changing the church to be what the world needs

I am currently writing my bitch long paper for senior seminar. I sat for 5 hours in Starbucks today just cranking away and popped out around 9 or 10 pages. What bothers me isn’t the length of the paper. What bothers me isn’t that I am having to sit for hours and read about Post-moderns and unchurched individuals and the best way to minister for them. What bothers me is the fact that for the life of me, I cannot get the words to tumble onto the page in the way that I wish they would.

I am really passionate about the topic I have chosen. I decided to write about something going on in my life right now: How the church stays relevant to this generation. I see, or hear about, so many instances where people have been asked to leave the church, rejected by the church, or not involved in the church for reasons that are far from legitimate. And it enrages me.

This generation has a different idea of what a relationship with Christ is, what leadership encompasses, what worship means, what community should be, what loving others looks like and what a church should provide. And no one seems to care! The church just goes along on it’s path to destruction, believing that the only way to be relevant to high school/college/young adult aged people is to be entertaining. But we are looking for so much more than that!!!

What we want is a relationship with Christ that is personal and unique from everyone else’s, something far from cookie cutter.

What we want is to have leadership opportunities that are a chance for us to break and grow in a safe environment, not a million rules that bind us and keep us from that growth that we desire.

What we want is worship that is focused on Christ and worshipping him, not on the band in front that we feel like we need to clap for.

What we want is community… period!... an environment that allows us to build friendships and love on others and learn from each other’s mistakes and successes.

What we want is for the people that surround us, that talk about serving and loving others, to go with us to hang out with the homeless, the rejected, the unsaved in THEIR environment, not a bunch of people who feel like going to a camp for one week or spending a day handing out food or trying to convert a friend, instead of really loving that person regardless of their salvation, is enough.

What we want is a church that stops putting up a fake face like everything is okay and provides a place for us to be broken and imperfect without judgment, not a place that makes us feel like we need to be holy and perfect whenever we step foot on the property.

But are we experiencing those things? Are we really being provided with that kind of environment? Does the church even care that those are priorities for us?

And are we doing anything to really reach out to people who don’t go to church? Are we really loving others with the realization that nothing WE do is going to save them? Only GOD can do that. We need to just BE there, to love them, to allow God to speak through us. How do we intend on being a light in the world of darkness if we don’t go INTO the world? We have it drilled into us that we need to be safe, that we need to surround ourselves with people that are good, Christian influences on us... but what about the people that don't have that? What about the people who need US to be that influence. The church needs to get off it's high horse, get its ass in the world, and start loving people in the raw and passionate way that Jesus did... or what the hell are we doing?