Track 4: A Lost Generation

Track 4: A Lost Generation!

How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!” Romans 10:14-15 (NKJV)

I was in Washington, DC this past week and called a friend of mine to see if he had time for some lunch. He is a college student at the University of Maryland College Park taking a full class load this semester, he works two jobs, is involved with Campus Crusade for Christ and attends two Bible studies so I knew his time was limit, but God being God and doing what it is He does the two of us were able to meet for lunch.

Because of his involvement in ministry with young people through Campus Crusade I like to “pick his brain” on what young people are thinking today. Because he is on the front line ministering to college students he offers to “older” guys like me great insight on why young people think the way they think and why we don’t see more young people in our church. Through his involvement with Campus Crusade he has learned how to lead people to Christ through a five questions survey. It is really quite brilliant, and to see my young friend talk about it with such enthusiasm “tickles my heart”. Our conversation eventually got to why young people do not accept Christ and get more involved in the church – thus discussing Track 2 that I authored about an alarming number of young men in our country claiming no religious affiliation. How he responded is a clear indication that we need to change our thinking and change some things in the church.

My young friend, who ministers at UMD College Park, who ministered at Spring Break in Florida and ministered in Venezuela informed me that 70% of the people he talks to do not make a commitment to Christ. In professional baseball that is a batting average of .300 – a Hall of Fame batting average – but in the real world of souls, that means that 7 out of 10 people you see today are bound for hell! He also told me that of the 70% refusing to make a commitment 70% of them don’t make the commitment because of the church! Because of the double standard that most churches live by and the church’s inability to connect!

Here is an example; I play bass in a Christian hip/rock band. We don’t charge a dime to play music and minister, we don’t charge a dime for our CDs (we hand them out for free), and we do not hide our passion and love for Jesus Christ, yet we are not accepted at most churches because of the method we use to deliver the message – RAP! My ministry partner D.O. wrote a line in the song “Lose Control” that goes something like, “You let the believers of your church walk out the front door, you don’t care if they never come back no more, so come back to reality, come back to the throne, come back to the cross and know my God is boss!” He also wrote truth in the line “Church, you don’t even like me so how you gonna love them (the unsaved)?” Understand, our group ministered at Fagers Island in Ocean City, MD – a bar – and we were more welcome there then we have been at most churches!

My friend also told me that the remaining 30% who do not make a commitment to Christ said it is because of the way they see Christians act! On Sunday they’re singing in the praise band, but on Monday they’re telling dirty jokes at the water cooler! Our walk is our most powerful testimony – point blank.

Below is a track that I posted on CyberChurch4Christ on Saturday, August 18, 2007. It is not written in a style that you might prefer, and not written to condemn. I am just trying to get today’s church to understand we are failing in our mission, and our mission field is growing.

Track 9
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Are We Communicating With Our Young People

Thought for the week: If you want to reach young people today with the Word of God, you need to get their attention first, and standing in the pulpit and preaching just isn’t doing it anymore. Taking the Gospels to the Streets by Abby Schmidt, Times-Record, Wednesday, June 28, 2006

This past week God really spoke to me about this track – about how important it is to get this message out and about how this track is going put some folks out of their flow! But trust God – He confirmed this message!

I have been praying and fasting a lot lately. Seeking God for direction, for word, for confirmation, for vision, for leading, for help in battling those nasty principalities in high places, for understanding and for discernment. This week in my prayers I was presented with this one question, “Are we really communicating the Good News of Jesus Christ to our young people? To the generation of young folks who are under the age of 30 are we communicating Christ’s love?”

You see – you cannot reach a 2007 people with a 1977 approach! POINT BLANK! You cannot preach the Word in 2007 with the same style you did in 1977.

Right from the start there wuz the Word, and the Word wuz with God, and the Word wuz God. He wuz with God right out of the gate. All things were made by him and ‘aint nothing made without him. Everything, including your dubs, bling and gold teeth wuz God made! (4) In him wuz life, and that life is the light of men. This light illuminates the dark, and the dark just don’t get it! John 1:1-5 (BOOK! The Raps and Rhymes of God, The Lyrical Lessons of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John)

Now before passing judgment, I’m in NO WAY advocating that you, or we, compromise scripture. The WORD is what the WORD is! And there is no denying, God sent His one and only Son to die on the cross for you and for me. Heaven’s streets are lined with Gold – hell’s fires are hotter than hot! To walk the streets of gold you must accept Christ as your Lord and Savior…rejecting Christ leads to an eternity in hell! We have no authority to change the Word, we can however, update how we present the Word!

God confirmed with me that this lack of communication with our young people is real and present! My first confirmation came Sunday when I was talking with a teenage friend of mine. This track was on my heart so I asked him, “What did your pastor preach about this morning?” His response floored me! “I don’t know,” he responded! “I never know what he’s talkin’ about!”

That led me to ask another young man the same question and I got the same response!
What is broke in this picture?

Ok, young people understand right up front I am not excusing you from paying attention to the pastor. You need to work hard to understand what Word God is laying out. You have a responsibility in this and I will not let you avoid that responsibility! But churches, you (we) have a responsibility here as well!

My second confirmation on this came Monday morning. I was on my way to Hagerstown for a business meeting. I have a phone that allows me to access the ‘net. I was praying, “Lord I need something in writing about this track.” I checked my email and this is what I found.

From: Jonathan Falwell
Date: August 10, 2007
Standing in the Pulpit 50 Years Ago
Fifty years is not a long time, in many regards. But in terms of our nation, it is more than 1/5 of our total history.
I would like to return for a moment to 1957, 50 years ago, to examine the culture of our nation at that time.
It was a pivotal time for many churches. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., had organized the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in order to win the rights of black Americans.
In September, army paratroopers arrived at Central High School in Little Rock, to enable nine black students entry to the all-white school, bringing the media spotlight on civil rights.
Pastors in America came to a crossroads.
Many had been instructed through the years that black Americans were not the equal of white Americans. They had been contaminated by years of a misguided philosophy of “separate but equal,” that claimed to be biblical.
But it was not.
My father, a fledgling pastor who started Thomas Road Baptist Church in 1956, would eventually be forced to come face to face with this issue. He was one of the pastors who had been taught to keep black people separated from his church.
It was through his friendships with three black men in central Virginia through the years — Lee Bacas, Lump Jones and David Brown — and the historic influence of William Wilberforce and Harriet Beecher Stowe that Dad came to understand that he had been taught wrong. He came to realize that God sees all men equally.
Today, TRBC welcomes many black families each Sunday. Our members worship together in one accord and it is a wonderful thing!
New Challenges
Now, 50 years later, American pastors face similar crossroads that require us to consider the Word of God afresh.
I believe there are three key areas in which pastors must engage the culture and follow biblical guidelines for addressing these issues.
Sexual immorality continues to tear at the very fabric of our nation. Pastors must be at the forefront of encouraging their parishioners to stay true to their marriage vows, to avoid the many temptations that we daily face, and to teach their children that God’s plan is that they remain sexually pure until marriage. We must also compassionately reach out to those who have become blinded by their own sexuality.
The current “diversity culture” is often contrary to biblical truth, in that it assumes all “truth” to be equal. Pastors must commit to teaching that the Bible is God’s stated truth (“in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”). This means we teach that: the world was created by God in six literal days; that the entirety of the Bible is the inspired Word of God; that God loves all people equally (even when they are in the womb!); that man is fallen and in need of redemption; and that Jesus Christ supplied the avenue to heaven through his death, burial and glorious resurrection.
Our culture often resists the Judeo-Christian influence. Our courts frequently rule against biblical expressions in the public square. Young people in schools are often met with resistance when they attempt to articulate their faith in the classroom. And people in the workplace are increasingly faced with discriminatory policies designed to either silence their expressions of faith or to compel them to consent to workplace policies that counter their sincerely-held beliefs. Even though the culture often opposes us, pastors and Christians must continue to boldly, yet considerately, be witnesses for Jesus Christ. We are called to this endeavor (“Now then we are ambassadors for Christ …”).
My friends, the culture has dramatically changed in 50 years. We have witnessed a moral freefall that is often shocking. And so it behooves us to reflect on our calling to be ambassadors for Christ and beacons of Truth in a world that is seeking truth in all the wrong places. We must reach out to our fellow man with the hope of the Gospel.
I believe our generation can take I Peter 3:14, 15 as our theme verses: “But and if ye suffer for righteousness’ sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled; But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.”
Because of God’s grace 2 me, I have laid the foundation like an expert builder. Now others R building on it. But whoever is building on this foundation must be very careful. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have – Jesus Christ. Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials – gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay or straw. But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value. If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward. But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames. Don’t U realize that all of U together R the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in U? God will destroy anyone who destroys this temple. For God’s temple is holy, and U R that temple. I Corinthians 3:10-17 (NLT)

Church we are at a “crossroads” when it comes to understanding that the world is changing at a rapid pace. Our struggle today is not what it was in 1957. Back in the day, pastors struggled with racial issues…50 years later pastors struggle with how to communicate with young folk – it is an age issue. We struggle right now with whether to allow Christian rap or rock in our churches. Street art is banned, street slang is banned, street dress is banned.

I have heard recently of a pastor who turned young Christian musicians away from playing Christian rock at his church! Where does he want, or expect them to play?

I heard a pastor recently say, don’t bring that stuff on up here in my church! Where do you want them to be. They already hang on the corners, so let’s move them from the corners and into the church!

You see the question is not are we really communicating – the question is do we really want to communicate?

There is a dying world right outside the front and back door of your church. Are you willing to minister in your front yard and your backyard in a way that young people will understand and respond? The time is now!

God Bless and I am still interested in putting together an alliance of churches willing and wanting to change how we minister to our young.

Jesus Christ 4 Life After Death 4 Eternity

Research and acknowledgments:

Ben Burrows is a lay writer and speaker, and founder of ‘Groovin Toward Glory Ministries, co-founder of D.O. and the Gorillas of Gospel, Street KING Productions and co-author of “BOOK! The Raps and Rhymes of God”

The Holy Bible containing the Old and New Testaments, New King James Version © 1985, 1983 by Thomas Nelson, Inc., page 1109

Taking the Gospels to the Streets by Abby Schmidt, Times-Record Newspaper, Wednesday, June 28, 2006

BOOK! The Raps and Rhymes of God, The Lyrical Lessons of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John © 2006 by Geoff Smith, Ben Burrows and Danny Owens

Life Application Study Bible New Living Translation © 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1996, 2004 by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, IL 60189, page 1931, 1932
FALWELL CONFIDENTIAL, Insider weekly newsletter to The Moral Majority Coalition and The Liberty Alliance http://www.moralmajority.com, From: Jonathan Falwell, Date: August 10, 2007