Changing Winds

There are times in life when circumstances cause one to step back and look at the bigger picture. Over the course of the last few months circumstances in my life and several conversations with a couple of friends have caused me to really think about our culture, my generation, and the state of the church.

We are a generation that has no idea who we are, what we want, where we are going, or how to get there. I've decided to name us the gap generation..or maybe the transition generation. I understand that I have a very limited perspective, especially historically, and that the course of time may prove me wrong; I also understand that I have a very basic understanding of these two movements. But I believe that our generation is the gap generation and in the middle of the pendulum swing between modernity and post-modernity. Our parents generation was engulfed in modernity and post-modernity was just starting to have influence. Our children's generation will be almost completely post-modern with just a hint of modernity. But here we are in the middle...disillusioned with modernity yet not quite wholly on board with post-modernity.

We are split between those who believe in absolute truth, those who believe there is absolute truth but that we can't know it, and those who don't really buy into absolute truth at all. We no longer hold reason and logic up as the most important things in life...we don't worship the scientific method and we don't believe that knowledge is going to save us. However, we aren't fully convinced that feelings are the only way to go either. While we would like to trust our gut and go with what feels right, there is enough modernity ingrained in our way of thinking that we want some fact or truth to back up our feelings. We want and need both fact and feeling to make our decisions and determine our paths.

This transition or gap that we are in has affected not only our generation as a whole, but the church specifically. For example, I took a class called History of Christianity in America. During this class, we talked about a spirituality of dwelling versus a spirituality of seeking. During the 1950s, the overwhelming tone was a spirituality of dwelling. The church building was the focus. Alright, let me give you a VERY brief history lesson of the church building. During the Old Testament, God actually dwelled in the tabernacle. And that is why the building itself was holy and sacred...because that is where God actually lived. That is where He was. During the early church, there was no emphasis on the building, but on the people. It was the body of believers that was the church, and that is where the emphasis was, because the Spirit of God no longer dwelled in a building, but in every individual believer. Fast forward to sometime after the reign of Constantine (when Christianity became the official religion of the land-making it the Holy Roman Empire-and the persecution stopped). After it was OK to be a Christian, church buildings were built, then cathedrals, and then somewhere along the way, the building once again became sacred and a place to be revered...it was once again "God's house." This persisted pretty much without variation until within the late 1960s or so, when the focus was once again moved from the building to the people. Now we are back to our generation being the gap and torn in two. There is still a healthy appreciation for the church building and treating it as holy and the place where God dwells. However, the emphasis is starting to move to the people...we as the body of Christ are the church. We no longer treat the sanctuary like we once used to. We're OK with wearing our ball caps, bringing in a bottle of water (or some Starbucks), and throwing and breaking a few plates in the sanctuary to make a point. While we would never think of having a kegger or dog show in the sanctuary, we don't treat the building with the same reverence and respect that our parents and grandparents do...and we probably treat it with more respect than our kids will. I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing...just different. And another example of the state of limbo in which we live every day.

There are several more examples...in fact, entire books have been written on the topic. I'm not here to do an exhaustive breakdown. I just wanted to make a few observations and to encourage those who are ministers to be aware of the shift that is taking place. Pray and seek God about where you fit in this great time in history. And don't condemn the movement that is foreign to you. Realize that God can and does work through both the modern and the post-modern mindset...and don't lock yourself so thoroughly into one camp that you can't appreciate the strengths of the other. Remember that our emphasis is on God, not on the label.