Posted on 05/17/2004 7:06:39 AM PDT by qam1
VIEW MEGACHURCHES AS SLICK, IMPERSONAL
For evidence of generational upheaval these days, you might skip over the usual suspects -- sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll -- and consider instead Christianity.
Two decades after baby boomers invented the suburban megachurch, which removed crosses or stained-glass images of Jesus in favor of neutral environments, their children are now wearing "Jesus Is My Homeboy" T-shirts.
As mainline churches scramble to retain young people, these worshippers have gained attention by-creating alternative churches in coffee bars and warehouses and publishing new magazines and Bibles that come on as anything but church.
But does a T-shirt really serve the faith? And if religion is our link to the timeless, what does it mean that young Christians replace their parents' practices?
The movement "has a noble side," said Michael Novak, the conservative theologian at the American Enterprise Institute. He remembers how much he enjoyed the Christian comic books of his youth. He compared the alt-evangelicals to missionaries, who "feel they've learned something valuable from their faith and want to share it" using the native language.
For many in this generation, the worship style of their parents feels impersonal: not bigger than their daily, media-intensified lives, but smaller. Their search is for unfiltered religious ex-perience.
"My generation is discontented with dead religion," said Cameron Strang, 28, founder of Relevant Media, which produces Christian books, a Web site and Relevant magazine, a stylish 70,000-circulation bimonthly that addresses topics like body piercing, celibacy, extreme prayer, punk rock and God.
Strang, a graduate of Oral Roberts University, is in some ways a model alt-evangelical, with two earrings, a shaved head and beard. He left a megachurch, he said, because he felt no community at the slick services. Now he attends an alternative church in a school gym, with intimate groups and basketball after services.
This stylistic shift is critical, said Lee Rabe, pastor at Threads, an alternative, or "emerging," church in Kalamazoo, Mich. Where megachurches reached out to baby boomers turned off by church, the younger generation often has no experience with religion. They need to be beguiled, not assuaged, Rabe said.
"The deity-free 'church lite' of the megachurches, that's the last thing these people want," he said. "They want to talk about God. It's hard-core, not in a fire and brimstone way, but it has to be raw, real."
The changes are often more stylistic than doctrinal. Many alt-evangelicals espouse conservative theology, but reject the censure of some churches. Strang sees this as a blueprint for an evangelical left.
"We're all sinners," he said. "Your sin isn't any worse than my sin. We don't say, 'Stop the horrible gays.' You want to reach them, you don't want to protest them. If we looked like goody-two-shoes, clean cut, we couldn't have a conversation with our lesbian friend at the coffee shop, because she couldn't relate."
Increasingly, this conversation borrows from pop culture, in the same way that hip secular culture borrows the cabala and the cross.
Critics say this engagement comes at a price. Timothy Williams, 48, a pastor at Sound Doctrine Ministries, a non-denominational church in Enumclaw, Wash., sees flirtation with pop culture as a capitulation to sin. "More and more, the church is seeking to be like the world around it," said Williams, who has written a pamphlet denouncing Christian rock. "But the Bible says that anyone who becomes a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. If we're going to be relevant or on the world's level to draw people, we might as well give free beer in the parking lot."
But evangelicals have long used pop culture and new technology to spread their gospel, said Stephen Prothero, chairman of the religion department at Boston University.
Christian tracts handed out in the 19th century were one of the first mass media. In the 1930s, the evangelist Charles Fuller used the new medium of radio to broadcast his sermons. Four decades later, the Jesus movement of the 1970s adopted the vibe of the 1960s counterculture.
The actor Stephen Baldwin, a born-again Christian, has just directed a DVD called Livin' It, pairing extreme sports with faith testimony, from which he hopes to spin skate Bibles, clothing, CDs and Bible-study guides, all tied to a non-profit youth ministry.
"This could be the first get-down rock 'n' roll, cool Christian brand," he said.
The underlying romance is familiar from any Nirvana video: the Christian as rebel or outsider, misunderstood, struggling against a world of conformity, commercialism and manufactured pleasures.
"It's a countercultural thing," said Tim Lucas, 33, pastor of an emerging ministry called Liquid in Basking Ridge, N.J. On a recent Sunday, Lucas wore a Hawaiian shirt and used images from The Lord of the Rings movies and a clip from Amadeus in a sermon about the book of First Samuel.
"They identify with being an underground movement, which is what Christianity was in the beginning," Lucas said of his congregation. "Living out a life with Christ at the center draws a lot of flak. Not a lot of people will celebrate that."
The movement away from middle-of-the-road theology and worship mirrors a trend on college campuses, where growing numbers of students claim either no religion or strong religious affiliation, with the middle ground shrinking, said Alexander Astin, director of the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA, which last year completed a national study of students' beliefs.
In the survey, more than 70 percent of students said they prayed, discussed religion or spirituality with friends, found religion personally helpful and gained spiritual strength by trusting in a higher power.
Well said Tax. Couldn't agree more.
Don't take this personally but a person who cannot find a church in the Bible Belt is probably unable to see the real problem.
>>But don't turn the church into a Hollywood advertisement.<<
To a point I agree with you. In fact, the one thing that concerned me about the Matrix clip was that they were somehow giving the movie credibility. However in the context of the meeting, two things calmed down my concerns. 1. Everyone there had seen the movie.
2. It was presented as something the movie had done unwittingly.
Regarding your Brittney comments. I agree and disagree and, no, my name is not Kerry. I do not consider secular music - by virtue of it being secular - to be bad. I take each song on it's own merit. All popular artists are complex individuals just like you and I. There is more going on under the surface than just the lyrics of one or two (or more) of their songs. Like all of us, they have made compromises, some more than others, but there is good and bad from all of them - and all of us for that matter.
But no, I wouldn't have her sing "oops..." in my church.
Nice diatribe.
Many mainline churches are confessionally orthodox and offer worship rooted in the rubrics of ancient liturgical forms. Salvation by God's grace through Christ alone is firmly and consistently presented.
In an age when people ask what worship or church can 'do' for them, or how it can make them 'feel' --- churches offering orthodox worship and a balanced presentation of the personal and social implications of the Gospel are not always numerically growing --- narrow is the way and all that, you know. ;-)
The "church growth movement" and the "megachurch" are the Baby Boomer attempts to be cool and relevant.
The "emerging church movement" is the Gen X and Gen Y attempt to be cool and relevant.
NEITHER movement solves the REAL problem of "mainline-ism", which is heresy and cultural conformity, usually (but not always) to the left-wing form of American culture!!!!
A good number of young--and not-so-young people are doing something different. They are discovering Orthodox Christianity!!!! They are actually going for a church with (gasp) a liturgy, a LONG history, disciplines such as fasting, and non-conformity to the general culture (with its New World Order connections). All of these things are totally the opposite of the Church Growth and Emerging Church movements!!!!
In principle, some like-minded young people could go for the Evangelical Catholic and Anglo-Catholic forms of Lutheranism and Anglicanism, if they were offered to them in their integrity. But, alas, we are so mired in "mainline-ism" that these are options in only a very few places.
bump for later
Thanks :)
Can't wait to hear about your baby! Hang in there!
Thanks.
My point is that manu "mainline" churches are dying because they have abandoned the Word of God in favor of liberal social causes. The imperical evidence of that is overwhelming to the point of being beyond dispute.
That is not to say that all who attend such churches are reprobate or not Christian.
To the contrary, many of God's people continue to hold out hope and prayer that the once great denominations of John Knox, John Wesley, et al will return to the firm foundation upon which they were built.
I have a friend who is a Presbyterian minister in Buffalo, New York who is a Godly and deeply devoted Christian, whose beliefs are as conservative and orthodox as my own. He is fighting the good fight.
Nevertheless, the war over homosexual ordination, abortion, etc. is not being waged in Assembly of God or Southern Baptist churches, but in those mainline denominations where apostacy has gained a firm foothold.
I do not believe all secular music is bad either. I just meant most of it is not appropriate for church. We seem to be pretty much on the same page on all the key elements of this issue.
I see PLENTY of churches; I just couldn't find one preaching enough repentance to satisfy me. Apostasy just isn't my cup of tea. Oh, well...off to New Hampshire, where it will be 'home church' for our little flock.
Sorry but you are considered a Baby Boomer. I know in that once instance 1961 was chosen but the overwhelming start year of Gen-X is 1965 (There is a lot if debate between 1975 and 1981 of when Gen-X ends and Y begins).
The reason 1965 is chosen is because that's the year the birth rates (The "Baby Boom") collapsed and it would have been the first year adult baby boomers would have had their first kids.
Also what I think separates the late boomers from the early Xers is the Late boomers brought us Disco.
Actually, I've seen both 1961 and 1962 as the start of GenX, with 1962 being more common.
"Also what I think separates the late boomers from the early Xers is the Late boomers brought us Disco."
That rules me out.
"Actually, I've seen both 1961 and 1962 as the start of GenX, with 1962 being more common."
Thanks. I feel better.
are you being sarcastic or are you serious?
Some of my favorite songs are actually in Latin, written in the 1500-1600's, and are just out and out amazing.
Just to share an experience - my college choir gave a concert at Belmont Abbey college in Charlotte, NC. We sang a few hymns in the chapel, and that was probably the most awesome concert I have ever been in. It even beat out the chance we got to sing the National Anthem at Radio City Music Hall in NYC.
I get chills thinking about it still, the way our voices sounded in that holy place. We belonged there that day, and I believe for that time, centuries ago and that day, there was no better place to sing praises.
But by the same token, I remember seeing Creed live at a concert, before they became popular. Seeing other people rejoicing at the message they carried was also amazing. I was high on that the rest of the night.
My point is, I think the Good News can be spread many different ways. With my classical music training, I can fully appreciate the old hymns as you do. BUT - I am also a huge rock-n-roll fan as well, and can enjoy the message in another form as well. I think if the Lord moves you, then He moves you, whether it's in the form of music, literature, the birth of a child, or a sunset.
Awakenings can take place anywhere, and in any situation.
LOL but I have digressed from what you were saying... I just get caught up sometimes in the Awe of it all.
Sad but true
That is just a foolish misstatement, that flows from an ignorance of the doctrine and the people that hold it.
Most Calvinists were saved BEFORE they were Calvinists..
Instead of making a broad statement like that , why don't you show us where we believe that only Calvinists are the elect
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