Passion Didn’t End At The Cross

The modern church has a problem.  In the twenty-first century, the generation gap between youth and adults in a given Christian body poses a significant problem to church leadership and their decisions on how a worship service ought to be run.  The passion of the younger generation often collides with the traditions established by the church and upheld by the older generation.

The older crowd wants doctrinally sound hymns, extensive liturgies, and prepared prayers.  This audience prefers no surprises.  Though the Bible speaks of miracles and unusual happenings, these individuals prefer to come on Sunday morning, do their business with the Lord, and go about the rest of their lives the rest of the week.

The younger generation, however, wants much more.  Pastors have been perplexed with how they ought to reach their youth as they see them drift away.  Though pastors try to accommodate their young people by making church easy and inviting, young people still only engage with the church at a minimal level.  

The youth directors at the International House of Prayer in Kansas City (IHOP-KC) have taken notice of this and are doing what they can to bring passion into their gatherings.  Where most churches emphasize the study of doctrines and moral guidelines,  IHOP-KC stresses living a radical lifestyle sold-out to Jesus.  While other churches judge their success by their numbers, this group looks to see that the members they do have are unstained by the immorality of the world they live in.

The rest of the modern church could use a taste of their views.  The church today needs to get serious about their youth.  Instead of offering an inviting atmosphere where anybody can come and feel comfortable, pastors and leaders need to show individuals the radical Jesus of the Bible. Show them the passion of the Jesus who fashioned a whip to drive vendors from the temple, the Jesus who stood in the face of pharisees to forgive, the Jesus who bled and died to save the very ones who killed him.

Tradition is the biggest detriment to the success of a modern generation.  Doing things simply because we’ve always done them doesn’t serve anybody well.  As Mel Gibson knew, it was the passion of the Christ that saved the world, not any tradition.  Now, we need to realize that passion didn’t end at the cross.

~ by demo318 on November 29, 2008.