I am going to use this post to respond to a couple of comments from my relfections post. It was about my statement about my genereation being neglected by the church. The better way of putting it would be a neglected stage of life. The stage of life would be young adults, and even more specifically single young adults. The comment came from the fact that my church is currently doing an 8 week series called Family Matters. While this is great for middle age people that are married with kids, it means absolutely nothing to me. The usual argument is that I get to learn for the future. What if God never intends for me to marry? This argument is just an excuse to pacify me anyway. Why not teach on things that every person deals with not certain groups. I don't need to know how to raise my child or love my wife. I am not there yet. I do need to know how to love my fellow man, fight sin, spread God's word, etc. These are things that everyone needs to know.
My age group needs to know other things. How can we most efficiently make the transition from school into the working world where we will be the rest of our lives? How can we be most effectively used by God now in our twenties? But no, we have to listen to messages about loving our children. Everything in most churches is designed for middle age people: the music, the design of the building, the messages, the lack of media being used in the service. Then we have a Sunday School given to us to pacify us. So we get to go to church and be bored and then be perfectly content that we have a sunday school for us.
So you ask, what are the solutions? Well, there are a couple of things. First, churches could think about ceasing to ignore us and try to at least make us feel like a part of the church. But if this doesn't work, we should probably just try to start our own service to meet our needs. A great example of this is a service started by Mclean Bible Church called Frontline. A service deveolped by young adults for young adults. It's more than a sunday school which is awesome.
So, I will continue to be involved in my church and try to change it from the inside to accept young adults. If I can't, maybe I will see if a service can be started and if that doesn't work, maybe I'll start a church with other people that feel the same way. Who knows. I just know this: I want to follow God to the best of my abilities, but the modern church is not helping.
6 comments:
Although I'm being argumentative, under your current reasoning, Paul should never have written the 7th chapter of 1 Corinthians.
I don't know.... I don't see separating the generations as the way the church is supposed to function.
I think the solution can't be creating more services and/or programs. I think the solution must be rethinking how we do church in the first place. Why would Jesus be more relevant to middle aged people?
I have to agree with you Matt. Although it is against a personal policy, I will respond on my blog. Its that whole long comment thing again.
Proteinstat: I am not sure that I get your point. What does Paul talking about family have to do with anything?
Lara: You are right that separating is not the answer. It just usually occurs out of frustration. Jesus is relevant to everyone, but when churches are run by middle aged people, the other groups are neglected. The rethinking of the church is very necessary. How do you do that within and not without?
I know I said that I would respond on my blog, but I just can't justify doing so. Anyway, next time I hit game night we'll have to chat, its an important issue.
My point is that the Bible has entire segments dedicated to one particular point that may not seem relevant to you. It should be no surprise that the Church does as well. Ask yourself what is the major demographic of this church? If it is married couples with families than it should not be a surprise that many of the functions of the church are focused on them.
Are the sermons not enriching? Do you find no spiritual growth due to this tack the church is taking? If so you have two options, you can, through the boards and commitites of the church try to change this or find another church that does "speak" to you.
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