The Future of the Church

My Friend, Marko, is doing a series of blogs and inputs on the The Future of Youth Ministry
Part 5 is powerful.

This quote from Kenda Dean speaks volumes!

"Kenda Dean


Teenagers know, better than we do, that when we ask them to be Christians, we are asking them to do a very dangerous thing. The only way out is to adopt a “safe” version of Christianity (which might not be Christian at all) that helps them become good, nice people instead of people who love others sacrificially. But as we know, good and nice “Christianity” seldom lasts past high school, since teenagers quickly learn that people can be perfectly good and nice without Jesus anywhere in the picture.


So I think in the future, youth ministry will try to re-weird-ify Christianity, highlighting Jesus’ radical actions and peculiar self-giving love, in an effort to resist the American church’s habit of trying to tame the gospel into a middle class bedtime story. If Christianity is dangerous, then we need to act like it. Teenagers aren’t afraid of risk, but they want to know that Jesus is worth it. Young people are going to demand that we, the church, be who we say we are–people who obviously follow Jesus, which makes us “weird” in a culture based on self-actualization and self-fulfillment–or they’re just not going to bother with us at all."


Personally I think that's the future of the Church. We need to stop taming it to a middle class bedtime story. Make Christianity dangerous, messy, act like Jesus is worth it, why Because He is!!

Comments

Faith Jackson said…
Amen, and amen!! If we don't distinguish ourselves (be weird!), why do we bother? We're supposed to stand out - because of our love. Many "Christians" who stand out these days are preaching hate - hate for homosexuals, abortion docs, Muslims, or whatever is "un"Christian. We are called to love - radically, unconditionally, undeniably.

I want to be weird for Jesus!
Unknown said…
You might be interested in viewing:
www.JesusIsWorthIt.com

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