Today's society seems to be filled with unending outrage. Every day there's another headline to be enraged by, another injustice on clear display, and another series of questions regarding how we got here. Unending issues dominate our thoughts, our actions, and our prayers as we all wrestle with handling them in our own way. Something that has become more clear through this in recent times is that it's not simply that we have different opinions or believe different actions should be taken. It's more so that we genuinely have different ideas of what reality is and how we view it, which is leading us to re-evaluate how we view one another. One demographic that may seem like it could be immune to such confusion and struggle are Christians. After all, we're focused on the gospel, spreading the love and good news of Jesus, and aiming to become more Christ-like, right? Unfortunately, this simply is not the case and it's causing many to look somewhere other than the church to find the truth, biblical or otherwise.
From a broad perspective, I believe a large part of the attendance challenges being faced by churches comes from generational differences. While much has been written about the mixed and short-lived success of attracting newer generations with 'hip worship styles' and having coffee available, there are underlying issues with real impact. The church and its leadership is often looked to as a place of moral guidance. Sticking with the status quo on moral issues, while only bringing up certain points on certain issues, simply isn't enough anymore. Many among the younger crowds are reading scripture and scratching their heads when they see Christianity tied to a certain political party, in large part thanks to the active public push by many 'evangelical' leaders. This association is seemingly accepted and expected among the older generations; a norm that has been formed due to a narrow focus on certain issues that doesn't allow for reflection and adjustment based on current realities. Meanwhile, the younger generations seem to look at the phrase of 'God and Country' and say yes to God...but to Country, not so much. These are broad generalizations that don't apply to all, but different generations tend to have different attributes for a reason. When the name of God gets tied to America, whether it's through phrases such as 'God Bless America' or 'In God We Trust', but the actions of American leaders don't seem to align with scripture, a different perspective on allegiances grows.
Public perception of any concept, and the marketing done to affect it, has a large impact on the reality versus the ideal. In the US historically, evangelicalism has carried with it the notion that those associated with it held a moral high ground. In today's society, this has greatly changed. The evangelical label has become toxic and the continued association of the term with the church is something that I believe will continue to drive youth further away and keep them away. For better or worse, evangelicalism has the connotation of traditional, conservative, white, and the Republican party. However, in current times, the Christian faith has also become associated with racism, nativism, misogyny, lawlessness, corruption, deception, and broad overwhelming hypocrisy. This has all happened largely at the hands of evangelical leaders. It is because of this that I believe that we must actively speak out against these wrongs and separate Christianity from the evangelical label. This is not something that can simply be ignored or overlooked for the sake of gaining certain political benefits. By choosing not to address it for the sake of preventing division, we leave churchgoers to fend for themselves, left without direction from their spiritual leadership. Younger generations always look to the older ones for guidance, it's just becoming a question of where this will come from. However, even if we do publically begin to push back against the ties of the label of evangelicalism to the church and what it culturally stands for, this will not be enough. We cannot just run from this and expect to shift momentum related to declining association with Christianity towards a more positive direction. For that, we must take steps forward in addressing the challenges of today from a biblical perspective.
When addressing current issues as a church, we must remember that social issues are not separate from spiritual issues. They are real issues that are having real impacts on the lives of many outside the walls of the church. It's not that traditional issues no longer matter, it's more that the focus must be updated to meet the needs of the up and coming generations. Taking care of God's creation as it pertains to climate change, caring for your neighbor and their needs as it pertains to health care, addressing how we handle immigrants and refugees rather than separating families and instituting an attitude of fear rather than love; these are real issues that traditional evangelicalism is currently largely shying away from. In order to address these, perspectives must be broadened and new ideas must be allowed. As has been the case many times throughout human history, the old ways of doing things simply no longer suffice. As a nation, we are becoming more diverse, and among the younger crowds, we are becoming more open and accepting of others and their ideas. We're beginning to learn that we have more to learn from those that are different from us than we have to hate about them. When we look at Jesus in the Bible, we see a man who wasn't afraid to challenge authorities, push back against established norms, and take actions that made followers become dumbfounded and openly question traditional ways. As a church, we must also reconsider some of the lingoes that we use and again consider public perceptions. Implying shame through terms such as 'broken' or 'lost' drives people away in a culture that promotes welcomeness and acceptance. While that's not asking us to shift our stances to the other extreme in an 'anything goes' manner, we must remember that the Christ explicitly boiled our instructions down to two rules: love God and love each other.
There are major schisms being wrestled with both publically and privately in our society today. This is true within the realm of Christianity and in areas having nothing to do with religious communities. For those involved with Christianity and the church, we have to recognize the moment that we're in and actively work to learn about and address the issues of our time where God has us. To have stances on certain issues and engage with society when those arise, but to remain largely silent in other areas and complacently accept, or sometimes even support, active biblical wrongs rightfully earns the evangelical label the connotation of hypocrisy. One way or another, change is coming from younger generations that feel largely disillusioned by, beaten down by, and ultimately different from those before them. From a Christianity standpoint, these coming changes must be recognized or the church may be left behind in favor of what's shared in the Bible. This is not an 'all hope is lost' statement, rather something far from it. Large-scale changes like these have happened before in church history, even the history that has happened within the short existence of the US. But when you have youth feeling like they're talking, worshipping, praying, and studying the Bible like evangelicals, yet they're hesitant to invite outsiders and are actively questioning whether they're practicing something that isn’t even Christian at all, the warning lights cannot be ignored. So yes, the divisions will come. We will all have different ideas of what's important and how to respond, but Christ himself came not to unite us all here on this Earth, but to divide (Luke 12:51-53). And while we shouldn't actively encourage division for the sake of itself, we must be willing to address injustices as we see them. Then, we can determine what if any action we can take, and ultimately give the issues to God while studying what, if anything, He has already said on the matters at hand.
