Passion - Ft. Worth 2011

This past week end over 10,000 college students (and a few of us old folks!) packed the Tarrant County Convention Center for a weekend of worship, Word and work. I admit that I am sometimes cynical about the future of the North American church, but this weekend set me straight - the future looks quit bright! There were so many times during the weekend where I had tears streaking down my face as I watched these college students unleash uninhabited, full on, God glorifying worship. I watched as they soaked in the deep and rich Bible teaching of Louie Giglio, Francis Chan and John "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him" Piper. But what amazed me the most is that these young people (did I mention they were poor college students?) raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to translate the Scriptures in the native language of the unreached "Koso" people in Africa, as well as gave thousands of towels and socks to the homeless. And yet the average church in America is not making budget! G.K. Chesterton once quipped, "The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried." Well, I can tell you that this next generation of Christians is not afraid of the difficult and is willing to try anything for the glory of God! And though I was excited about the future of God's church I couldn't help but be haunted by the question, Why has the church failed to reach this generation? Is it because we find it too difficult and so we don't try, knowing what it will cost and how uncomfortable it may make us? Joel 2:28 is a prophecy about the outpouring of God's Spirit that was fulfilled at Pentecost. The passage tells us that when the Spirit is at work, old men will dream dreams and young men will see visions. Could it be that the old men are dreaming about the past while the young are envisioning the future? Perhaps. But one thing is for sure, the church needs both old and young. We need the old to dream dreams and tell the young ones about the ways of God and immerse them in deep theological truths in order that they may have a firm foundation on which to build the church of the future. And we need the young to challenge us with new and innovative ideas of what it means to be the church in a postmodern, technology driven world. We must grant them risk tolerance so that they can use their creative minds to map out a future for the church. Otherwise they will find new places and churches to let their innovative and creative minds go to work. This generation wants a more robust discipleship, they want a faith that works in the real world. Nearly every denomination in America is declining in numbers and the most significant missing group is the 20 somethings. How we respond to this new generation will in many ways determine the future of the established church. (For a SBC perspective read the article Ready or Not, A New SBC is Coming by ED Stetzer http://betweenthetimes.com/author/edstetzer/ )