Of the church…

This post was originally published March 17, 2013.

Good evening,

An interesting blog article was brought to my attention by a friend on Facebook: “Top 10 Reasons our Kids Leave the Church.” The author steels himself up to begin a good church-bashing by proclaiming, as if this will make it not true, “This isn’t a negative ‘beat up on the church’ post.”

To summarize the article, the church is attempting to be too relevant and thereby drives away college kids that view the church as no different than the rest of the world.

Now, there is much church-bashing today. It seems a hobby for quite a few old gizzards, the media and the rest of society (Christians in particular). To some, denominations are the root of all our ills, others find the church too judgmental, old or even too relevant.

However, these complainers do not understand the church. 1 Corinthians 14 describes the church as an organization quite explicitly, giving the basis for the modern service. But when Jesus charges Peter to “feed my lambs,” “take care of my sheep” and “feed my sheep,” he is talking about his holy Church, the body and bride of Christ, the people. Not an organization.

These complainers like to use the phrase, “We are losing our (fill in the blank).” I thank God for their ignorance, because were this been true, we would not be serving an almighty God. Look to 1 Corinthians 3:6 — “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.” We are so corrupt that we cannot change or even see a more righteous life until God softens our hearts, that is, allows us to understand who God is. And our charge, described throughout the Bible, is to “plant the seeds” for God to grow. A rather funky free-will, predestination paradox.

So, the church is not losing our youth, or old people, etc., by wearing jeans, having pastors that gel their hair and upbeat-potentially-wannabe music. I’m also surprised that the blogger dislikes church “community” initiatives.

If you really think about, this blogger is saying that these kids became hardened toward Christianity because of a couple hours at church on Wednesday nights and Sunday mornings. I suggest that family life plays a far more important role. After all, individuals and families make up the church. In turn, the church influences these, but over time adjusts ever so slightly to the culture. Parents today focus on letting their children “be who they are” and insist on telling them “how special they are.” Christian culture in turn is influenced by this and has not been exposed to the painful consequences of this anti-God theology.

Now, I will say that the organized church has not responded well to this cultural shift. Through the great ol’ four chords of Chris August, Francesca Battistelli, Chris Tomlin, etc., we are led to believe that God exists to make us feel better. We hear these songs in church every week. Then parents tell their kids how they need to find themselves, and chuck them off to youth group, run by parents of the same mindset. The kids begin experimenting in high school with repeatedly lackadaisical parents and then go to college and “shockingly” find drugs, sex, money and power more interesting.

I do not think a church with fancy lighting and a pastor in jeans is causing a depraved generation. I think it is more of a lack of Christians behaving and thinking like Christians. Our energies need to go in a different direction, and I urge you to check out breakpoint.org and my other blogs to see what this might look like.