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The Next Christians

A great article.
A New Way of Being Christian
By Gabe Lyons | Author, The Next Christians

Over the past eight years I’ve dedicated much of my work to understanding how a new generation is applying the Gospel in post-Christian societies. That work has informed and been illuminated in my just released book, The Next Christians: The Good News About the End of Christian America where I hope to cultivate a rooted optimism that the future for the church in American culture is bright.

Just looking across the pond to Europe, it’s easy to surmise what society can look like when the church loses its vibrancy. In Europe’s case, the potent edge that once catalyzed the Renaissance and much of her values became rubbish within only a few generations. It should be a stark reminder that just one generation stands between ultimate collapse towards the falling edge or a resurrection of what could be—or better said—what ought to be. So it is with the American church and our opportunity in this generation. If we have the eyes to see (and I can tell you from my experience that a new generation does) the greatest days for the church just might lay ahead.

But to understand the opportunity, we need to remember where we’ve come from.

The church of the 20th century had two dominant ways of teaching and modeling the Christian's role in society. The first was to separate. The Separatist view urged Christians to spend time and money among their own—venturing out too far from the fold could have dire consequences. The goal was to protect oneself from the corrupted nature of the world. Culture was sinful and our job was to man the fort, fight those who opposed it and in the pursuit of being faithful, win over as many converts as possible.

The second approach I call the Cultural view. Cultural Christians saw the label “Christian” as an important part of their cultural identity. They were generally good people who identified with a form of religious Christianity. In some cases, their connection to faith was no more than a genealogical hand-me-down, something they were born into. For others, their understanding of being Christian meant being good citizens—volunteering their time in schools, hospitals and neighborhood community groups. They attended church on holidays and for special occasions, but never quite personalized the work of Jesus as the main motivator for the life and work they did. In both cases, the intentions have been good, but missed the holistic mark to which the Gospel calls us forth. Which leads to the larger development at hand.

I’ve observed, and many of our churches are experiencing, a new, yet historic, way of seeing the faithful approach 21st century culture. Some aren’t quite sure what to do with it. Is this just a warmed over social Gospel or is something deeper underway? For the Next Christians I describe, taking the Gospel seriously means living within the tension of the two previously stated approaches to the world. They aren’t “throwing the baby out with the bathwater.” Instead, they are bringing a much needed gravity to what the Gospel demands from a follower of Christ in the West.

Restorers, as I’ve come to call them, hold tightly to Jesus’s redemptive work on the cross and his resurrection as the main motivator for why they give their lives to bring God’s transforming love and renewal into every area of the world. These restorers exhibit the mindset, humility, and commitment that seems destined to rejuvenate the momentum of the faith. They have a peculiar way of thinking, being, and doing that is radically different from previous generations. I call them restorers because they envision the world as it was meant to be and motivated by the Good News, they work toward that vision. They are purposeful about their careers, and generous with their time and possessions.

They don’t separate from the world or blend in; rather, they thoughtfully engage. Fully aware of the sea change underway, they are optimistic that God is on the move—doing something unique in our time.

The Next Christians sit in your churches. Or maybe left a long time ago because they felt the church didn’t “get” them. But rest assured, they haven’t left God’s church and possess some of the greatest hope for how a new generation’s confidence in the Christian faith will be restored.

Sit down with them. Take them to coffee. Listen to their heart. Don’t judge their work, without understanding their motive. Mentor them, disciple them and then get out of their way. A new way of being Christian is bursting forth. Their lives are filled with tensions that demand love, discernment and engagement. When you get the chance, take them under your wing. And when they are ready to fly, unleash them to restore.

Gabe Lyons is the author of The Next Christians: The Good News About the End of Christian America (Doubleday) and founder of the Q learning community.

Losing the Plot

Have you ever watched a movie and half way through you forget what the plot is? Somehow in all the action, drama and character development you don’t remember what the whole story was even about or where its going? With all the preachers we download, church shifts like the reformation, liberalism, revivalism, the mega church movement, the missionary movement, the religious right and books written to argue for or against a certain Christian perspective I think we somehow have lost the plot along the way.

Or have you ever started watching a movie in the middle and found yourself straining to remember key scenes in the beginning. I have a feeling this has happened in the American church, as over the years we’ve been talking about God and the christian life by starting at the halfway point of the story. Our desire to present the gospel in nutshells has caused us to exclusively highlight certain parts either to make it easier to communicate or to make sure people get the right points. Because of all this I believe there is a growing awareness that the epic heart of the story is eluding us.

Here’s the bigger than big problem, the plot is what you hang everything on. It’s the story that compels everything, it brings order and understanding to every event and statement. If you get the story a little off track, derailed or obsessed with one scene, nothing seems to fit naturally. Somehow stories have been relegated to something we tell children. But it’s the story and the grand narrative that is supposed to capture our hearts, help us make sense of what is happening down here, compel us to live always connected and give us something to beckon people to.

I know many church goers young and old that at some point lost or never heard what story God is writing and how our lives actively play a role in it. I have a strong suspicion that this loss of the plot and not “feeling” connection to anything much larger than obedience, repentance, personal holiness or church attendance has greatly contributed to our loss of internal passion, hope for the world, faith to risk, unselfish love and our identity in God’s blueprint.

Our Story of God needs to be re-framed, recast, re-centered, re-preached, and any other re I can think of. When the story is not dominate we have nothing to tether our everyday lives to.

Apathetic Familiarity

There was an older couple in their 70’s who had been married for 56 years. They had a fairly good marriage, getting along alright. They had their routine everyday; get up at 6am, she would get the paper for him, make him eggs-over-easy with toast and serve them with a black coffee on the side. He would read his paper and she would knit across the table from him in silence. After breakfast he’d go outside and work around the house fixing small things here and there as she made herself busy inside at their dining room table on her scrap book using pictures she kept in a shoe box over the years. At noon she would bring him out a tuna sandwich with a glass of prune juice so he didn’t have to stop working. She would then go inside and continue her scrap-booking. Almost every night, he would watch reruns of the Andy Griffin show from his deeply worn recliner while she would catch up on the lives of their kids, talking on the phone in the kitchen. She would always make sure to tell them that Dad said hello. Before bed he’d lock up the house and then they would both retire for the night. This was the routine everyday. One November the wife passed away from a stroke, suddenly leaving the husband to care for himself. In planning the funeral the minister asked him to tell him about his wife, “You know I don’t feel like I really knew my wife lately. It’s like we got so used to each other being around that we thought there was nothing left to find out about each other. We were together but she would do her thing and I would do mine. I would occasionally overhear her tell our kids things she was thinking that she never told me. It’s sad but I often thought why ask questions when I already know the answers.”

If you’ve been around the organized evangelical church for a while it can become easy to think you’ve got Christianity and it’s tenants pretty much figured out. It’s often in this environment of apathetic familiarity with our beliefs that the mission, story and the nature of God slips away from us. We become so accustomed to what we think God is about that we don’t feel the need to ask questions any more or maybe we don't feel the need to rediscover Him because we're already in.

Jesus spoke in parables and in Matthew 13:34 he makes the point that “Jesus did not say anything without using parables.” Why would Jesus indulge in short artistic fictional stories to convey such essential messages? Each parable would often end with the refrain “who ever has ears let him hear.” Each parable would often include a hidden message that would be accessible to some and confusing to others. At one point the disciples share their frustration “Why do you speak in parables?” As if to say “Jesus why are you doing this? Your telling stories but nobody is getting your point, can you find a clearer more obvious approach?” What the disciples did not understand was Jesus was intentionally enticing people into new territory. Jesus was not offering easy answers and doctrinal points, he was inviting people into an interactive relationship. He said listen with your ears which meant listen to the deeper meaning; don’t just listen for the literal meaning. Isaiah the prophet said that when people’s hearts become calloused, they lose their ability to see and hear at deeper levels.

Subtly and slowly our relationship with Jesus and his Kingdom can become like that old couple, sure we're together but “I don’t ask questions anymore because I think I already know the answers.” Are you asking questions about God? Are you asking questions of God? Are you afraid to engage God with things you thought you already had nailed down? Don't let belief numb your heart and cause you imagination and soul to fall asleep.

Our Assessment

My wife and I just arrived home from a week of being probed, poked and prodded like test rats in a cage. It sure felt like that at times as we went through a church planter’s week long assessment for Converge Worldwide. I have to say it was an experience like nothing else I’ve ever been through before. Seven couples in all were assessed through the use of multiple angles and instruments; scenario stress tests, meetings with psychologists, personality profiles, bible knowledge exams, interviews, preaching and vision presentations, evangelism role play and at the end an 8 hour group case study. All of this combined for 12 hour days, the feeling of sleep deprivation, and a constant dizzying feeling of “how are we doing.”

I have to say though it was one of the richest weeks I’ve had in my life. We met a diverse group of wild church planters dreaming big dreams as we are. We were privileged to hear stories and journeys from other couples who are taking steps of faith to investigate starting new ministries. The assessors wowed us with their sharpness, insight, grace and intelligence. All week I felt my wife and I were in good hands. A few times I also felt we were on the show “Survivor.”

I am full of gratitude for Converges full recommendation. It matters deeply to Axiom Church and our leading community. In our soul we know God is compelling us to pioneer a new Jesus-centered missional church in the city of Syracuse. We’ve made a lot of sacrifices to begin and I’m sure we’ve got more. Still there is always that need for encouragement and confirmation. We know God wants us here but it always feels good when someone says “we believe in you!”

Teshuvah

Our leadership community just took a good look at the story of Nehemiah, his vision and how it relates to planting Axiom Church in Syracuse, NY. The story in Nehemiah is about an Old Testament Church. That might sound odd but Nehemiah is about a Jewish assembly, their leader and their dream of a city. This book foreshadows and hints at the establishment of a future new assembly that spiritually rebuilds cities for the testimony and dwelling of King Jesus. The ethos of the church did exist in the Old Testament because theologically speaking, the heart of what it means to be a church, is to be God’s covenant people rebuilding God’s world. Even the Septuagint, the Jewish translation of the Hebrew Bible uses the word “qahal” to refer to the remnant in Nehemiah which is translated “the congregation of God’s people.” This book is essentially Nehemiah’s personal journal as he followed through with a vision God laid on his heart.

In verse 1 Nehemiah hears the news of the broken down city walls. We noticed that Nehemiah did not immediately get into gear and act on this burden and vision to rebuild the city. Instead he heard the news in the month of Keslev (December) and lays low until the month of Nisan (May). Nehemiah waits almost 5 months until he moves aggressively with vision. For 5 months he prays, he thinks, he brews on what is and what should be. For many Jews this period of time Nehemiah took was called the Teshuvah . Teshuvah was the period of time an individual took after a period of distance to awaken to the awareness of God’s plans and their need to recommit to Him. It was a consecrated period of slowly waking up to God’s activity. Amongst our church planting team we’ve communally embraced a period of Teshuvah; a time to fast, pray, prepare and invite God’s spirit to work beyond our mission statements and plans and instead work in the deepest parts of our soul.

During Nehemiah's Teshuvah in verse 8 of chapter 2 he recalls a song Moses sung in Deuteronomy 32 called the song of Ha'azinu. Nehemiah recalls when Moses sings to God about waiting for His justice that will fix the earth and establish the Messiah’s throne. Moses sings of these words in verse 11 “like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, and then spreads its wings to catch them and carries them on its wings.” In this metaphor, God, the eagle, comes to waken the baby birds in his nest, hovers over them, spreads his wings over them and finally lifts them on his wings in flight through the sky. The hovering of God, the eagle, is referred to by the Hebrew people as the "touching and not touching." The eagle is able to simultaneously touch and not touch, allowing his fledglings to awaken little by little, in accordance with their ability to grasp his presence and be prepared for what's next. This is what Nehemiah submits himself to. He allows God to wake him up slowly, allows God to hover over him as he becomes more conscious to the plans of God.

A season of marinating in vision can make people want to jump out of their skin. Doers often want to do stuff, planners often want to plan stuff, preachers often want to preach about stuff and analyzers often want to think through the problems of stuff. But Teshuvah is a confession that even though we see some of the vision, we need to be woken up to more of it. Teshuvah requires patience, intentional slowness and active consecration to make space for God to address some things in us. Our team is leaning forward in embracing this season with hopes of greater intimacy with God and His vision for Syracuse. The infancy of our vision needs time to mature. That’s what this time is about; letting Jehovah mature His plans in us. Nehemiah’s vision inclination begins with a rebuilt city but God ends up making it about a rebuild people. This is our hope during our Teshuvah.