TWO PROPHETIC WORDS: A Call to Tend to Content and Context – by Jeff Foels

There are two prophetic essays to be written on youth, young adults, and the church.

In the first, the focus is on the generational context of our young people.

In the second, priority is placed on the Gospel, on the durable goods of our faith and tradition.

The first begins “O brave new world! That has such people in it!” It goes on to talk about generational dynamics, and the new context of our youth and young adults.

The second starts “The church of Christ in every age, beset by change but Spirit-led,” proceeding to a discussion of the underlying consistency of our call to be the church.

The first emphasizes context: our youth and young adults are no longer of Generation X,  and concessions made to youth culture over the past quarter century might be out of date, as in need of reformation as that which they sought to reform. This new generation gets called the Millenials, the Echo Boom, Generation Y. This new generation makes up our youth, our young adults, and even our newest ministers and church leaders (I count myself among their number). They are not only “Digital Natives” (to use the term coined by educator Marc Prensky), but they are internet natives, cell phone natives, social media natives. They are civic-minded, involved, interested in community. A recent Forbes article lays out this generation’s involvement with the Occupy Wall Street movement.[1] They are over-parented, over-committed, over-stimulated, over-mediated. Their social context is marked with the constant of change, and their interaction with the church will change the church.

The second essay looks at what the church has always been about. It answers hand-wringing about the future of the church with a question: what was it that brought you to the church? What kept you at the church? The answers to those questions rarely involve the flashiest developments in ministry, and almost inevitably involve people – authentic conversations, real connections, messages and Messages that speak into our whole humanity. The church has always been about people, and ministry has been about connecting people with the “durable goods” of the faith: the prayers, patterns, practices, and poetry of faith and life together. The Gospel message, our polity and way of being community, our spiritual practices, the history of a particular people called together in Christ – these are the authentic things the church possesses, and is called to share again with the church of every age.

Both essays have the potential to be prophetic, and powerful ministry is found in focusing on each dimension. What is perhaps most important is that the two are not confused. Context should not dictate content, but consistency should not be mistaken for changelessness, and dangerous ministry occurs when the streams cross.

I believe “moralistic therapeutic deism” is just such a product of confusing context and content. Fears that our youth will leave the church, fears about communicating cross-generationally, fears of conflict and change have led to a lowest-common-denominator approach to faith. Rather than risk rejection of the message, the message gets changed to be acceptable and ‘nice,’ a set of banalities easily translated into a new context, and content ultimately becomes subrogated for context.

I also believe that the church too often mistakes things that are old for things that are timeless. Too many churches are interested in having young adult ministries, or having youth representation, but only insofar as it will end up in new generations validating the old ones. Seeking younger voices without listening to them mistakes context for content in a different way – pretending that the church of today will inevitably, unchangeably become the church of tomorrow.

The truth we hold is that the durable goods of faith persist, have persisted, and will persist. To do so, these durable goods have found new expression and application in each coming age, and will continue to do so in the future. The task of the church today is to take seriously the context of a new generation as well as taking seriously the content of the generations. The church of Christ in every age was confronted with change, yet remained and remains Spirit-led. And as the hymn continues, the church must both claim and test its heritage, and keep on rising from the dead.

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[1] Dave Serchuk, “Move over Boomers! The Millenial Generation has Occupied Wall Street,” http://www.forbes.com/sites/daveserchuk/2011/10/13/the-millennial-generation-has-occupied-wall-street/