Encourage a New Generation

Comments for Christianity and Twenty-somethings

Tuesday, August 24, 2010 by Steve Koenig:

I, of course, do not have the specifics of what "cool" entails in this context, but I presume at least a part of it has to do with non-traditional worship. The pendulum may well be swinging bact toward the traditional, but I urge care in assessing just how far it will swing in that direction. Twentysomethings are not monolithic. There will always be those who have differing preferences in any demographic. This author is relating his assessment of what will meet the needs of his generation and we in the LCMS don't have not dealt well with developing our changes and what is accepted from this standpoint - and we need to. Your colleague Tony Cook has this stuff pretty well figured out. What one considers superficial or substantive may not be so for another. By the time ideas can be analyzed they are already changed. We need to get ahead of the curve.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010 by Rev. Bernie Huesmann:

Great article. Important insights. But from my perspective, one caution is needed in Synod today in this regard - please do not go so far as to assume that all "Contemporary" Worship styles are - de facto - trying to be "cool Christianity." They are not. In my congregation, our contemporary services seek to be the very thing that McCracken says is important to this age group. Word and Sacrament will always be "cool Christianity" in it's truest sense. The format in which the unchanging Gospel and Sacraments are nested has always shifted to and fro -- even liturgical forms -- over the centuries.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010 by Glen Thomas:

It is interesting that the comments submitted thus far have immediately gone to the subject of contemporary worship. The article itself emphasizes subjects of a different nature which are being used to appeal to twenty-somethings. I should have included a link to the entire article at the outset, but, better late than never, here is the URL for the article: http://online.wsj.com/article/NA_WSJ_PUB:SB10001424052748704111704575355311122648100.html You will probably need to cut and paste it into your web browser.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010 by Wallace Behrhorst:

My grandkids may not be as insightful as McCracken, but they will tell you that they are "fed up to here" with many of today's social emphases which promise tantalizing fulfillment but lead down dark and depressing alleys.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010 by Paul Krueger:

McCracken is absolutely right. Every research instrument shows that 20 somethings are looking for real. We would be remiss, however, if we fail to recognize that they define real "relationally" rather than "intelectually". As a church, and as church members, we must become "relational" with our faith, and be the "incarnate body of Christ" in word and deed if we are going to make inroads into the lives of those 30 and younger.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010 by Joel Kettner:

I think the young generation is preoccupied with money, reliable job or career, education, intimate relationships, entertainment, family. Many young people in 20s consider themselves "spritual" but not "religious" I believe the message of Christ and the Gospel should be central to our mission, the way it's presented, offered, shared with current generation needs to be adapted to where they are. 2 of my nieces, both pastor's kids, when asked at a family gathering, "What do you need from the church?" one replied, "Nothing" her sister replied, "A sense of community". That sense of community needs to be shaped around the cross for changing lives and futures.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 by RHF:

Mr. McCracken offers a false choice: coolness vs. realness. His assumption that once a church starts absorbing some cultural cues and societal trends it will cease to offer a genuine message of Christ is illusory and overly simplistic. To pretend that these qualities are mutually exclusive may sound sweet to the churches mired in their conservative approach to corporate worship, but this argument exploits the emotional divide between the polarities in worship: traditional and contemporary. Besides, neither qualities (cool vs. genuine) are universally definable on any level. Like all things that exist on numerous gradations rather than solitary points, we have to echo Justice Potter Stewart's admission regarding obscenity that coolness (or the genuine) cannot be defined but "I know it when I see it." I am not invoking relativism as much as that fact that Mr. McCracken is trying to hit bulls-eye on an quickly, ever moving target. The real point, which I must admit that perhaps Mr. McCracken gets to in his book but realizes wouldn't make for a very scintillating WSJ article, is that worship, of any kind, can be done very poorly or very thoughtfully. Relative notions of "coolness" have nothing to do with quality. For all his supposed good intention, I hope Mr. McCracken's musings don't give culturally oblivious and rigid churches an excuse to not put forth more effort into making the worship experience "genuine" on multiple levels for congregants. While I offer that Mr. McCracken's argument is a logical fallacy and exploitative, he does make one keen point: corporate worship is often a but a shadow of what it could be. He (wrongly, I maintain) proposes that it has to do with a desperate desire to be "cool". In part, yes, but certainly not in whole. The reasons a book fails to become a best seller has little to do with the dust jacket. It has to do with the contents and the ability to engage the reader on multiple levels. The sacred questions inherent in this human experience cannot be ignored. Jesus certainly didn't. As far the the LCMS is concerned, it cannot pretend that "the genuine substance" is dependent on archaic tradition, ancient hymns/creeds, or even the corner market of LCMS doctrine. The LCMS has done many things admirably well: education, social services to the needy, and community outreach to just name a few. This, however, has not been enough to avoid being seen (and justly so) as dated, dogmatic, and a generally benign entity more caught up in in-house bickering rather than trying to establish loving justice in an unjust world. This, more than any evolving notions of coolness, needs to be a fundamental paradigm shift if the LCMS wants to awaken from its sisyphean stupor.

Monday, June 20, 2011 by Robert:

Although I am responding to Rev. Thomas's 8-16-2010 blog entry "Christianity and Twenty-somethings" almost a year after its release, I find both it and the reactions to it interesting. I find Thomas's article interesting in that it is quite relevant. At the same time that I am relieved to know that our congregation is not the only one struggling to brainstorm on ways to reach the subculture of busy, media-drenched (and lonely) adults in their twenties with the redemptive, ever-enlivening good news of Jesus I am also saddened that there is a wide-spread dearth of twenty-somethings in our congregations whose foundation is the reformation that for centuries turned the world upside down, again. I find the reactions to Thomas's article interesting in that most of them speak about contemporary "vs." traditional liturgies. I do not decry contemporary liturgies as long as they are done with clarity, are not clamorous but uplifting, are Christ-centered, drenched with the words of the Scriptures and direct our attention to the humble-looking Sacraments that carry the divine, heavenly realities into our hearts and bodies through our ears, foreheads and brows, eyes and mouths. I have seen traditional liturgies that fill the worshippers with hope and faith when such traditional liturgies are done with quality. Neither liturgy style is effective to any age group when it cannot be heard or is led by unprepared and unengaged leaders. But Thomas's later entry in giving the website to read Brett McCracken's Wall Street Journal article is necessary to click onto in order to hear what McCracken (and Thomas) are talking about, and neither is talking about liturgy. They are talking about content, truth, substance, teaching, genuine and godly relationships, committment to the unchanging message of Christ and to Christ Jesus Himself, all of which can be communicated and practiced by worshippers that are following either traditional or contemporary liturgies in their congregations' divine services.
But my next statement is a work-in-progress for me and for those with me where we worship: I have a hunch that the solution to reaching twenty-somethings with the Gospel and getting them strongly connected to the Christian congregational life is more simple than we realize. I have for more than twenty years been fascinated with the apostle John's first letter for its simplicity; its simplicity is such that it escapes me for my addiction to complicated reasoning. Yet the elderly man addresses the young people directly and tells them about Jesus, forgiveness, about loving according to God's commandments by concrete actions, of commitment to the Gospel, shunning illicit pleasures and believing in Jesus. Twenty-somethings want, no, they need and sense deeply the need for real community and something that always comes across as cutting edge but never-changing, that is able to address the issues of life without denying reality but which faces them head on. Isn't that something the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Then that unchanging, soul-transforming Gospel, good news, can be communicated, must be communicated in the congregational actvitites and gatherings in many different ways: psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, children's messages spoken to the children with a glance at the older folks, sermons, Bible studies, recruitment into congregational and community outreach opportunities, youth group gatherings and servant events, summer Bible camps, home Bible study groups, Lutheran schools, young adult Bible studies, Bible studies for the unmarried and for the married people, church blogs, support groups for the grieving, ladies' groups, and so on. When they are faced with overwhelming things that run contrary to that unchanging Gospel, they have a community of friends in the same fight that give them immediate, constant support and accountability. As I write those statements, they resonate with me and with the laments that twenty-somethings and thirty-somethings have been expressing to me over the last 10 years. God's peace to you all.

Wednesday, February 29, 2012 by Jean:

I believe that the "real " that is being referred to as something the 20's and 30's are looking for is the real transformation that Jesus makes in a believers heart. As a believer, I have been transformed by Christ, desiring the good of others as well as myself, desiring the salvation of others, as well as my own; to live with Christ in eternity and not perish without a Savior from my sin and others from theirs. As a 50 something, I have to realize that my children may see the sincere desires in my heart to save people, but they also see the lack of love when I hesitate to help others who are truly suffering because it's so involved and time consuming , or I'm concerned for my pocketbook or my own health and well being. Also 20 and 30 somethings may question why Christian marriages are in the same statistics as non Christian marriages for divorce or problems. They may want their church home to embrace the untouchable today as Christ did when he walked the earth. 20's and 30's are challenging me to put my actions on the line and live like the One that I am following even before I have all the answers, simply because I know the love of Christ and am asked to love Him and love others as I love myself. If we can share the love of Christ way more than we do, we'd be celebrating in all our churches.That doesn't mean that values go out the window. It means that we value everyone so much that we take the time to love them and teach them as Christ has taught us, over time and in the wanderings. Unconditionally showing the love of Jesus has always been a challenge but He's helping me to, in part, because I'm far from perfect and He forgives me and also because my children are watching and praying for His love in this hurting world and they matter to me. Our children help us do the right thing because they are learning from us. If they aren't getting it, it's because we're not exampling it. I praise God that He is still making a difference in people and in the world today through Christ.

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