Categories
Politics Teaching

Politics Aside: What are we teaching the Next Generation?

290456_trumpyyhillary

It has been well documented that the next generation considers the church an institution that is too political.  Too political in that many churches split over silly agendas and preferences but also too political in the sense that national politics are given a bigger stage to shine on they ought to be given from both behind the pulpit and inside the church itself.  When churches emphasize political parties more than they do the gospel or even worse claim their political preference as the gospel, the next generation turns off. 

I do not intend to use this platform to provide you with statistics on how the next generation will vote or how the next generation should vote in the upcoming election.  Ministry leaders understand the old cliché, “people vote with their feet.”  Many young people will choose not to vote at all.  Is the church taking notice when young people decide not to enter their church doors?  Do politicians notice when the younger generations decide not to show up at the poll?  People vote all the time.  We, the church, must take inventory, look at ourselves in the mirror, and decide if we ourselves are a stumbling block to the next generation not being able to enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ.

At his crucifixion, Jesus did not receive any votes.  His closest friends turned away and as his triumphal entry indicates, the notion of popularity is here today and gone tomorrow.  It would be easy to provide you with statistics and polls which indicate the values and beliefs of the next generation.  How many Millennials voted for Bernie Sanders in contrast to Hilary Clinton?  How many votes will Donald Trump receive when compared with Hilary Clinton’s vote count?  How many Millennials feel helpless and will choose not to vote at all?  Yes, votes do reveal feelings and beliefs, but I sense there is something at stake for the next generation in this election that I feel has been overlooked and ignored.

Life boils down to relationships.  Jesus placed an extremely high value on relationships.  Jesus desired that men and women not only love God, but also their fellow man.  The Great Commandment (Mat 22:35–40), The Golden Rule (Mat 7:12), and The Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25–37) all remind us of how paramount relationships are to the Kingdom of God. 

The way in which Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton have related to each other in this election period is the epitome of treating one’s fellow man as nothing less than slime.  Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton are not only two politicians running to be the next President of the United States.  They are two national leaders who are to set an example of what it means to love one’s neighbor.  My greatest fear is that the next generation looks at how these national leaders treat each other in dialogue, etc. and think to themselves that this is natural and normal behavior.  If our nation’s leaders, and one whom will soon be proclaimed our nation’s greatest leader, can name call, sling mud, and degrade another, the next generation’s rationale becomes “why can’t I?”  After all, this “leader” climbed to the top of the ladder in his or her profession with a manner that dehumanizes another, so “why can’t I?”

With this line of thinking at work, it does not take long for us as a nation to soon forget that “we the people” are made in the image of God and to begin witnessing our children acting as mini-Clinton’s and mini-Trump’s toward one another.  Bullying is already a huge problem with students in school and cyber-bullying often plays a major factor in teen suicide.  The election campaign has become so horrid that children should not even be in the same room where the evening news is heard.

I vote that we love one another as Jesus commanded us to and that the church and the family teaches the next generation to act the opposite toward one another as our presidential candidates do toward each other.

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Great Commission Next Generation Ministry

Evangelistic Tools & Events to Reach the Next Generation

reid

I previously shared a three-part series http://next-generation-ministry.com/tag/millennials/ describing how ministry leaders and church members alike can reach and keep the next generation. I wanted to identify and define who the next generation is and provide suggestions based on solid research on how the church can reach and keep the next generation.

Statistics and suggestions are all well and good, but ministry leaders and church members should also be equipped with evangelistic tools to accomplish the Great Commission. I like what Alvin Reid, professor of evangelism and student ministry at SEBTS says concerning the state of evangelism in the church, “We don’t have a training problem, we have a trying problem. The door to door evangelistic method is better than using no method at all, which is what most of our people are doing.”

How can we reach and keep the next generation if we never tell the next generation who Jesus is and what he has done for them? The evangelistic tools (programs, techniques, etc.) are limitless. I know this is a truism but the first thing we must do (after prayer) is to pull an evangelistic tool out of our evangelism tool bag. We need to do relational evangelism but we also need to do intentional evangelism and whether we share Jesus in a formal presentation or a casual conversation, we need to be ready at all times to share the gospel.

Sometimes we are ready but not willing. When was the last time you told someone that Jesus loved them? Did they give you a blank stare or ask you who Jesus is? Rather than lament about how sinful our culture has become, let’s begin to share Jesus with others. My best guess is our culture has degraded to where it is today because at some point, God’s people stopped sharing the good news.

In our postmodern and post-Christian culture, we must begin by explaining creation. We live in Athens (Acts 17) and not Jerusalem (Acts 2) anymore. Since our society is biblically illiterate, we must continue our oral storytelling by illustrating the fall, rescue, and restoration of both man and creation as we discuss spiritual matters with people. We must walk with people from Genesis to Revelation and share the story in a way where they understand their life narrative fits within the metanarrative of Scripture.

My favorite tools are

Other evangelistic tools include

Evangelistic events also share a purpose and have a place in the church. See You at the Pole was just celebrated around the globe. Disciple Now Weekends occur in the fall and spring. Summer camps along with VBS have also produced positive results. Youth crusades or revivals and mission trips through the social media world are also effective.

Categories
Next Generation Ministry

What time is it?

clock

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 (read below) represents one of the bedrock biblical passages underlying the theological foundations of next generation ministry:

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates (ESV).”

Recall that God had given the Israelites the Ten Commandments through his servant Moses on Mount Sinai (Exodus 19-20), yet now Moses is reminding Israel of these commandments (Deut 5). Deut 6:4 is known as the Shema. Traditional Jews often make these words the last words of their dying breath and have their children say the Shema as a prayer before turning in for the night. It is important that the next generation understand that God is not many, but One.

In cross-referencing with Matthew 22:37, Jesus echoes that one is to love the one true God with all their heart, soul, and strength as Deut 6:5 is often referred to as one of two commandments (the other being to love one’s neighbor as oneself) that Jesus gave. In other words, the commandments, albeit the Ten Commandments, or the Two commandments are of the upmost important and obedience to the commands is equated to love for God (John 14:15).

Thus it makes perfect sense that leaders are to abide by these commands and that parents are commanded to teach these commands to the next generation (Deut 6:6). Though one is not saved by obeying the commands (an impossible task), one’s love relationship with God is enhanced. Parents and leaders are to impress the commands upon the children entrusted into their care (Deut 6:7). Parents are to talk about the commands at home, on the road, when their children go to bed, and when their children wake up (Deut 6:8-9).

To simplify understanding the different times a parent can impress God’s Word upon their children through the course of a given day, I have identified four opportune times according to the passage at hand.

Meal Time: Research has proven time and time again the benefits of sitting around the table at home with families eating together. However, practically, meal time today has become an on-the-go event or a sit in front of a screen event. If you do sit around the table, have your child put up his or her phone and talk about the day’s events and activities. Bring God’s Word to the table (not literally, although you can) and talk about how God’s Word is relevant to the items being discussed. Mainly, just show love to your child by showing how much you care and that you are interested in their life.

Drive Time: After breakfast time at the table, or if you’re like most parents today, breakfast on the way to school, parents can use the transition time from home to school in the morning or from school to home in the afternoon to enforce biblical ideas and teachings. Parents could say, “Remember, son, you are a missionary on your campus today” as their child steps out of the car door.  Perhaps instead of the traditional, “how was your day at school?”, parents opt for, “How did you see God move in and around your life at school today?” or “Did you have a chance to share Christ in word or in deed with anyone at school today?”

Morning Time: Parents can not only wake their child up in the morning, but start the day off with a blessing or a prayer. Have you ever woken up to your mom saying, “Rise and shine and Give God the glory?” I have.  It’s a reminder that this is the day that the Lord has made and that we are to rejoice and be glad in it.

Bed Time: What better way to end a day than in prayer or Bible story time? The Story by Max Lucado is easy to read and comprehensible for children to understand, while Richard Ross and Gus Reyes has proven the effectiveness of strengthening the parent-teen relationship at night in their resource 3o Days, where parents and teens spend 10 minutes together for 30 nights in a row, using Scripture as their guide.

It’s always a good time to talk to your children about the Lord!

 

 

Categories
Next Generation Ministry

Reaping the Next Generation

pine trees

In 1986, I moved to Georgia from Oklahoma.  I was 6 years old at the time of the move.  My family bought an old farmhouse located on a land tract of 23 acres.  My dad, being a research forester at UGA decided that he and my older brother would plant pine trees to cover the land.  Thirty years later, those pine seedlings, once below my waist, now tower in the front, side, and back part of the property.  It really is an amazing sight to see and I never get tired of looking at the scenic view.

Galatians 6:7-10 speaks to the principle of sowing and reaping.  The principle applies to both the natural and the spiritual life.  Thirty years can represent one generation.  Being 2016, the generation of pine trees that stand around my old home represent a harvest that is ready to cut down.  A generation comes and a generation goes.  The pine trees are a symbolic picture of human life.  Humans tend to have longer life spans, but one day, a new generation will arise.  The question to ask in next generation ministry is, “will the next generation carry on the seeds of faith?”

I began my next generation ministry studies at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, NC in the winter of 2014.  I can remember it like yesterday, because two months into my studies, my last grandparent passed away.  As I began my next generation studies, I saw the last of a generation fly away.  I say “fly away” because my Grandmother was one that passed her Christian faith onto others, albeit family members or friends.  In word and in deed, she lived a life worthy of the high calling of Jesus Christ and I believe her soul is currently in the presence of the Lord (2 Cor. 5:8).  Even in her death, her life was still speaking to me.  And she did often sing the old hymn, “I’ll fly away” in her small country church.

It pains me to see and hear of family members and friends who have lived faithful lives being called to depart from this land.  Although they lived this life as strangers and pilgrims in a “foreign land” (I Peter 2:11-12) and a heavenly home awaits (John 14:1-3), I still hate to see them leave.  But what pains me even more is when I see there is no one that is coming up from behind to replace the individual’s life of faith impact.  On a regional, societal, national, and global level, a cumulative effect takes place when our faith is not transferred.  Domestically and internationally, cultures change and a Christ-less culture is to be pitied most of all. 

The spiritual and moral landscape that once made our country great begins to fade away when we stop talking to others about Jesus.  Schools replace the home as the primary place of instruction and students learn that life is meaningless since man evolved from apes, homosexuality is an accepted lifestyle, sex is ok as long as it is practiced safely, and the Bible is merely a book of ancient history.  People stop pledging allegiance to the nation’s flag and prayer becomes a thing of the past. 

I am not saying God has taken his hand off of our country or that his channel of blessings have stopped flowing.  But when people are offended that his name is in the pledge, on their money, and on their national monuments, I wonder how He feels.   

Ronald Reagan, 40th President of the United States, once stated ALL the counsel we need is found in the Bible.  My, how far we have come in 30 years!  What’s true for the nation can be true for churches, school houses, and homes.  Parents and leaders, let’s guard the truth and make sure we pass it down to the next generation.   

Categories
Great Commission Next Generation Ministry

Stick-men Theology

Family Pic

Perhaps you have heard the age-old adage, “a picture says a thousand words.” If you could invert the family in the picture above by placing the individuals in opposite order (shortest to tallest), and then draw a lined arrow which continues through the last family member, you would be looking at a picture of Next Generation Ministry.

We have become all too familiar with this picture of family members in the form of stick figures placed on the back window of vehicles. We like to count the number of figures and then also notice how many pets the family owns. Pets aside, a family is a unit that grows together. Through thick and then, a family hangs tight. I am sure you have heard of the expression, “a family that prays together stays together.” Most have rephrased this phrase today to say, “a family that plays together stays together.” That mantra has some credence but Scripture is clear that godliness holds value for “all things” while physical training is only of “some” value (I Tim 4:8).

A family left to themselves is never enough. The Bible has mandated in the Old Testament and the New Testament that the family partner with the church in the all-important task of raising children up in the way of the Lord. It truly does take a village to raise a child. Though parents will always be the primary disciple-makers of their children, parents should use the assistance of the local church in order to become a Great Commission family.

In NGM, family ministry is important, but there is more to the picture. Families look different today and churches must remember the spiritual orphan while planning. In NGM, church members can become the adopted spiritual parents for the spiritual orphans in the church. Michael and Michelle Anthony note in A Theology for Family Ministry, “what was once simply referred to as a Nuclear Family in North America has morphed into labels such as Non-Traditional Families, Fragmented Families, Single-Parent Families, Gay-Partner Families, Blended Families, and beyond.” Each church must wrestle with how they will minister to the different types of families found in their community.

The arrow that runs through the ages is the biblical strategy that NGM employs across its age-graded ministries (preschool, children, youth, college). In reality, multiple arrows could run through the age-graded ministry stick figures, representing multiple strategies such as the NGM’s mission strategy, education strategy, evangelism strategy, worship strategy, and so on.

The goal is neither Christian education nor spiritual formation in and of itself, but rather Christian formation. Holly Allen and Christine Ross define “Christian formation” as the process of Christians being formed, transformed, and conformed to the image of Christ by the Holy Spirit. Christians are actively involved in this process both personally and communally.[1] Christian formation is the exact point and place where Christian education and spiritual formation meet. Michelle Anthony and Megan Marshman state, “It’s in the marriage of information and formation that we have transformation.”[2]

Transforming students (birth-college) into disciples of Christ is the goal and NGM is the discipleship strategy of choice for many churches!

[1] Holly C. Allen and Christine L. Ross, Intergenerational Christian Formation: Bringing the Whole Church Together in Ministry, Community, and Worship (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2012), 21.

 

[2] Anthony and Marshman, 7 Family Ministry Essentials, 81.

 

Categories
Great Commission Next Generation Ministry

Post Olympics: The Divine Gospel Relay

OlympicsThe 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics hosted by Brazil finished up ten days ago. Perhaps no other Olympic sport competition captures the essence of Next Generation Ministry (NGM) better than the 4×100-meter relay race.

Hebrews 12:1-2 tells us to run the race of the Christian faith with perseverance and to fix our eyes on Jesus while running. Paul says in 2 Timothy 4:7 that he finished his race and that he kept the faith. Paul’s goal in running his race was to win the prize and he trained to win (I Cor. 9:24-27; Phil 3:14). Paul was speaking to training for godliness more than he was speaking to physical training (I Tim 4:7). Paul knew the ultimate prize was Jesus, but Paul also knew the good news of the “glorious gospel of the blessed God” (I Tim 1:11) had been entrusted to him to pass down the torch and legacy of his faith to the next generation. How else could the Great Commission (Mat 28:19-20) be fulfilled and how else could Christianity survive?

Paul was to pass down or handoff his faith to “reliable men” who were “qualified” to teach others (2 Tim 2:2). Paul stressed to his protégé Timothy and the church at Ephesus that they were to compete according to the rules (2 Tim 2:5) in order to obtain the crown. Timothy knew that his faith had been passed down to him from his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice (2 Tim 1:5) and that he was to set an example to other believers as he ran his own race (I Tim 4:12). Believers are also told to “contend” for the transfer of faith as it occurs across generations (Jude 1:3) and to not allow anyone to “cut in” on the good race they are running (Galatians 5:7).

Do you know the USA’s Women’s 4×100-meter relay race history? In 1996, the summer Olympics were held in my back yard (Atlanta, GA) and the women’s team won gold! After that, however, the team’s luck ran out. In the 2000 Sydney Olympics (Australia), the US team lost by .25 seconds and finished 3rd after one muffed handoff. We must be careful to pass the gospel off safely and securely to the next generation that is to follow in our footsteps.

After every 100 meters exists a 20 meter exchange zone whereby the baton must be passed in. In the 2004 Athens Olympics (Greece), the women’s team was the fastest and the strongest team, but were disqualified after passing the baton out of the exchange zone. Being disqualified has to be the worst feeling in the world, especially after you know you would have won the race. I recently heard a Pastor say he would rather God kill him than be disqualified.

In the 2008 Beijing Games (China), American runner Torri Edwards was handing the baton off to Lauryn Williams in the final exchange when the baton slipped from Lauryn’s hand onto the track. Lauryn had dropped the baton. Team USA was disqualified again after being in the lead and for the first time in forty-eight years, the team was not allowed to run in the final medal race. The incident reminds me of the time a parent of one of the players on Alabama’s 2011 National Championship Football Team dropped the team’s Crystal trophy. In the case of the USA women’s team, the dropped baton cost the team gold. The gospel is too precious to miss, fumble, slip, or drop out of our hands in the handoff between generations.

Like the good news of the gospel that we are transferring from one generation to another, there is also a good news side of this Olympic story I have shared with you. In the 2012 London Games (England), the USA women’s team experienced clean handoffs at each exchange zone and smashed the world record winning in 40.82 seconds.

The individual 400 women’s meter relay record is held by Maria Kotch of East Germany at 47.60 seconds. Christine Caine in her book Unstoppable (where I’m getting most of my information from) says, “four champion runners collaborating in the relay are faster than a lone champion runner” because the “unified team of four completed their 400 meters a full 6.78 seconds faster.” In the same manner, I prefer next generation ministry to traditional silo’d ministry because parents, students, and leaders form a unified team approach who collaborate together to provide for smooth transitions between age graded ministries from birth through college. Just like the 4 x 100 relay race, a handoff is made three times at and from preschool ministry to children’s ministry to youth ministry to collegiate ministry. In this instance, the finish line is represented by disciples who have been made who in turn are now ready to make new disciples.

In case you did not know and were wondering how the USA Women’s 4×100-meter relay team fared at this year’s Olympics in Brazil . . . they won! After a collision between a Brazil and American runner in a qualifying race disqualified the USA team from competition, the USA team filed an appeal and won. The rest is history!

Sometimes life will knock you down; Don’t quit. The example of the USA team to get back up and the Apostle Paul’s words in Philippians 3:12-14 remind us to forget what is behind and to press on towards the prize for which God has called us heavenward for in Christ Jesus.

The divine gospel relay is the best race anyone could run. Leaders, let’s use the gifts and talents God has given us to serve Him in this generation.

The race goes on! I’ve talked about not letting past failures hinder you from running your best race but you also must not let past successes stop you from being your best in the future. After all, the women’s 4×100-meter relay team must now prepare themselves for a three-peat at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.

Categories
Great Commission Next Generation Ministry

Reaching the Next Generation (Part 3)

Millennial3

This post is a third post in a three part series on identifying who the next generation is and how the church is to reach them.

In order for the church to reconnect to the next generation, Kinnaman says the church will have to rethink relationships, rediscover vocation, and reprioritize wisdom.[1] Kinnaman says that the church must (1) Cast out fear by discerning the times and embracing the risks of cultural engagement (2) Leave shallow faith behind by apprenticing young people in the fine art

of following Christ (3) Respond to today’s scientific culture by stewarding young people’s gifts and intellect (4) Live by a sexual ethic that rejects traditionalist and individualist narratives of sex (5) Demonstrate the exclusive nature of Christ by rekindling empathy for the other (6) Faithfully work through doubts by doing acts of service with and for others.[2]

To change the perception the church currently has from being un-Christian to Christian, Kinnaman and Lyons say the church must (1) Respond with the right perspective (2) Connect with people (3) Be creative (4) Serve people.[3]

The next generation craves community, depth, responsibility, and connection.[4] The churches that are meeting these needs are (1) Creating deeper community (2) Making a difference through service (3) Experiencing worship (4) Conversing the content (5) Leveraging technology (6) Building cross-generational relationships (7) Moving toward authenticity (8) Leading by transparency (9) Leading by team.[5]

To counter the prevailing Moralistic Therapeutic Deism that is running rampant in the church house today, churches must use the tools they have for “cultivating consequential faith.”[6]

Dean identifies these practices as translation, testimony, and detachment.[7] Rainer states that the “typical Millennial” wants a connected family, wants parental involvement, are diverse, believe they can make an impact on the future, are not workaholics, want a mentor, are green but not that green, communicate unlike any other generation, are financially confused, and are not religious.[8]

In order to reach these Millennials and the unchurched today, Schultz says that church practice must return to (1) Radical hospitality (2) Fearless conversation (3) Genuine humility (4) Divine anticipation.[9] To change the outsider’s perception of Jesus and His Church, Christ-followers need to act in grace and speak the truth in love. The church must embody service, compassion, humility, forgiveness, patience, kindness, peace, joy, goodness, and love.

Not all news is gloom and doom for the church’s next generation. “Lots of information abounds on young people leaving the church. But not all leave; many stay, thrive, and are impacting the world for Christ.”[10] Dr. Alvin Reid has identified some ways that the church can reach and keep the next generation (1) Befriend and mentor someone of the next generation (2) Take students out of the Christian subculture to develop skills and knowledge for interacting with the real world (3) Help students to think and live missional lives now (4) Help young people see how the Bible relates to their career (5) Help students own their faith and see faith lived out in the real world so that they can beyond a check-list Christianity to a lifestyle of following Jesus that matters.[11]

Though a new Pew Research survey found that the self-identified Christian share of the population declined almost 8% from 2007-2014, Evangelicals should not be alarmed. In a USA Today news article, Ed Stetzer, Executive Director of LifeWay Research, states that Christianity is not collapsing but is rather being clarified. Stetzer says that the church is not dying but is being more clearly defined and that churches are not emptying because evangelicals are attending church more than ever before. Stetzer asserts his belief because Pew Research does show that evangelicals in America have risen from 59.8 to 62.2 million in population over the past seven years and that those who self-identify as born-again have also risen from 34% to 35%. Stetzer says that “convictional Christianity” will continue.

Simply put, committed Christians who “value their faith enough to wake up on Sunday morning and head to their local church are mostly still going.” It is the nominal Christian­–people whose religious affiliation is in name only-who are becoming “nones” leading to the shrinking of Christianity in America. Though “Nones” have increased from 16%-23% of the total population over the past seven years, this increase is found to have come mostly from Catholics and Mainline Protestants.[12]

[1] Kinnaman, You Lost Me, 202-212.

[2] Ibid, 205-206.

[3] Kinnaman and Lyons, UnChristian, 206-12.

[4] Stetzer, Stanley, and Hayes, Lost and Found, 67-68.

[5] Ibid, 143-44.

[6] Dean, Almost Christian, 106.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Rainer, The Millennials, 30-48.

[9] Schultz, Why Nobody Goes to Church Anymore, 68.

[10] Reid, Blog, “Thursday is for Training: Keeping the Next Gen in Church,” March 12, 2015.

[11] Ibid.

[12] Stetzer, USA Today, “Survey Fail: Christianity isn’t Dying,” May 14, 2015.

Categories
Great Commission Next Generation Ministry

Reaching the Next Generation (Part 2)

Millennial2

This post is the second post in a three part series on identifying who the next generation is and how the church is to reach them.

In describing the religiously unaffiliated, James Emery White prefers to use the term “none.”[1] White claims that a snapshot or portrait of the average none shows that a none is (1)

Male (2) Young (3) White (4) Not necessarily an atheist (5) Not very religious (6) A Democrat (7) In favor of abortion and same-gender marriage being legal (8) Liberal or moderate (9) Not necessarily hostile toward religious institutions (10) Most likely a westerner.[2] According to Pew Research, the percentage of nones rose from 5 to 15% from 1940 to 1990 but exploded from 21 to 34 % between the years of 2008 and 2012.”[3] White believes this marked difference is due to the secularization, privatization, and pluralization of the modern world.[4]

Why is it that the next generation is shying away from church in larger numbers than years past? The unchurched offer many reasons as to why they avoid church. The unchurched claim church is boring (15%), they are not sure why they do not attend (13%), or that they are too busy (11%).[5] The unchurched perceive church people to be anti-homosexual (91%), judgmental (87%), hypocritical (85%), old-fashion (78%), too involved in politics (75%), and out of touch with reality (72%).[6]

In You Lost Me, Kinnman says that the disconnect with the church that the unchurched experiences is due to the fact that the unchurched perceive the church to be overprotective, shallow, anti-science, repressive, exclusive, and doubtless.[7] “The younger unchurched believe the church is too critical about lifestyle issues, full of hypocrites, and not necessary for spiritual development.”[8] Church refugees also claim they dropped out of church because they wanted a break, they moved to college, or they did not feel connected to the people in their church.[9]

Finally, other reasons given for not attending church come from those who say they do not want another lecture or that God is irrelevant in their life.[10] Katie Galli speaks for many younger adults when she says, “We’re especially disillusioned with the church.

Somewhere between the Crusades, the Inquisition, and fundamentalists bombing abortion clinics, we lost our appetite for institutionalized Christianity.”[11]

The first step for any church that is even mildly interested in next generation ministry is to identify who the next generation is. The second step is to seek to understand what appeals or methods are best utilized for successfully reaching the next generation. Gabe Lyons believes that the next Christians will be (1) Provoked, not offended (2) Creators, not critics (3) Called, not employed (4) Grounded, not distracted (5) In community, not alone (6) Civil, not divisive (7) Countercultural, not relevant.[12]

The idea that Lyons presents concerning the next Christians is one of restoring the culture and the cosmos. The idea of creation restoration is appealing to the next generation not only because they are taken up with social issues but because creation restoration explains in a fuller sense the intent and scope of the gospel and the kingdom of God.

But before the next generation can be creation restorers as God originally intended them to be, they must first be Christians. And in order for one to have his or her soul restored, he or she needs a Christ-follower to share the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ with him or her. The church calls this event and process evangelism.

Unfortunately, White says that the church is avoiding these spiritual conversations thus figuratively closing their front door.[13] “Evangelism is fine in theory but not in practice.”[14] This amounts to the church saying we want the unchurched in heaven but we act like they can go to hell.[15] White claims that a church’s evangelism approach to reach the unchurched must be like an incubator: “Every approach, every program, every service furnishes a particular environment that will either serve the evangelistic process or hinder it.”[16] In reaching the next generation, White also believes the church must offer a cause, be full of grace and truth, establish a new apologetic, be unified, invite the unchurched to church, and renew their own commitment to church.[17]

[1] White, The Rise of the Nones, 13.

[2] Ibid, 22-23.

[3] Pew Research, “Nones on the Rise.”

[4] White, The Rise of the Nones, 45-46.

[5] Ibid, 53.

[6] Kinnaman and Lyons, UnChristian, 34.

[7] Kinnaman, You Lost Me, 92-93.

[8] Stetzer, Stanley, and Hayes, Lost and Found, 65.

[9] Rainer, Essential Church, 3.

[10] Schultz, Why Nobody Goes to Church Anymore, 23-27.

[11] Galli, “Dear Disillusioned Generation,” Christianity Today, April 21, 2008.

[12] Lyons, The Next Christians, 67.

[13] White, The Rise of the Nones, 84

[14] Ibid.

[15] Ibid.

[16] Ibid, 93.

[17] Ibid, 99-165

 

Categories
Great Commission Next Generation Ministry

Reaching the Next Generation (Part 1)

Millennial1

If you hang around long me enough, you will hear me say, “to reach the next generation, you must know who the next generation is.” This task is easier said than done.

The next generation, also known as Generation Z, the iGeneration, or the Centennials is a complex group that can be divided and appropriated into various subheadings. As it pertains to church attendance, the next generation can be classified into the unchurched, de-churched, re-churched, never churched, or found faithful to attend church.

In their book UnChristian, David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons claim that unbelievers are a set that “includes atheists, agnostics, those affiliated with a faith other than Christianity (such as Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, Mormonism, and so on), and other unchurched adults who are not born-again Christians.”[1]

Lifeway’s research concludes that “more than two-thirds of young churchgoing adults in America drop out of church between the ages of eighteen and twenty-two. Thom Rainer in Essential Church says, “the church is losing this generational battle on two fronts: (1) An increasing amount of young people are deciding to live according to a secular mindset, thus dropping out of church and not returning to church as previous generations did (2) An increasing amount of young people are deciding to drop out of church and not claim the Christian faith of their parents or their grandparents.” [2]

Kinnaman categorizes generational dropouts into three groups: (1) Nomads (2) Prodigals (3) Exiles.[3] Kinnaman describes nomads as those who walk away from church engagement but still consider themselves Christian. Prodigals are those who lose their faith, describing themselves as “no longer Christian.” Exiles are still involved in their Christian faith but feel stuck or lost between culture and the church.

What possible explanation exists for why so many young people are leaving the church today? Perhaps it is because the church has presented the next generation a false gospel. In Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers is Telling The American Church (written by Kenda Dean), Christian Smith and Melinda Denton are given credit through their National Study of Youth and Religion (NYSR) in stating that Moralistic Therapeutic Deism is “colonizing many historical religious traditions and, almost without anyone noticing, converting believers in the old faiths to its alternative religious vision of divinely underwritten personal happiness and interpersonal niceness.”[4]

Smith and Denton conclude that “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism is supplanting Christianity as the dominant religion in the United States.”[5] If this takeover is happening, what are the guiding beliefs to this new religion? Dean lists these beliefs in five summary statements: (1) A god exists who created and orders the world and watches over life (2) God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other as taught in the Bible and by most world religions (3) The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself (4) God is not involved in my life except when I need God to resolve a problem (5) Good people go to heaven when they die.[6]

To follow up on groundbreaking research released in SoulSearching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of Teenagers, Smith wrote Souls in Transition: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults revealing that 18-24 year-olds comprise six religious types; (1) Committed Traditionalists – no more than 15% (2) Selective Adherents – perhaps 30% (3) Spiritually Open – about 15% (4) Religious Indifferent – at least 25% (5) Religiously Disconnected – no more than 5%, and (6) Irreligious – no more than 10%.  These findings show that 40% of all “emerging adults” (meaning prolonged adulthood) are clearly distanced from religion. Practically speaking, adults are not coming back to church once they marry and have kids  like they once did.

Believe it or not, I am only scratching the surface of who the next generation is and how the church can reach them. This is why I am making this post into a three part series.

[1] Kinnaman and Lyons, UnChristian, 17.

[2] Rainer, Essential Church, 8.

[3] Ibid, 25.

[4] Dean, Almost Christian, 14.

[5] Ibid.

 [6] Ibid.

Categories
Great Commission Next Generation Ministry

Down, Set, NGM NGM, Hut

orange football

My favorite time of the season is just around the corner.  I am not talking about the seasons of fall, winter, spring, or summer.  I am talking about football season!  I travel to nearly all home and away local high school football games on Friday nights and love to watch college football games on Saturday.  I am not as big a fan of the NFL as I am the NCAA game, but I do like to watch the NFL come playoff time.

Though I never played a down of organized football, I played in the roughest and toughest league around.  On various weekdays after school and weekends, my neighborhood teenage friends and I would assemble a game of tackle football.  We would play come rain, wind, or snow.  Our playing surface was a back yard with all of the rocks included.  We did not have helmets to put on and we sure did not use pads.  We became familiar with the ground.  Scrapes and scratches were just a normal part of the routine.  When tackling, we would sling each other around, often going in circles, until one or both players fell down.  Age divisions did not exist.  High school students could toss the middle school students around and middle school students could gang up on a high school student in an attempt to bring the big behemoth down.

Having watched hours of football games and having played hours more of real football and football video games, I have become an expert in understanding the inner workings of the game.  Although watching giants knock the breath out of each is other is appeasing to the eye, what I have really to come to enjoy about football is the strategy employed by coaches.  A team with less talent, less strength, less speed can still win football games if they have the right strategy in place and if their coaches teach proper technique.  As unorthodox as it may sound, football is really just a chess match using people in the place of a pawns.

Strategy is important in ministry too.  If you are a ministry leader and you are not obtaining the spiritual results you desire, you may be in need of adopting a new strategy.  Typically, a lack of effort by ministry leaders is not the problem.  A lack of prayer is another matter, but even with substantial prayer, a weak strategy can produce weak results.  Take the veer offense, for example, in football.  You can pray three times a day to score more points on the field on a Friday night, but chances are that once the game is over, the score on the scoreboard is going to look the same.  Why?  Because the veer, used in the 1970s, has a hard time of keeping pace with the high speed, no huddle offenses used today.  There are always exceptions to the rule, but generally speaking, your strategy determines your score.  And your score determines your wins and losses.

I would agree with Thom Rainer in Transformational Church that churches often measure success by the wrong scorecard (bodies, budgets, and buildings).  But I would also suggest that churches measuring success with the right scorecard (read Rainer’s book) are often stuck with weak results because they are using the wrong strategy.  To reach the next generation, church leaders must begin to meet together to discuss the best strategy for this all-important task.  Since the next generation is not coming to church, the church must find ways to GO to the next generation (Matt. 28:19-20).  I would advise the evangelistic method or technique (since I am writing about football) called servanthood evangelism embraced and taught by ministry coach Steven Sjoren (he’s really a pastor).

James Emery White chronicles how evangelism is now both a process and an event in his book The Rise of the Nones.  White declares that the typical unchurched person is no longer simply unchurched, but more than likely is a “none”, meaning that person is unaffiliated with any religion.  Churches and church leaders must be innovative in strategy and patient in work as they help a generation who claims to believe in nothing.  It is not that the next generation will not go to church or will not believe in Christ as Savior.  It is just this process of becoming a church member or even considering the claims of Christ often takes longer today.

Let me option back to football for a moment.  National attitudes about youth participation in football are evolving.  A study conducted in July came out of the University of Massachusetts finding that four out of five parents expressed the opinion that children under the age of fourteen should not play tackle football.  Many rule changes have been adopted by football legislative bodies to make the game safer at all levels.

As a football traditionalist, I do not like all of the rule changes and I think that in some ways the legislative bodies have crossed the line and ruined the game in certain aspects.  But I also have to admit that football is a safer sport and that this is good news overall.

Now, I am going to throw it back to NGM.  It pains me to see the changing spiritual landscape of our great nation.  I would desire that the next generation were already familiar with the Bible’s content and the man named Jesus.  However, 42 BLUE, 42 BLUE – if the sport of football can change for the better, I do not see why churches cannot do the same.  We have the best news in the form of the gospel and we have to find the best and safest way to hand the gospel off to the next generation.  My strategy of choice is NGM!  Let’s circle up and call the right play, BREAK!