"9. We Want You to Talk to Us About Controversial Issues (Because No One Is)"
1. Really, no one is talking about controversial issues, really"
2. I could point to multiple churches within a 10 mile radius of where I am sitting that demonstrate otherwise.
"People in their 20s and 30s are making the biggest decisions of their entire lives: career, education, relationships, marriage, sex, finances, children, purpose, chemicals, body image."
As has been the case for decades, centuries even.
"We need someone consistently speaking truth into every single one of those areas."
I completely 100% agree without any question that this is the case.
The problem with this declaration is the fact that so much of the world (including/especially millennials) is actively denying the existence of transcendent Truth. Too many churches/christians are jumping on that bandwagon.
Until it can be agred that:
1. There is an actual Truth that exists.
2. That the Truth can be determined to the extent that it is possible to speak confidently about it.
3. That there is some standard of transcendent Truth that applies in all circumstances.
4. It makes sense to subordinate personal opinion to Truth.
how does "confidently speaking truth" look?
"No, I don’t think a sermon-series on sex is appropriate for a sanctuary full of families, but we have to create a place where someone older is showing us a better way because these topics are the teaching millennials are starving for. We don’t like how the world is telling us to live, but we never hear from our church either."
Again, if your not hearing it from the church, you're not listening. It's not that there aren't churches doing exactly what you say you want, it's that so many churches preaching a message indistinguishable from "the world".
In all honesty, (I've been having this conversation with son #2 as it relates to his ministry degree/church employment) this is the key issue for millennials. How will they respond to the concept of transcendent Truth. Will they continue the current path of many christians? If there is truly a desire for "confidently speaking the truth", then there will be very little satisfaction with churches that can't/won't/don't "confidently speak truth" but instead offer only opinion and simply regurgitate the message that we get from "the world"
3 comments:
"9. We Want You to Talk to Us About Controversial Issues (Because No One Is)"
He must be attending one of those "progressive" churches. But then again, "controversial" is a relative term. What might be a controversial topic to this guy might very well give others a shrug for its moot nature (to them). Then there's all the "we want, we want, we want" that validates my general opinion about this "concern". This suggests that they are or might be leaving the church because they don't want to hear about issues that are truly controversial to them.
"People in their 20s and 30s are making the biggest decisions of their entire lives: career, education, relationships, marriage, sex, finances, children, purpose, chemicals, body image."
"We need someone consistently speaking truth into every single one of those areas."
He might want to start by reading this book churches use called, The Holy Bible. With the exception of career, education and chemicals, most questions are answered in that book if one chooses to really study and learn. As to those exceptions, I don't know if church is where one should hope to find answers to whatever questions about those issues he might have.
As to that, an example of a question on any of those topics would have been nice, just to know what he hopes to learn.
I guess I'd be on the side of thinking that church is exactly the place to talk about those topics. I made the point that if you aren't happy with what "the world" has to say on those issues then many/most progressive churches aren't going to be satisfying. While I agree with the foundational nature of the Bible on these issues, I think that many of these would be better served with intetgenerational conversations rather than simply "look it up". Of course that's even a biblical concept.
Of course if this generation can't agree on the existence of Truth....
Personally I'm somewhat encouraged that the author isn't interested in a church that sounds like "the world" or in something less than "the truth". It sounds like simply one more opinion isn't particularly enticing or that regurgitating whatever society thinks today just won't wash.
I believe that there is s strong strain among millennials that is interested in a awing back away from progressive permissive theology and back toward something more defined. Whether this strain will be dominant or not will certainly bear watching.
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