not on them and their ever-important sense of personal identity and affirmation through "community". So, to answer Kimball's and your question, nobody should bother with an emerging/ent church that panders to felt needs of a generation that finds it generally commonplace to write college essays through cutting and pasting of large chunks of text they pinch from the internet (or buying the essays on the internet) or believe their mere presence in the classroom constitutes A-level work. I regrettably teach this generation of college students who have imposed their demands within academia to such a degree that the entire enterprise has conformed itself around them at major, once esteemed universities. High-level academic standards of the past are entirely gone now, as students believe grades they earn are as easy to exchange as a belt at Nordstroms. Sad within the pagan world of academia, but saddder still (tragic actually) when this occurs among professing Christians within churches, thanks of course to emergent heretics. So to Kimball and those in the present youth generation to whom he woos in emergent or emergent-friendly churches: don't bother with church because you are wasting your time.
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