Battlecry for a generation
I love titles.
I have a friend. One of my dearest friends of my life. She's smart, funny, elegant, just and beautiful. I think a year ago we talked about our lives. She spent a year in Barcelona so we didn't talk a lot during that time.
She is one of the reasons, or I can say, the reason why I started to drastically change my life. She is a christian and at that time she invited me to this church. I agreed to go not knowing that what I would find there would change my life forever, but that isn't really the point of this one.
When she came back from Barcelona, as usually people do after such a long trip, she came back a different person. Perhaps more free. I noticed her as less uptight, maybe with a broader sense of what is important in life.
When we talked aobut our lives and what we were doing, she told me that she had stopped going to church. Of course this took me off guard. I hold her church in a dearest place in my heart, and the idea of her nto going to this place was completely incomprehensible.
Now her reasons were very interesting, and I remember back then thinking that although I didn't agree, her reasons were completely understandable.
She claimed that she had learned that true fidelity to God cannot happen unless we are fully tested. Churches give you a support system; 'crutches' like she called them. The church gives you a sermon every weekend, a music experience, in her church's case many supernatural things happening (I could explain what these are but I guess I can write a different post about it), perhaps home groups with other christian friends, and in general, she is kept busy with this church structure and she gets to this point where she needs church and her mind and heart isn't placed so much where it's supposed to be, but instead she is only handicapped, depending on what that week's preacher has to share, or whatever else the church has prepared that weekend.
She understood that her nature is to be unfaithful. That she is the kind of person that is more prone to stumble. She used to have quite a liberal life style and in some cases she even missed that freedom, even when she believed in Jesus as her savior, and pushed hard to remain pure and trying not to sin.
She realized that she had lost focus. That for her, church was more like a drug and not so much a place to relax and learn. She realized that she wasn't listening at all from God, that she wasn't learning anything new and that her relationship with God was mostly hear-say. Whatever the preacher said that weekend, that's what God was saying that weekend. She stopped having a personal relationship with God, and started having a mediated communication.
She stopped going to church and started to find God by herself. She's doing good, I can't say better, I know I can't say worse.
So in light of this, I wonder about myself. Now of course I can say for certaind that I was born for this thing but I definitely wonder if she has at the very least a point. I mean... I realize that Hebrews clearly instructs this (And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage and warn each other, especially now that the day of his coming back again is drawing near. 10.25), which is why I don't intend to make the case against the Bible, but what I must definitely build on is are we handicapped? Dependant?
Today we live in an era where you can find a church pretty much in every corner. Churches today, you could say, are ridiculous. They have it all. Check this link to see what I'm talking about: http://youtube.com/watch?v=QtI2pa2m5cg
I know a lot of churchs and I can tell you this is a very accurate picture of what's going on in what is called megachurches today.
It's not that is wrong. I actually find it great that churches have this kind of structure. Just imagine the amount of people they are able to help with the money that is usually well spent to missions, feeding the poor, homeless, disaster relief, etcetera. Churches, definitely not only Christians, today are perhaps the only thing that keeps alive a little hope in believing in humanity. However, it isn't humanity what people should be believing in if you think about it.
Now, before I go off topic and I start talking about something else.
As my fans know, I work with teenagers. Here's some statistics. It is well established that if a person does not hear the gospel (people are naturally sinners and rotten inside, lost every right and way to reach God hence life, God seeing this, out of ultimate love sent made Himself human coming to earth as Jesus, never sinned, died being innocent, taking all of the sins of the whole world on him, resurrecting later, going back to heaven, now we wait for Him to comeback and take with Him all who believed in Him... that's basically the gospel).. anyway... it is well established that if a person does not hear the gospel before age 20 or somewhere around their freshmen year of college they're done, the chances of them ever turning their hearts to God are next to null. Another one, Ron Luce, director of Teen Mania the largest teenager christian organization in America, according to his studies all around the US, of all the current teenagers, ages 11 to 17 that attend youth groups and churches in general, only 4% of them keep on going to church after they graduate high school. He said, and I quote, 'we are losing the battle'.
What is going on then?
The main reason why churches have taken this new approach, the megachurch that supplies all of our needs, is simply because church can and should be in your top 3 places to be. God is relevant, church has God, church is relevant. The equation is simple. Today churches have every single program you can imagine in order to reach people. The gatorade group, fitness group, singles, seniors, bussinessmen, Starbucks groups, single moms, new moms, widows... anything.. I don't think they haven't thought of everything. So why is it that we are losing? Let's talk teenagers. Today youth rooms (sometimes buildings) have tons of videogames, ping pong tables, cafeterias, basketball courts, trips, up-all-nighters, free pizza virtually every month, free stuff all the time. What is wrong then?
I have learned a lot that it isn't about the trips the money or the games but it is about relationships. I wonder then what happens with countries that don't have any money at all to have this high profile stuff. I come from a country where we have no money. Our budget was always limited, not a lot of crazy stuff available. Free pizza is hardly ever an option. Just today my youth group ordered 50 pizzas for this summer party thing. 50 pizzas!!
What is it all about then?
This isn't an attack to churches, youth group or even leaders. This is more like a call for attention. We can have all the fun we can, plan all the trips we want and make it as flashy and exciting as we want, it is actually needed I believe that church is made exciting. However, we are not winning people with pizza or iPods. Only 4% stays after highschool.
Jesus said: "You know the saying, `Red sky at night means fair weather tomorrow, red sky in the morning means foul weather all day.' You are good at reading the weather signs in the sky, but you can't read the obvious signs of the times.
It seems the signs are obvious.
I have a friend. One of my dearest friends of my life. She's smart, funny, elegant, just and beautiful. I think a year ago we talked about our lives. She spent a year in Barcelona so we didn't talk a lot during that time.
She is one of the reasons, or I can say, the reason why I started to drastically change my life. She is a christian and at that time she invited me to this church. I agreed to go not knowing that what I would find there would change my life forever, but that isn't really the point of this one.
When she came back from Barcelona, as usually people do after such a long trip, she came back a different person. Perhaps more free. I noticed her as less uptight, maybe with a broader sense of what is important in life.
When we talked aobut our lives and what we were doing, she told me that she had stopped going to church. Of course this took me off guard. I hold her church in a dearest place in my heart, and the idea of her nto going to this place was completely incomprehensible.
Now her reasons were very interesting, and I remember back then thinking that although I didn't agree, her reasons were completely understandable.
She claimed that she had learned that true fidelity to God cannot happen unless we are fully tested. Churches give you a support system; 'crutches' like she called them. The church gives you a sermon every weekend, a music experience, in her church's case many supernatural things happening (I could explain what these are but I guess I can write a different post about it), perhaps home groups with other christian friends, and in general, she is kept busy with this church structure and she gets to this point where she needs church and her mind and heart isn't placed so much where it's supposed to be, but instead she is only handicapped, depending on what that week's preacher has to share, or whatever else the church has prepared that weekend.
She understood that her nature is to be unfaithful. That she is the kind of person that is more prone to stumble. She used to have quite a liberal life style and in some cases she even missed that freedom, even when she believed in Jesus as her savior, and pushed hard to remain pure and trying not to sin.
She realized that she had lost focus. That for her, church was more like a drug and not so much a place to relax and learn. She realized that she wasn't listening at all from God, that she wasn't learning anything new and that her relationship with God was mostly hear-say. Whatever the preacher said that weekend, that's what God was saying that weekend. She stopped having a personal relationship with God, and started having a mediated communication.
She stopped going to church and started to find God by herself. She's doing good, I can't say better, I know I can't say worse.
So in light of this, I wonder about myself. Now of course I can say for certaind that I was born for this thing but I definitely wonder if she has at the very least a point. I mean... I realize that Hebrews clearly instructs this (And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage and warn each other, especially now that the day of his coming back again is drawing near. 10.25), which is why I don't intend to make the case against the Bible, but what I must definitely build on is are we handicapped? Dependant?
Today we live in an era where you can find a church pretty much in every corner. Churches today, you could say, are ridiculous. They have it all. Check this link to see what I'm talking about: http://youtube.com/watch?v=QtI2pa2m5cg
I know a lot of churchs and I can tell you this is a very accurate picture of what's going on in what is called megachurches today.
It's not that is wrong. I actually find it great that churches have this kind of structure. Just imagine the amount of people they are able to help with the money that is usually well spent to missions, feeding the poor, homeless, disaster relief, etcetera. Churches, definitely not only Christians, today are perhaps the only thing that keeps alive a little hope in believing in humanity. However, it isn't humanity what people should be believing in if you think about it.
Now, before I go off topic and I start talking about something else.
As my fans know, I work with teenagers. Here's some statistics. It is well established that if a person does not hear the gospel (people are naturally sinners and rotten inside, lost every right and way to reach God hence life, God seeing this, out of ultimate love sent made Himself human coming to earth as Jesus, never sinned, died being innocent, taking all of the sins of the whole world on him, resurrecting later, going back to heaven, now we wait for Him to comeback and take with Him all who believed in Him... that's basically the gospel).. anyway... it is well established that if a person does not hear the gospel before age 20 or somewhere around their freshmen year of college they're done, the chances of them ever turning their hearts to God are next to null. Another one, Ron Luce, director of Teen Mania the largest teenager christian organization in America, according to his studies all around the US, of all the current teenagers, ages 11 to 17 that attend youth groups and churches in general, only 4% of them keep on going to church after they graduate high school. He said, and I quote, 'we are losing the battle'.
What is going on then?
The main reason why churches have taken this new approach, the megachurch that supplies all of our needs, is simply because church can and should be in your top 3 places to be. God is relevant, church has God, church is relevant. The equation is simple. Today churches have every single program you can imagine in order to reach people. The gatorade group, fitness group, singles, seniors, bussinessmen, Starbucks groups, single moms, new moms, widows... anything.. I don't think they haven't thought of everything. So why is it that we are losing? Let's talk teenagers. Today youth rooms (sometimes buildings) have tons of videogames, ping pong tables, cafeterias, basketball courts, trips, up-all-nighters, free pizza virtually every month, free stuff all the time. What is wrong then?
I have learned a lot that it isn't about the trips the money or the games but it is about relationships. I wonder then what happens with countries that don't have any money at all to have this high profile stuff. I come from a country where we have no money. Our budget was always limited, not a lot of crazy stuff available. Free pizza is hardly ever an option. Just today my youth group ordered 50 pizzas for this summer party thing. 50 pizzas!!
What is it all about then?
This isn't an attack to churches, youth group or even leaders. This is more like a call for attention. We can have all the fun we can, plan all the trips we want and make it as flashy and exciting as we want, it is actually needed I believe that church is made exciting. However, we are not winning people with pizza or iPods. Only 4% stays after highschool.
Jesus said: "You know the saying, `Red sky at night means fair weather tomorrow, red sky in the morning means foul weather all day.' You are good at reading the weather signs in the sky, but you can't read the obvious signs of the times.
It seems the signs are obvious.
posted by Havoc at 8:19 PM
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