Young Christians Rising
By Hans Zeiger (04/27/05)
Generation X Catholics were asked in their teenage days what it was that the church had failed to give them. The most frequent response was that the church had not challenged teens with “a high and heroic ideal.” Such a challenge, as we’ve been reminded these past few weeks, was made with astounding success by the late pope. The Millennial Generation, born in the days of Reagan and John Paul II, is emerging into the world with a conservatism unexpected and nervously opposed by the liberal elite of American culture. But liberalism cannot erase the moral demand it has provoked.
“In an age of relativism,” writes Peter Kreeft, “orthodoxy is the only possible rebellion left.” Remarkably, Christian orthodoxy is spreading rapidly amongst young Americans; we can hope that a great awakening of the spiritual life of the nation is imminent.
Across denominations, young Americans seek commitment; they want to be presented with a challenge and a message that can occupy their innermost identity; they want to live with purpose and an excitement that undermines the prevalent boredom of the post-modern wasteland. That is why, in an August 2004 MTV survey, a mere 21 percent of 18 to 24 year olds said that religion plays a small or unimportant role in their life. Eighteen to 24 year olds were more than twice as likely to see Mel Gibson’s “Passion” as they were to see Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11.”
There is a common expectation of America’s youth that they are careless about religion and heedless to the call of faith. In fact, many have never heard that call. Others have justly reacted to the churches of ease and ooze that preach no gospel and ask no service. Young people – far beyond the small Christian minority movement that is now rising into positions of cultural influence – are hungry for they know not what, and their ears are inclined to hear a new song if only we would sing.
Young people have fully come to accept the post-modern culture in which we live. Choosing a pathway becomes part of the post-modern experience, and young people are most likely to follow a particular path when it appears to be real, genuine, and authentic. Some churches have come to realize this, and many youth ministries have geared themselves to stress authenticity over authority. The ways and means of a prescriptive hierarchical society do not fit into the expectations of most American youth in the twenty first century. That is not to say that authority is completely void of significance in our time; it is to say that there are seemingly many authorities to choose from, and the ones that connect with the unique problems and pressures of the individual youth will prevail.
In the case of the Catholic church, it was the message of John Paul that carried greater weight for young people than his authority and in the end bolstered the church’s authority.
The key to a successful church is not ease and attraction; challenge, commitment, and sacrifice – the last things that would have occurred to the architects of the watered-down churches of the past few decades – are the deepest longings of a generation whose souls have been failed by the flesh and have only yet to be challenged by the spirit. It sounds strange in a society that expects comfort and convenience to increase in proportion to secularism. But at the end of the day, we are servants. Contemporary America is rife with actual servitude toward the speed and greed of modernity. It is an empty slavery. And through the hollowness of hearts left unfilled by the accumulation of nothingness, the living beckon of the living God still resounds. His message: “Take up the Cross, and follow Me.”
When presented with the truth of the Gospel, young Americans are grabbing hold of it. What is known in life – and much more can be known than ever before, much more that teaches us the world is a place of absolutes, not all of which may be known absolutely – is some proof that what is not known must still be. Such is faith: the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Neither the gospel of the flesh nor the liberal church can replace faith in the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is, said J. Gresham Machen, “a mystery in which a man can rest. The Jesus of the New Testament has at least one advantage over the Jesus of modern reconstruction – He is real.”
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