The Invisible Church Split - Part I

There is crack, a crevice almost, through many local church bodies. It splits a single congregation into two, without even the cost of a new building. While not terribly financially wasteful in most cases, it is a fissure that is always very costly.

 imagecred: richardwintle via AventuresInWonderland

The division of which I speak of is in age: the old from the young/the young from the old. We're going to take this slow and really unpack the issue. My goal is to deal with how I personally see it manifested globally and locally. (I would love to hear your personal observations as well!) I'd then like to look at the consequences on the mission of the gospel both worldwide and regionally. And thirdly, we'll go over some things each of us can do to make a difference where we are. (Hopefully I can keep myself from proposing giant generalizations that are unrealistic such as "if we'd all just...work at it!") 

What Division

I recently discussed this issue with a Spiritual leader of mine. When I hinted at the line down the middle of the room in one particular situation she looked at me with such a cluelessness that I laughed! She hadn't noticed it until I pointed it out, partly because she isn't part of the problem so she couldn't imagine young and old Christians treating each other as if they're aliens to be held at a safe distance!

In The Local Church

I'm sure there are many ways in which it appears in individual bodies, but here are things that I've observed in my own and other congregations. This is one issue on which I'd LOVE to receive e-mails/comments from you describing what you see.

• Lack of discipleship among believers of different generations: I know you've heard from me before on this issue, but it's the first one that comes to mind. If we weren't so afraid of each other (of judgement and approval, of vulnerability, of what we might have to say to each other...) or making our minds up without giving the other a chance, we could all learn a ton!(Titus 2:1-8)
• Lack of fellowship (inter-generational relationships): Plain and simple: we're not friends. This is not a rule, but for the most part I don't see a lot of 40+ or 50+ couples chillin' with the newlyweds, college age and high school students. Within the church, we are all equal in this: we we're outside, condemned to eternal seperation from our Creator and we have all been brought near through the Redeeming blood of Christ. Something about "those young'ns" and "those old fogies" makes us act as if we are different kinds of Christians. (Prov 27:9, Rom 3:21-25)
• Literal church splits and/or migrations: This is not an ingenious epiphany. Many have noted the increase in young people planting their own churches and leaving the grey-haired behind in a congregation with no long-term future. Young people reject the wisdom of those who've been around the block and so many experienced believers stand on non-Biblical convictions and "the way things are". Eventually someone says, "Fine, we'll just go do it our way."(Prov 16:31; 20:29)
• The physical line: Show up to your local worship service, maybe even Bible study or small group and the chances are you find this. It may appear as a line down the middle of the room, certain areas or rows that have an unspoken weekly reservation or maybe just large generationally discriminant pockets/groups. I have to be very open and honest with this one. This doesn't happen quite so much in our worship services, although everyone has "their spot" and in a rural community I think they pretty much get passed down in the will! However, I do attend a multi-generational Bible study where there has been some finger-pointing at "you young people" based on purely extra-Biblical convictions. One time I happened to sit next to another young mother who sensed my frustration simply because my body stiffened at the conversation going on around us. I (working on being slow to speak) knew I couldn't address the issue right then without overreacting in passion. She jumped in and said exactly what I wished I could have without blowing a fuse. I really appreciated her support and so I naturally migrated to the seat next to her around the table weekly. Slowly, everyone under 40 migrated to that side of the circle leaving everyone else to their own side. It was never intentional but I knew exactly what had happened.
• Failing programs: Without the wisdom of plenty of mature Christians of all ages AND the attendance of Christians (and unsaved in some cases) who have plenty to learn, also of all ages: well intended programs, classes and services die. You probably already know how I feel about cookie-cutter programs, but when people serve in the manner their community needs, people come to know the Lord and grow to be more like Him. This requires breaking generational gaps to be completely effective. Otherwise, we are severely limiting the amount of discipleship that could be happening.

These are just a few of the things that came to my mind as I write. Like I said, I'm sure there are more (maybe even obvious ones that I'm missing like my dear friends missed our physical line in Bible study).

Very soon we'll discuss the effects and some possible solutions. In the mean time, I look forward to hearing from you on what you see!

Do you notice any age separation in the church? If so, please share!

The Word IS Beautiful

In our attempts to draw on the u saved, today's Western Church has spent a large percentage of their resources on presentation. I don't mean presentation in an evangelistic sense. I'm talking about aesthetics, promotion and other additional elements to preaching the Word.

As the years go by, the amount of money spent on such things has grown and continues to grow like crazy. I'm very alarmed by the results of these efforts. The number of Bible-believing Christians in American is plummeting. I took broadly accepted statistics on the success rate of youth ministry and applied it to the city I live in. In our town of 60,000 people, based on the number of students in youth groups at evangelical churches: we will statistically only make a lifelong change in the lives of fifty of them, at most.

What happens when this generation of young people are the parents, community leaders and the ones responsible for the religious beliefs of the following generation? Even if there are one hundred people in that generation that believe and try to pass the Gogspel on to their kids, what will this city look like in several decades. Frightening.

My point is, obiously dressing up the the Word of God doesn't work; neither does dulling it down or fluffing it up.

I will not settle for spreading less than the True Word which is as sharp as any two edged sword. I feel uncomfortable at the thought of being responsible for trying to reach a generation with lights, a rock-band worship team that sings poetic but unmeaningful words and trendy graphics. I dread the thought of telling Him at His throne, "but I attracted hundreds of kids to the church building." Only to hear His answer, "but how many of them received My grace?" When I stand before my Judge, I long to see a row of my purple-haired peeps there with me and hear, "Well done."

In the scope of eternity, I cannot help but challenge people, including myself, to drop the act. In the book of Acts, the Lord added to their numbers. Can we please, I beg you, begin to truly rely on the Spirit to guide our steps in furthering the Kingdom?

On Capital Campaigns

Today I read a number. A big number: 232 billion. To me adding a dollar sign makes it even bigger. Two hundred and thirty-two billion dollars. This is the amount of money tied up in real estate owned by churches.

So, why is this necessary? Did the apostles need a mega-church to see 3,000 people added to their numbers on one day? I do feel it's important to relate to culture, but at what cost? Do we think this is a good use of Gods resources?

I attend a church that has remodeled half of a large building. It's nice looking and not very extravagant. Our multiple-purpose room is set up to function as a sanctuary. It has the "necessities," A few lights on a dimmer pack, a large (but not enormous) sound board, sound system, small stage, you know - everything Americans need to worship. Supposedly you have to have a certain percentage of empty chairs for new people to feel comfortable enough to come in, and apparently we don't have enough. Over the last year, and annoyingly more over the last few months, leadership and attendees have been pushing to begin "phase 2" aka the sanctuary.

Many people have been praying for the completion of the building for a couple years. One year ago we ran into a hiccup with our city officials and had to resubmit our plans to a new architect. A few months into it, he had a massive heart attack that put him out of commission for several more months. Just as he was near finishing, his computer crashed. He apparently had no back up because he has had to start from square one. In all of these obstacles, people are praying for God to pull through and do amazing things...I truly believe He is. It's not a coincidence that all of these road blocks fell in our way. While they would attribute it to the enemy, I credit the all-knowing God of the universe.

Let's put this in perspective, if the American church sold our buildings and started meeting in tax-payer funded buildings such as schools and civic halls, we could feed, evangelize and equip 90 million kids until adulthood through an organization such as World Vision or Compassion Intl. That doesn't take into account how much money each church spends on utilities and supplies. If our church alone stopped our building project, we could minister to hundreds of people through organizations like the afore mentioned or by sponsoring several more missionaries. I'm guessing that more people would come to know the Lord through those avenues than through another big pretty room.

I know these last couple posts may seem very cynical. Please give me grace recognizing that I am a very passionate person. I've never really "kind of" felt something, I feel what I feel with all that I am. I'm also a problem solver by nature. As a part of the body of Christ, I find that it is my problem as well as yours that we're not functioning properly (Rom 12, 1 Cor 12) and the only thing I know how to do is write and tell the people w/in my scope of influence.

Grace and peace.