In last month's Christianity Today there was an article written by a seminary professor who was critical of ministry that specifically targeted younger generations. His complaint was that generational ministry fractured the church. What we need to do, he suggested, is just preach the gospel and let the chips fall as they may.
While I clearly have some bias here, I think it's important to answer this question. I want to answer it not because I think myself worthy of engaging someone who is obviously much more qualified to talk on such issues, nor because I honestly think that my paycheck (as meager as it may be) is in peril. I want to address it because this argument comes up frequenly in many contexts: worship styles, seeker-oriented churches, and multi-ethnic ministry particularly. Should we adapt our ministry styles based on the people we hope to engage or is that caving in to the consumerism of our culture?
My answer, not surprisingly, is that we must adapt. There are many reasons (hence, another multi-part posting) but let me start with the event that is most recent that perhaps provides the best apologetic for what I would call incarnational ministry.
Christmas. Christmas is God's particular answer to all of our particular problems. God puts on flesh, and moves in among us. He speaks a human language, he feels human feelings and he tells stories using very familiar (at the time) images and situations. Jesus comes to get us, and his message is not a mathematical equation that he repeats in every situation and context, but a gospel message that is vast and takes on particular issues with different audiences. To religious folks, Jesus tells one story. To the poor and oppressed, Jesus tells another story. It's the same message worked out very practically in each context.
That Jesus doesn't just have one story or formula that he tells in every sermon is a smaller picture of the bigger point of his coming. Jesus becomes like those he would save. So must we.
2 comments:
I'm eagerly awaiting the next installment!
While you're working it up, could you mention the title or author of the CT article you're talking about? I'd love to read it.
A link would work just as well, too. I'm not sure how much HTML you know, but in case you know as little as I did when I started blogging, here is a list of basic HTML stuff.
The article is "How the Kingdom Comes" by Michael Horton (he's a professor at Westminster in California). What CT does is they publish their articles over time on the web site, but only gradually (in order to encourage you to actually buy the magazine!). Horton's article isn't yet available on-line but will probably come available over the next couple weeks. I'll link it when it becomes available.
And thanks for the HTML link, I'm clueless about that stuff!
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