Don’t forget to read part 1: the past.
Justification for our rebellion used to work.
There was a time in our not so distant past where the gospel of justification as the good news for our rebellion was a compelling and effective strategy in connecting people to Jesus. For the better part of 50 years this was the staple of evangelical christianity.
But as the children of the boomers grew up, many noticed that this gospel of defining sin as rebellion and missing the mark simply lead to a legalistic gospel of sin management. If we are rebels and Jesus now saves us from the consequences of our sin, then sanctification was getting on board with “Christian Culture,” locking down those crazy behaviors and being nice. (I know this is a very simplistic assessment, but I will take my angsty straw-man and jump in line with my fellow Gen Xers who began to tell a subtly different, yet much more culturally relevant version of the gospel for this new generation.)
Many Gen Xers who saw the white washed lives and big box churches offering a simple gospel which appeared to simply offer fire insurance, were longing for a more transformational story that wasn’t so binary in its approach. In or our, secular or sacred. There had to be a broader and more compelling story.
And sure enough, pioneers such as Brian McLaren, Tim Keller, and Rob Bell (just to name a few of the superstars) began to paint a picture of the gospel that was truly good news for the Gen Xers and beyond.
Part 2) The Present
Where the gospel used to be the good news of justification for our rebellion, there has now become a new crises that is in need of good news. For many Gen Xers, their story has been one of destruction. But it isn’t the sort of destruction that is caused by rebellion, it is the kind of destruction that is the fruit of rebellion.
As a side note: This is not to say that all boomers were rebels or all Xers were wrecked. But it has become the common narrative of the generation.
For many Gen Xers, there is a genuine feeling of brokenness. There was once something that was good, and then through sin, death and destruction came to be. And since brokenness is the crisis, the good news is that through Jesus Christ we are healed and redeemed.
The death and destruction that has marred our lives and relationships does not have to be the end. Jesus comes and offers us transformation and healing to make the wrongs right.
I love the Gospel of healing and redemption!
This narrative is so prevalent that it is like the air we breathe. We are all about the redemptive story. We love that God has made the world good, and sin entered the world through Adam and with sin came death and brokenness. Then God began his redemptive work through the Jewish people and ultimately through Jesus Christ. And in him our wounds our healed.
Instead of God simply annihilating the entire world because of their rebellion, many Xers see that God is redeeming creation and inviting he redeemed people to be part of the process. This is partly why social justice is such a significant part of our story. Christians are not passive people simply trying to get people from hell to heaven. We are a redeemed people participating in the ever expanding Kingdom of God.
This is my context, my peeps. I get that things used be good, and now they suck! And Jesus takes my brokenness and heals it, redeems it. This is the good news!
Yes the 4 Laws still work, but work differently:
As you may have read from my other posts, here and here I am all about alter calls, all about presenting the gospel. But what has changed is the definition of sin when presenting the gospel. Now sin is our brokenness not our rebellion, and the gospel is healing and redemption instead of justification. No matter how we tweak the definitions, there is still a world in desperate need of Jesus and we are invited by faith to respond.
Sin used to be seen as missing the mark, rebellion, behaviors that deserve punishment. But in our current context this definition has transitioned to mean broken. We are sinful / broken and that brokenness severs our relationship with God.
It is Jesus who offers healing and redemption through Jesus Christ. It is a gospel, it is a gospel that requires a response. What has changed is our understanding of what the crisis it. For most “younger adults” we get that the crisis has transitioned from rebellion to brokenness.
I hope that this makes some sense and gives you a little more grace for the generation that has come before and understand the gospel in a different way that you do. And in the same way, can you even get your head around that our students have a different world view and a different crisis they are facing.
Can you get your head around that our students don’t think they are broken?
This version of the gospel is a home run for people in their 20′s -40′s. But I am noticing a challenging new trend. This new trend is that among our students there is now no more self reflection, no more brokenness.
As you interact with your students you are probably as horrified as I am that they have absolutely no understanding of sin. They live in an amoral culture and if there is no defined morality, how can they be rebells, how can they miss the mark. This trend has been happening for quite some time. But what has taken me back is that this current group of students don’t even see themselves as broken.
Go to youtube and watch Lady GaGa’s video, Born This Way. Now I get that she is weird and that many students would not admit to being inline with her. But as you talk with them and truly listen, you will see that this song is actually their world view.
Our students are beautiful and unique. Whatever we might classify as sin or brokenness they actually classify as badges of honor that simply make them more beautiful and unique. When they give their testimonies, have you noticed that the almost always talk about having no regrets and that all their experiences have simply shaped them into the person they are today.
While we might get that our students are rebellious and broken, I am trying to argue that our students don’t see that. It is like arguing that a 19 year old college freshman boy is sleeping with everyone on his dorm because he is truly lonely, insecure, and trying to fill some God shaped hole with the wrong thing. While those may be deep inner longings, his felt need is that he is actually just horny. We know there is a sin problem, but unless we can tap into their felt crisis, there is little to no chance of the gospel truly being good news to this current generation. (wasn’t that a colorful example)
I know you are probably disagreeing with me. But imagine trying to have the conversation with your parents or grandparents about the redemptive story we are called into. If they have any old skool, evangelical roots, they think we have gone soft because we are all about the journey and not getting people saved! This current generation has transitioned the gospel focus, why can’t it transition again?
Where do we go from here?
In part 3, I will simply share some of the thoughts I have been wrestling with regarding what the good news might be for these increasingly post-christian students. For us in the Bay Area, there is no more common story or ethic to aspire to, so justification for their rebellion is out. There is also little memory of the good that used to exist before the crap storm came so healing from brokenness is out. What is the felt need, the crisis that Jesus Christ can be good news to?
This solution is going to take much more than my little brain. Us youth workers are on the front lines of a whole new worldview and together we may tap into something revolutionary as we strive to share the good news of Jesus Christ with our students.
What are your thoughts?
Want to join a conversation that is wrestling with this changing reality? Mark your calendar and save October 5, 2012. Click HERE for more information.
Amen, brother! I loved the last section, especially the Lady Gaga paragraph and the one below that, because it’s SO true. Badges of honor and no regrets because things have “shaped who they are today” is exactly their worldview, but is crock of crap that ONLY leads students down the wrong path.
And, I think one reason why this is happening, why adolescents are okay with amorality, is because WE aren’t doing a good enough job of explaining why things are right or wrong. The answer is so much more complex and deep than a Divine Command Theory of “God said so.” There are deep reasons to lots of different topics that adolescents don’t understand, and we, or I, are not explaining it well, or standing strong and loud enough for Truth.
the problem i have noticed is that “god said so” doesn’t carry much if any weight to our kids. it isn’t that we aren’t teaching them, it is that our entire culture has moved away from a common morality or a common understanding of how things should be.
this means that justification for rebellion and healing for brokenness have less power and effectiveness because they aren’t rebels or aren’t broken.
i hope you fly out to the bay area this fall and hang with us as we work this out!
bk
Could it also be that young people feel invincible at the very time that we are trying to say they are weak or broken and in need of a Saviour? They are probably thinking I dont need saving from anyone or anything.
ARGH! This post epitomizes the frustration I go through with students on a constant basis. I’m glad to hear you put it into words, because it totally makes sense. When I’m talking to them about what the Bible says is right and wrong and how we should live our lives, they just tune out and assume it’s nothing important to them. I’m right there with you with students seeing themselves as having situational and undefined morality.
As best I can figure, if their lives are all about the choices they make shaping and fulfilling them, the angle we may need to use is showing that God’s plan is what is ultimately fulfilling. The way God said it up is designed as His perfect will; so why shouldn’t we follow what the best and most fulfilling plan is? This is a hard one to promote though, because if it’s just about what brings about God’s best, the underlying implication is that they don’t HAVE to follow what the Word says, but it’s just the best choice out of many. That suggests that if they feel they’re doing okay already, they don’t need to change things up. The old “if it’s broke, don’t fix it” mentality.
I’m not sure if that’s the answer or not. Youth ministry is hecka frustrating! No wonder I love it so much.
Great post, it made me think “yeah … um” You are spot on that the old presentation doesnt work on this generation but I am not sure what does. I am looking forward to your “solution” in Part 3.
have you read King Jesus Gospel by Scot McKnight? i haven’t but i’ve heard it’s sort about this very issue; that is, the “changing” gospel.
McKnight argues, and I think he’s onto something, that the ‘new’ way of telling the Gospel is to focus on Jesus, his story, and the invitation to belong or participate in the story rather than individual brokenness or rebellion.
you have said so many great things in the last two posts, i’m excited to see part 3!
Very well said, Ben. Loving this. I think that much of the student’s inability to see their brokenness is a bi-product of a greater inability to see beyond themselves – which is the fruit of 30 yrs of our culture raising its youth on the idea that they’re 1) wonderful as they are, 2) to be celebrated for their individuality, and 3) to listen to their hearts. These beliefs make disobeying one’s desires/impulses equal to being untrue to yourself, phony or hypocritical and therefore it makes no sense to have regrets as we know them in a world where being “real” is everything.
I have have had some success with this line of reasoning:
1) The culture says “be true to yourself & let no one else dictate who you are” and we believe that, in general, this is how we live (remember every teen is unique right?). The problem is that nobody truly lives this way.
2) If we lived by our own impulses 100% of the time we screw everything up royally – why? Because we desire things that, if lived out, would literally destroy everything good in our lives (relationships, our very health, you name it).
3) So what is it about us that our hearts say we ought to do what our minds know we cannot? Must be a disconnect. This same phenomenon plays itself out all over our world beginning is the individual, impacting the family (this one will strike a nerve), the community, the nation (whistles and bells this elections season) and the world at large. Good thing we occasionally listen to voices that speak into our lives from outside of us.
4) If our choices to harness our desires come from somewhere (and everyone is trusting in some one or another) which voices are trustworthy? Enter: Jesus. When played out to their extreme end, what does his word bring upon the world?
I think the reason brokenness doesn’t lead our students to seek salvation/forgiveness is because they don’t see themselves as broken. They’re culturally conditioned to believe they’re amazing and the rightful centers of the universe (a story buttressed by the fact that every marketing push is aimed at them with little regard for what grandma desires or thinks). But they can see the world as broken – they know it’s jacked and the crazy freaking media is so quick to project a million reasons to be fearful. So I think part of the solution may be finding what question they’re currently asking but part of it may just be forcing an issue: that none of us is divorced from the insane behavior of this broken world – it is the product of broken people each of whom see the “world out there” as the problem.