BLOG 12/16/13. THE MILLENNIALS, THE CHURCH, AND ADVENT
There has been a recent spate of journal and web-site articles, along with many books, dealing with the response (or lack thereof) of the emerging generation to the church, and how “millennials are leaving the church.” On one hand, as cynics might observe, young adults, who have grown up in the church, not-infrequently leave it for a while to see what else is out there. Others of them like the security and familiarity of the in-house church culture and just continue in it somewhat routinely (mindlessly?).
But the generations of younger men and women among us who are emerging into adulthood are products of a new and different culture: one that is post-Christian, and is culturally without any patterns—something of a cultural whitewater. What is refreshing from my perspective is: that they’re asking the right questions about the church. They are asking: Why is the church? What is its purpose? What does it have to do with Jesus Christ? How does it demonstrate, or incarnate, anything that is necessary to my Christian discipleship, or to the mission of God? (Don’t skip over those questions too lightly.)
For a millennium and a half the church (especially in the west) has assumed an institutional form, which requires buildings and a whole class of church professionals (clergy, priests, reverends, etc.) none of which are mentioned in the New Testament documents in the form they have assumed. … And there are a large number of thoughtful younger adults who are observing this and asking the right questions, and looking for some insight into what Jesus was referring to when he said he would build his church.
As an aside—I was interested in an interview with Michael Dell (of Dell Computers), who when he was asked how his company weathered some severe internal tensions and emerged so healthy, answered that his staff did not invent something and then seek to market it, but asked their customers what they needed now, and would be needing in the future, and then came home and produced just such customized systems. Could the church do that? Old, traditional, institutional churches with all of their traditional accouterments are like main-frame computers of a former period of history. They are expensive. They don’t focus on making disciples. They don’t know who they are, or why they are. Their mission is their own survival … and there are many folk who are completely satisfied with that. But a new tide of pragmatic and inquisitive younger adults are not satisfied with that. I’m thrilled with the potential of what may emerge from them.
I am an octogenarian, but I am blessed with a wonderful company of such creative, bright, inquisitive, culturally alert friends from this emerging culture. I have spent endless hours with them over coffee/beer engaged with them in provocative conversations on this very subject. I have attempted to record the fruits of these conversations in my trilogy of books on missional ecclesiology—or on the what? and why? and “so what?” of the church. These books are my modest contribution to the conversation and I commend them to my readers of these Blogs.
They are: Enchanted Community: Journey Into the Mystery of the Church; Refounding the Church From the Underside; and The Church and the Relentless Darkness. In these books I have created a composite friend with whom to engage in dialogue on these questions. The books are available from Wipf and Stock Publishers, or from Amazon. I believe they are a healthy contribution to a much larger discussion. Advent celebrated the incarnation of God, and the church is the ongoing incarnation as God is incarnate in a New Creation community.
