The Church of Acts or In-Action?

Relevant, Progressive, Forward-Thinking, and Evolutionary are just a few words that I've seen lately that describe the Christian church. I heard a well pointed sermon this evening from Pastor, Tommy Green (First Baptist of Brandon, Florida). He was speaking at a partner church (Tampa Baptist) about the "Future Church." It was refreshing to hear a sermon that squarely hit the nail on the head without all the linguistic wizardry and sidestepping of the obvious truth that the Church is not in the business of "Cool-Hunting." On the contrary, this Pastor declared with authority that the church is about spreading the truth about Jesus in plain terms so the the Holy Spirit can work exactly the way God wills. He spoke about our responsibility and our opportunity... and I think most importantly about the power and authority in Christ through which we accomplish our mission.

It reminded me of the older days when I was publishing 7ball magazine (a youth focused Christian modern rock/alternative music publication) and I received literally weekly calls from youth pastors across the nation asking me what the, "...kids were into these days." They weren't questions out of pure curiosity, they were more in line with acquiring some sort of secret answer because they wanted to know how to "package" the Gospel more relevantly than they were currently. At that time in my life, they seemed like common sense questions for smart pastors. However, let's take a look at what all our focus on fancy packaging and laser light riddled preaching has gotten us.

Just as one brief example and just to illustrate a greater point I'm using information from CNN Politics' Election Center 2008.

Politics and political parties aside, here are the statistics as recorded:

Born Again Christians voted 74% for candidate "A"
Non Believers voted 62% for Candidate "B"

All voters between age 18-29 (regardless of faith) voted for Candidate "B" 66% of the time.
All Voters between age 30-44 (regardless of faith) voted for Candidate "B" 52% of the time.

Now, as with all statistics, they are just a sample. However, is it just me or is it telling that an overwhelming percentage of young people voted identically with non-believers?

How has the church missed an entire generation of young people? Could it be because the church has been more focused on being relevant than being real? Has the church been more adventurous than authentic? More Hollywood than Holy?

I think the answer is being revealed by God through His Holy Spirit, through His Word and through devoted teachers like Pastor Tommy. People are hurting, hopeless and hedonistic in their beliefs. They need healing, hope and the Holy Spirit... not hokus-pokus. (It's impossible to avoid some alliteration.)

Please don't misunderstand. My blog today is as much a judgment upon myself as it is to any other believer. As I admitted this evening, no one has been a "bigger" modern day Jonah than I have. Perhaps it's my 40th birthday approaching or maturity or just being sick and tired of being sick and tired but I made up my mind that I'm not wasting the next 40 years avoiding what God clearly called me to do decades ago and because of my own rebellion, fear and disobedience, I'm part of the reason a generation of young people are lost and destined to spend eternity separated from God. Pastor Tommy mentioned today that when that final day comes we don't want to be ashamed of what we didn't do for Christ. God is ready to use us mightily... right now. I've run out of excuses... how about you?

I'm personally at a place where I'm tired of standing on the river banks with scores of other concerned believers just watching the bodies drift downstream as we "pluck" them out as fast as we can... when we should be walking upstream, taking on the rushing current and stopping them from falling in to begin with!

There is nothing wrong with being relevant or in meeting people where they are... that's exactly what Jesus does. It is however critical to know that relevance for relevance's sake is meaningless to God. It cheapens the price Jesus paid on the cross. The Good News of Jesus is as real today as at any time in history. It's time the church gets back to the future... the way the disciples did. Let's see Hollywood do that!

Be amazing today.

-Frank Chimento