A church member sent me a YouTube video with a message about what Christians are not. I watched it – it is typical trendy rhetoric that you hear everywhere today Made in Bible-Belt-Land. While perhaps had good intentions in breaking down the prejudice fence between the Church and the world, the message was very problematic: “I’m a Christian and I’m queer. I’m a Christian and I like Beyonce.”
I am not writing a critique of the video but I’ll do my best to respond to the challenge. I do understand that this trendy diluted Gospel is popular especially among the millennials (the word describes people born between 1980 and 2000). Often they sacrifice Christian values for the sake of being relevant to the world.
At this point I have to remind you, beloved children of God, millennials or perennials, that Jesus himself said that the world will hate you because of your love for Him. You can love the world like Jesus loves the world and still be hated. It’s not your fault, so don’t change your method in order to be accepted or to be relevant. Your advocacy for Christ should never come at the expense of your relationship with Him.
Here are four ways that many Christian millennials are hurting their delivery of the gospel to a world that desperately needs it. I used some lines from John Wesley Read seminar and also Phillip Wrigley notes on Evangelical millennials.
Tolerance flies in the face of the Gospel because it is apathetic both to brokenness and holiness. When we don’t recognize our brokenness then we will never recognize our need for holiness… and thus Jesus becomes, at best, superfluous. Millennials have it in their minds that hating people’s sin means hating the individual. This message is due in part to the liberal media but many young Christian millennials sing the same tune. Instead of hating sin for the separation that it causes between us and God, they accept the sins of others in the name of “loving them for who they are.”
But the problem with that is when we accept people for who they want to be, we neglect the people that Jesus made them to be.
Jesus was the prime example of love, but never does He display an ounce of tolerance. Indeed the cross was proof of His INtolerance. What type of tolerance prompts a king to step off his throne to die for his people? Tolerance was never part of the story! The gospel does not boast “come as you are, stay as you are” but rather “come as you are TO BE RESTORED!”
We don’t get to make up the narrative here, friends! The story has already been written- and it is beautiful!
Neglecting Theology. Consider the etymology of the word theology; theo- God, logy- study: the study of God. A trendy message among young Christians these days is “theology is good, but loving like Jesus is better.” The problem here is that the two are not mutually exclusive. Not only are they not mutually exclusive but rather they are dependent on each other. The more we know Jesus, the more we love Him and the more we love Him the more we want to know Him and so the cycle continues. Our desire to know him (theology) should be an implication for our love for Him. And the more this continues the more we will desire to live like Him and thus love His people AS HE loves them.
You wouldn’t show your love for a spouse simply by how you talk about them - you’d show your love by knowing them, spending time with them, and serving them. “If you love Me, keep my commandments” John 14:15. That’s theology at work.
But when theology is neglected, the ramifications are made known in the way we treat others. Even with a Christian label we only love on them with a wishy washy love that promotes no agenda for change and restoration.
When theology is neglected Christian millennials succumb to weak cultural ideas and defective scriptural interpretation such as “Jesus just said to love people, so why should we be opposed to gay marriage?” and “the Bible says not to judge, so don’t tell me that I shouldn’t be sleeping with my boy/girl-friend!” when the Bible actually tells Christians to judge each other (Matthew 7:24, 1 Corinthians 5:9-13). A good theology will inform the individual that not only are they wrong in their sin, but that Jesus wants so much MORE for them; more joy, purity and intimacy with Him. Also studying the Bible prophecies is going to play a big role here…
Separation from the World. You are not of the world, so don’t act like you are (Romans 12:1-2). “But John, Jesus partied, so I can party!” Well, sure I guess you can say he partied because He did attend parties in order to win people for the Kingdom, and even contribute wine to one (hey, it was non-alcoholic grape juice and I can prove it!)
As Christians we are to be light and salt to the world (Matthew 5:14). Salt gives flavor to bland food, light gives vision in darkness. See the analogy there? We are to be different and we are to be good. Good in behavior and good in our advocacy for Christ. Does it mean we can’t get drunk and cuss and make poor decisions with people that we likely wouldn’t have without the influence of alcohol? Yes, it absolutely does if our agenda is to represent Christianity.
But even the movies we watch and the music we listen to are important. If it has an explicit language sticker on it then there’s really no justification to be listening to it. It needs to be tossed. “But I’m an adult.” Yes, which means you’re a Christian and you’re old enough to know better. Not to mention you’re supposed to be setting the example. Junk in, junk out no matter your age.
We’re quick to sing popular worship songs like “O To Be Like You” and “Jesus, Be the Center Of My Life” but how practical do we allow this to be? We need to be Daniels, Esthers, and Joshuas. People of faith who love without ceasing and represent without compromise.
Bashing the Church. Christian teens and young adults are quick to throw the Church under the bus. Blogs are constantly cycling the internet like “3 reasons why I left my youth group” (and, off course, it’s the youth group leader or the pastor’s fault, not the student who left). While the Church isn’t perfect, I feel it is much more effective to celebrate the good that the Church is doing than the negative, which a lot of times isn’t even negative, it’s rhetoric. For example, it is easy to knock your church for putting money into project with no immediate result for themselves, but how many church bashers have actually researched the energy, time, and money the church is giving to local ministry and overseas missions?
The church, enfeebled and defective though it be, is the only object on earth on which Christ bestows His supreme regard. He is constantly watching it with solicitude, and is strengthening it by His Holy Spirit. Will we, as members of His church, allow Him to impress our minds and to work through us to His glory? (Sons and Daughters of God, p.13)
What else to do, but repent? Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace, to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:16. It’s overwhelmingly comforting that WE, sinners made pure through Jesus, are not only allowed to but are ENCOURAGED to enter the highest of throne rooms to receive mercy and grace from the Almighty.
Undiluted mercy and infinite grace.
