The New Apologetic

Last week at Sonoma State University (CA) three “apologetics” converged like streams to a river:

1.    The Free Thinkers group pressed me with questions such as “Are miracles rational?” and “Why does God never heal an amputee?”

They wanted evidence, even proof, of God—“classic” apologetics.

2.    The InterVarsity group provided me with a different kind of proof of God’s presence: the embodied apologetic of love and hospitality.

Rationalists, don’t sneer. These days the best argument for the truth of Christianity on college campuses is the Holy Spirit supernaturalizing the community of faith.

3.    My GLBT seminar. The current generation’s first impulse is to include, not exclude. What does this mean regarding gays and lesbians? Hopefully, I helped 25 young leaders think it through.

Stream #1 above represents modernism. It’s what I grew up on.

Streams 2 and 3 are more postmodern approaches to apologetics. They’re about relationships, power and political agendas.

Think of your church. Which kind of apologetic does it offer? Which is needed?

I invite your comments.

Toast in the chapel

Get this: One day I show up for chapel in the gorgeous theater at North Central University* to hang with my son, Ryan, who studies music at the school.

“Who’s leading worship today, buddy boy?” I ask.

“One Accord.”

“They any good?”

He just grins at his senile father.

Five minutes later OA begins playing in front of 600 peers and professors, appearing demure and casual and unimpressed with their own celebrity. The songs have no dramatic modulations or big endings. There are no “inspirational” solos, no heavenly smiles.

Sandi Patty and Steve Green this isn’t.

By the second tune, I’m toast. I’m taken down, captured, disarmed, humbled. OA is too good, too attuned, too understated, too mature musically and spiritually for me to resist, nor do I want to.

Curiously, all the musicians seem to be watching something as they play—something they assume is happening in the theater which is beyond their control.

I finally see it too: The Lord walking among his people.

*****

After chapel I bump into music professor Dave Pedde who coaches OA. Late 20s, gelled hair, piercings?

Nope. Dave’s about my age, silver mane, pianist.

Two things stand out to me about OA:

1.    How astonishingly well coached they are.

2.    How little their music/look/feel (the whole package) resembles their coach’s generation.

Think about how tough this is to pull off. Boomer-run institution sponsors boomer coach who trains—but then releases young people to do their thing in their own way, for their peers.

I find this very gutsy.

Does your church have the courage to do the same?

I invite your comments.

* North Central University is located in Minneapolis, associated with the Assemblies of God denomination.

A Titanic Change

In his excellent book, Emerging Hope, Jimmy Long reminds us that the young generations in America represent a shift from Enlightenment modernism to postmodernism.

In Long’s view (and mine), this is a change of titanic proportions.

It means, among other things, that “Those who think that in due time [young people] will ‘grow up’ and look like everyone else should prepare to have unfulfilled expectations.”  (UnChristian, p22)

I believe those of us 45 and older can slip into denial quite easily about the identity of the new generation. We think they’re pretty much like us—aside from the tattoos and iPads.

Perhaps we’d rather not think that the arduous sweat equity that went into establishing the evangelical flag the past 50 years will be wasted on our children and grandchildren.

All that hard work! It can give us a sense of entitlement. It can blind us to the changing realities of a new day, a new audience, a new calling.

I believe the new calling is to bridge the gap between old and young, modern and postmodern, traditional and contemporary. Thing is, we have to realize that THIS particular gap is not traversed by walking across the room. More like flying to another planet.

I invite your comments.

Radical Divergence

If you’re 45 years of age and up (like me), I have news for you: The younger generation of evangelicals is not going to learn our ways and grow into maturity to look like us. They’re never going to get it, as we define “it.”

They’re not going to take over our (white) churches like sons and daughters assuming the reigns of a family business and run things like we have.

They’re not going to start dressing up for Sunday services or tuck in their shirts or sign up for a lot of committee work or revive the old hymns (at least not in the old forms).

They’re not going to fight the same battles that divided their parents’ churches on issues such as charismatic gifts, women’s roles, eschatology, and the social gospel. They’re into inclusion, not drawing lines in the sand.

They value vulnerability, personal stories and admissions of imperfection. The bigger-than-life man of God who reigns sovereignly over a local parish, who preaches with doubt-defeating conviction and shows no weakness, will not be impressive to them.

But the leader who shares from the heart and speaks across the table rather than downward from a pedestal, will connect. . .
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I could say so much more. Another time.

But WHY the radical changes? What’s driving the new thinking? The new methods?

You tell me.

•    If you’re 35 and under, tell us what’s going on. Us old-sters need to hear from you.

•    If you’re 45 and up, what are your thoughts about the younger generation?

•    If you’re 35-45, which way do you lean—younger or older? Why?

I’ll share my own thoughts on the subject next week.