The recent trending exodus of youth and young adults from the church has caused leaders to sit up and take notice. There have been several books, blogs, articles, and research done into the topic. After I started thinking through my response to this trend, a few friends posted this article on the response of a church to change to be relevant to the younger culture; the author also wrote a book on her personal journey.
I was raised in the church by two parents whose genuine faith made a lasting impression on me. Church life was never perfect, and I encountered the brokenness of people as well as the brokenness of the church (Western, American church being my main exposure). With that said, I have encountered broken systems everywhere; schools, community, family, government, hospitals, other belief systems, universities, etc. (fairly certain the list is endless). There is nothing perfect under the sun. I don’t need to elaborate on the brokenness, because I know there are at least a thousand stories of bad experiences of church most likely spoken as this sentence is being composed. After sharing my story at a church on a Good Friday, one of the ministers came up to and said, “I can’t believe you actually stayed in church with all that has happened to you.” Instead of pointing out what is wrong with the post-modern, Western, American church, I prefer to focus on why I stayed in church.
1. My parent’s example: they left their family for 2 years, left the comforts of home and the United States because of their unwavering trust and belief in God, and with a desire to serve others in the name of Christ. This sacrifice was in response to the love of God, and in no way was for personal gain. And this, a belief in Christ’s love and sacrifice, was their anchor, their core faith in Christ as Savior. For this reason they attended church, served in church, took their three children to church every week (sometimes 3 times a week) and to a jungle on another continent. Attending church wasn’t a task or a requirement in order to believe in Jesus. It wasn’t a social club. It wasn’t from a belief that if they didn’t go, they were damned from God’s presence. It was a pure love response to Christ.
2. Community: part of my childhood was spent around people I could call aunt or uncle without family ties because we all worshipped Christ together; they were extended family members. As an adult I found a small group of single people who sought to honor Christ with their lives. We would serve others together. We would pray for our city. We would worship God together. Every Saturday the women would give up hours to get together and pray over one another, lifting up all burdens whether deep hurts or simple needs. We lived together, a few of us did. We played together. I wasn’t alone; I had sisters and brothers I could count on to pray with me, to help me, to be a representation of what we see in the first church in the book of Acts.
3. Others: the church I grew up in paid attention to the scriptures that speak to serving others who struggled just with basic needs. We helped a church in a low income neighborhood rebuild and clean up the area. I remember attending a couple of minority churches in the area through my own church, and it was an experience that helped me understand the universal church. We supported church leaders overseas serving the poor. My dad did much to take care of the homeless in downtown Dallas. Several were fed, found jobs, found a bed because of heart my dad had. Social justice wasn’t a word used in our home or something we found significance in; it was just something we did as a family (and as a church family) because of my dad’s example and because of the example of Jesus in the gospels left a real impression on my dad and on the church leaders. There was a general focus that not only was church for gathering together and worshipping Christ, we were to be His hands and his feet, instruments of His peace.
4. My Identity in Christ: My identity is not in church or what church I attend or what the church members value. My identity is in Christ; and in church I encounter Christ in how others love Him, how He loves them, and how they love me. Again, we none of us are perfect and we hurt each other, too. And, when a church is focused on God’s word and being transformed by His Grace and His holiness, beautiful acts of kindness, gentleness, selflessness, joy, and love will be experienced. And I want to be there when they do happen. I love to see His example in the lives of others.
5. The Person of Christ: Reading about Jesus in the Gospels, his life, his example, his work on earth, and who he is as the Son of God, I am compelled to seek Him. I am driven to know more about Him. I am frequently drawn to fall at His feet as I see more of who He is and become aware of my own brokenness and sin. His first miracle was turning water into wine. He spoke and cared for many women in His ministry. He didn’t just care for poor; his love knew no boundaries as he reached out to people who most looked down on (ie. tax collectors, prostitutes). He pulled a select few in to walk with Him, and they were transformed by Him, by His love for them, and by His calling them even as He saw and knew their weaknesses and brokenness (ie. Peter became the rock on which the church was built, and Peter denied knowing Christ on the eve of his capture.) In church, I have been changed and healed and grown and repented and loved. Through sermons, through worship, through prayer, through relationships with other believers I have known and seen the living Christ; and I want to know and encounter and experience Him more and more.
ecclesiastica 