Bob's Blog

"We're in a yeasty age;" says John Naisbett author of Megatrends, "this is a time between two ages. The fading industrial era is coming to an end, and we're moving into a coming information-process era." The comment was made a couple of years back and few would argue against his prediction that we live in an information-process world. In their book 11 Innovations in the Local Church, Elmer Towns, Ed Stetzer, and Warren Bird give its readers a look at recent church "styles" that are developing within local congregations across America. Others have covered all of these styles or innovations (house churches, multi-site, etc...) in books, articles, or seminars and each style are given a chapter in this book. If you are not familiar with these latest innovations, I suggest you pick up their book and see for your self what is on the horizon for the Church in America.

I was familiar with the trends that were talked about in their book, but one chapter caught my attention. It was the very last chapter entitled So What Does This All Mean? Like any impatient reader who can't wait to find out the killers identity in a mystery novel, I went immediately to this last chapter to find out what was their conclusion. Ed Stetzer was given the assignment of tying together their final thoughts. In one of his last paragraphs, he asks the question on why there were so many different church styles in America. His answer for the reason of the diversity of styles within the local churches was because, "we (church leaders) realize the North American Church is in trouble." Their conclusion is that the Church in America has lost its identity and that's why there are so many different ways of "doing" church.

There are some good observations on each church "innovation" and they do find at least one positive with each trend. As our country moves deeper into the postmodern, informational, post Judeo/Christian era, the shaping of the Church for the future is taking place now. Innovations, styles, or trends will come and go but the basics of our faith are what really matter. With a new generation making its mark within the church today, what will they use as their guide? It seems that the American Church of the last century had a blend of cultural relativism (whatever works) and biblical principles. The postmodern Church seems to be in a "let's try this" stage. The hope of many is that the Church will not forget that sound teaching of doctrine, a passion for the lost, and a God-centered worship was the core foundation for the early Church (Act 4:42-47). In a time of transition, it seems that the future of the Church hinges on its past.

You can sense that the next great debate within Christianity in America will be about the Emergent movement within Evangelicalism. It's been picking up steam over the past few years and seems to have quicken the pace with a few recent books critiquing the Emergent movement (Truth and the New Kind of Christian by R. Scott Smith; The Truth War by John MacArthur).

Even with this approaching debate coming to a church near you, many in the Evangelical circle are still unaware of what exactly is Emergent. Part of the reason may be because it is a movement that enjoys being in the "flux of change". Many in Emergent believe that once you put concrete theological definition to the movement, you'll lose what is unique about Emergent. For them, the movement is an on going "conversation" that changes as we continue to learn more about our faith and ourselves. Emergent finds comfort in believing that we can never truly know for sure anything about our faith (A New Kind of Christian p. 14). This belief of "not knowing" or not having "bombproof" answers from Scripture is equal to humility. One of the questions that Emergent followers ask is how we (Christians) can claim to know absolutely what truth is. For Emergent, the answer is simple; we can't and shouldn't presume to think we can.

This isn't to say that Emergent does not have anything positive or insightful to offer the Church. And it isn't to suggest that the modern Evangelical church of today is not without its own pitfalls, but the question is resting on biblical doctrine and how the Emergent movement are choosing to rewrite truths of Scripture. If it were a matter of the movement being outside of Evangelicalism, then the debate would be no more than another outside attack on Scipture, but because Emergent is getting a wide acceptance in the Evangelical community and especially with young emerging adults, many conservative pastors/theologians are sensing a more proactive response is needed.

For me, because I minister with these emerging adults, I can tell you that many are unaware of what exactly Emergent stands for. The reason writers like Donald Miller or pastors like Rob Bell are so attractive for young adults is because they connect the Bible to their world. Evangelicals can learn a lot from these new postmodern teachers. The trick is to connect culturally without denying sound doctrine. The reality is that we live in a world that continously tries to chip away at the truth of God's Word. Whether that is from a Modern or post-Modern perspective, how the Church reponds in combating these errors will determine the future of the North American Church.

"Most churched teenagers will put their faith on the shelf in their 20's and never return to it," says David Kinnaman president of Barna Group. In an article done for Ministry Today (May/June 2007), Barna's research is showing that on average, three out of every four churched teen (74%) will leave the church for a period of time with some never to return to their faith. Although, he does reassure that many will come back to the church, it will not be as many as have previous generations. His team asked some 2,400 teenagers what they look for in a church. Here are some of their answers.

• 71% - Understand better in what I believe.
• 66% - Worship or make a connection with God.
• 65% - Volunteer to help others.
• 55% - Learn more about prayer.
• 49% - Be mentored or coached in my spiritual development.
• 46% - Participate in a study class about faith.

In light of this, Kinnaman offers these insights in reaching Gen Y teenagers.

• Have the right standards for success. Don't measure your youth ministry by how many attend but by who they are once they graduate from the youth group.
• Be more personalized. Each teen is different so not "one size fits all" youth groups will work. Reach them as individuals in helping them see who God intended them to be.
• Facilitate life-on-life mentoring. They need mentors and not just to find the right answers in the Bible. They need mentors to help them navigate through life.
• Allow ambiguity and mystery to propel learning. They understand life is not easy so they don't want easy answers. They want assistance in finding biblical answers through the complexities of life.
• Realize that learning is not about teaching. Some of my best times in youth/college ministry were those teaching times "on the road" of life. If you give them your heart, they'll remember that forever.
• Build a team of uniquely gifted people. I'm huge with this. I never had all the gifts to reach my kids and I've learned through the years that a strong team will accomplish so much more than one person.

Kinnaman does tell us that they still need to do more research on Gen Y as a group but that opportunities are there to make an impact in their lives. If today's leaders don't take those opportunities, this generation could be the beginning of the decline of Christianity in America.

Here's an article I came across on Gen Y and their work habits. I saw this on Yahoo! finance page. It's from an article written by Sara Pierce for Entrepreneur.com entitled Gen Y Myths Debunked. Her article talks about perceived Gen Y work habits of being disloyal, not wanting to pay their dues, and needing constant praise are merely myths. She writes that these are false observations that are perceived by an older generation work force. To back up her claim she quotes from Bruce Tulgan, a respected writer on business management and author of Managing Generation Y. As Bruce Tulgan explains, "They're very loyal. It's just not the kind of loyalty you get in a kingdom...a blind loyalty..." and on Gen Y not wanting to work hard, Tulgan argues that, "It's nonsense to think that they don't want to do lots of work...they just want to know, 'Ok, I did all this grunt work; what do I get?' "

It's a very good article and does hit on some key thougths about whether or not this generation is truly the most narcissistic generation in American history. Pierce believes that much of the negative views about Gen Y is a wrong perception from an older generation. This could be true and if it is, than what can we do to correct some of these wrong perceptions? And how are some of these perceptions hindering us to reaching this generation for God? Don't forget that this summer at Equip 07 we will be tackling some of these issues in our discussion groups. Hope to see you there.