Wednesday, October 24, 2001
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Wednesday, October 24, 2001 |
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Youth are critical factor in future of the church By REV JOHN HATCHER It's so easy to overlook the historical fact that Christianity started out as a youthful movement. According to available information, the chief executive officer of the movement was no older than 29 or 30 when he began to recruit. Those he recruited, in all likelihood, were in their late teens or early twenties. In fact, Jesus nicknamed two of his followers, James and John, the Sons of Thunder. I suppose they were full of lightening and thunder that zestful youthfulness. But, look at the church today. Gray hairs. Not that I have anything against gray hairs because I am acquiring just a few of my own (my sisters think I have been dying my hair. Not). The question should be raised, however, who should be in the driver's seat of the church? If we were to learn that 60- and 70-year-old men and women were flying the B-1 bombers over Afghanistan, how comfortable would we be about that? Christianity skyrocketed its first few years on mission. From a small movement with its base of operation in Jerusalem, it spread to the seat of imperial Rome within a time frame of 15 to 20 years. That's doing it without television, telephones, or high-speed Internet connections. In fact, Jack, it was without the printed page. Go figure. How? Youthful zest and zeal with a burning passion knowing they possessed the Truth of all truths the very secret to eternal life. Today, if President Bush's response to the Sept. 11 attack depended upon a typical church decision making process, Congress would still be debating what to do. We as Americans would not tolerate that in our government. But we tolerate it, in fact, we protect that same kind of decision-making process in our churches. It seems truer today than when the book was written with its title: Seven Last Words of the Church: "We've never done it that way before." The word I hear from the cash-rich late teen generation is that the church is very un-cool. It's no secret that the church struggles to hold on to its youth once Mama and Daddy can't force them to come to church with them. Parents with kids like that were attending the Prodigal Prayer Meeting at New Hope Baptist Church this past Saturday. They were saying, "Little Johnny always went to church with us. But in his senior year, he just refused to go and he hasn't been back since." No telling how many parents could claim those words as their own. They feel guilty thinking it was some inadequacy on their parts. More and more, I am convinced not. I am thinking the shortfall falls at the door of the church. Go into the typical church on a typical Sunday and you would think that Queen Victoria herself would highly approve. We sing old songs to old music tunes. We move like we have arthritis. We use old words in our sermons. The whole thing smells "old." And the gray hairs who control the purse strings of the church like "old." The great cathedrals of Europe with their bright and bold stained-glass windows knew the church needed to be brightened up a bit. Today, our church houses are drab, colorless. Sorta' like an old folks home. Here's a word for the church. Call it a forth-telling prophecy: wake up and smell the coffee. The young folks are going for Starbucks, not Maxwell House.
The Rev. Dr. John Hatcher is pastor of River's Edge Community Church in Fayetteville. |
