Deuteronomy 30: 19, 20; I Corinthians 3: 2-7

We have talked about our verses about the week. They bring us the words of Moses who says goodbye to the people of Israel as they travel on without him.  He has spent decades of a nomadic existence with them in the desert. We have talked about today’s Bible passage where Paul is referring to his relationship with the congregation at Corinth. Paul has not spent that much time with this diverse community of new Christians as he spreads himself pretty thinly across the whole of the northern Mediterranean.  He talks more to his followers as if they were children. Both Moses and Paul have pulled their hair out over the behavior of their people.  We get fascinating insights into leadership and stubbornness and communication.   This leads me to ask the question: what do we tell the next generation of leaders in the Church? How does the Church keep on going?  Now there are a certain percentage of young people that find a way to stay within a certain Christian culture. A former pastor of the Trinity West Sacramento Presbyterian Church shared a link on Facebook about two young men doing Christian talk. There was a whole Christian lingo about prayer and dating and names of mega churches.  Those young people who find a way to stay within that culture, and this is easier to do in the South of the US and in Southern California they can live in a world of Christian music and talk radio, the Trinity Broadcasting Network and mega churches. Although I was heavily exposed to this world when I was a teenager and my nieces are still part of it, most of my experience is outside of that Christian culture.  I grew in a Europe where church attendance was falling at huge rates, more so than here today.  The youth within a Christian culture have a huge list of pastors they can choose anyway. The majority of pastors want to serve that demographic.  I am more interested in the majority of young people of the next generation (“millennials” they are called).  What would you say to them as their uncles, aunts, grandparents or parents? What would your speech or epistle to them be? Let me take a stab at it.

First, you might say that if they were raised in Church or exposed to the Church and if that was a pretty good experience but they rarely go these days, no matter what the Gospel is in their bones: the joy of Christmas, the togetherness at church events, the songs they grew to love, the mission projects they did, the games they played and the crafts they put together will have made sure that the Church will always be part of them and they may want that for their children.  Second, you might want to say that after studying other faiths they are likely to conclude that Jesus Christ presents about as clear picture of what God is like that one could imagine.  Some of His sayings may still remain confusing, but God’s love is clearly shining through Him.  Third, you might would say that the people who are the loudest about their faith may not necessary be the truest. There are many people who dwell on their Christianity who hate and exclude and support violence.  Their truth is more important to them than their compassion and without love there is no God.  But this does not mean that everyone is like that. The “world” needs to know that.  Fourth, you might want to tell them that it is all right to have questions, that there are Biblical truths that seem to contradict scientific findings.  We drive cars but most of us cannot explain the internal combustion engine. We fly in airplanes and most of us do not understand how lift happens around the wings.  We go in sailboats and not understand why wind in the sails can move a boat in all directions at any time when there is wind except dead straight into that wind. We use computers although we do not understand how so much data is contained on just a tiny chip.  We will soon print three dimensional objects on big printers even though we do not understand how lasers can turn solid into liquid and vice versa.  So we can have faith and not have an answer for everything all the time. Fifth, you might want to tell them that it is important to distinguish between the true and the factual.  Certain Bible stories may be true but after having been told a thousand times, may not always be completely factual any longer.  This does not mean God cannot speak through them.  Sixth, you might want to tell them it is okay to have doubts.  Even Jesus had one occasionally.  Having faith means that you have struggled with the possibility of not having faith.  Believing in God means having wrestled with the possibility there is no God.  Having doubts is a bad excuse for putting faith in a jar in the basement.  Seventh, you might want to tell them that pastors are human beings just like them with all the flaws and potential of others and that they are bound to have it wrong sometimes, because God will always remain a mystery.  Eighth, you might want to tell them that entertainment and fun are overrated and that that at one point or another they will tire of it and will long for meaning and depth.  Ninth, you might want to tell them that to be happy they will have to be part of a healthy, healing community.  Finally, you might want to tell them that, although they currently believe perhaps that they are the center of the world they are in fact not and that in order to be happy they will need to dedicate a fair portion of their life to the selfless service to other.  Friends, may God bless the next generations.