Postmodernism rejects the church

[Fraught]

are you serious? maybe not since you also mentioned 'generation gap' in your reasoning. which if you ask me is actually a smaller gap today than it has ever been in the past.

Yes, he's serious. I don't know about female pastor's, I haven't made up my mind on that one completely yet, but replacement theology buffs? They are all over the place. "We replaced Israel, blah, blah, blah." Only problem is they have to throw away 4/5ths of the Bible to make their theology work.

The two biggest problems I see are these:

The majority of people seem to believe they simply don't need God.

People won't committ to anything, spiritually. They will run all over the place taking their kids to every sports or social function they have or want to go to, but attend church every Sunday? No time for that, and what's the point? We've got a whole society that is totally lost, spiritually, and mentally and they don't even realize it.

Your first sentence? how is that to do with young people not needing the church. i don't see how replacement theology

is relevant. do they even know what it is??

but everything else you said, i agree with and the Word does too. He says they're 'intoxicated' which literally means stupified or under the influence.

[Artemus Prime]

The bottom line is, Postmodernism is an intellectual dead-end...a mental cul-de-sac, if you will...

[nebula]

I see the problem is multidimensional.

Here's one:

In 1962 wasn't it, the Supreme Court ruled out corporate prayer to start the school day (a prayer that asked God to bless everyone). What happened to the '60's generation? Drugs, rebellion, illicit sex. Those seeds got passed on the the following generations. Those teens became adults, and how many of them attended church do you believe?

Youth began listening to musicians and actors rather than their God-given authority figures. And what are they telling us to do and believe?

Can the church be blamed for the problem? In part, yes, but not completely. I am sure we all can point out different failures of the church, as has been pointed out above.

But if we want to turn the nation around, we have to repent of our own sins and seek the face of the Lord desperately.

[AnotherTraveler]

Statistics show that in approx. 20 years (if current trends continue) only 10% of the population of the U.S. will attend church on a regular basis. Some call them the "postmodern" generation.

Whatever you call them, what do you think is behind this?

What is creating a generation of young people who feel they do not need the church?

Is it the culture? Is the Church pushing them away---or not effectively drawing them in?

Is it a more global phenomena?

Why are we not effectively reaching this generation with the Gospel?

Your views?

Thanks,

Fiosh

The problem is that the statistics only reflect the corporate church, or the church corporations. The God-in-a-box huge facility with upper and lower case Christians is not revelant to this age, it is exposed as being an offshoot of the biblical church, but not an example of the biblical church.

Which church does not do the exact opposite of the warnings against being exclusive?

1Co 1:11 For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you.

1Co 1:12 Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ.

1Co 1:13 Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?

There are millions of Christians that meet all over the world in homes, in barns, in open fields, and in public settings that have no property, no musical instruments, and sometimes they share a bible among several families (not in the USA, to my knowledge). These Christians probably are not considered in the statistical model, yet they are exactly following the pattern established in the book of Acts.

This generation will not flow to a museum about God. They are hungry for a real living God, and they are as hungry to get saved as we were, but they are unwilling to ignore the abuses, the greed, and the striving for position that is so prevelant in our "modern" churches.

God Himself only recognizes the church at (name the city), God does not authorize the seperations we have allowed. Our exclusive religious institutions may be the problem, and they are excluding themseles out of existance.

[Natt]

Statistics show that in approx. 20 years (if current trends continue) only 10% of the population of the U.S. will attend church on a regular basis. Some call them the "postmodern" generation.

Whatever you call them, what do you think is behind this?

What is creating a generation of young people who feel they do not need the church?

Is it the culture? Is the Church pushing them away---or not effectively drawing them in?

Is it a more global phenomena?

Why are we not effectively reaching this generation with the Gospel?

Your views?

Thanks,

Fiosh

In many eyes the church is no different than the world. Statistics also back this up

This generation of young people minds have been presented with theories of evolution (that is presented very scientifically to them), tolerance of gays, other faiths(Hindus etc...), different viewpoints of Christ (e.g. Did he resurrect etc...) and speculation that the bible has been altered, to name but a few.

One teenager (supposebly saved) said that every faith is equal and there is no such thing as true or false religion.

Also a lot of teenagers are claimed to be saved by their parents , because they have accepted the call to say the sinners prayer. There is pressure for them to believe, with wanting to please family or friends. I say this because often there is no evidence that they have changed. Do they want to learn more about God and his ways? Do they have a desire to be separate from worldliness if their peers are involved? Desire may or may not result in them actually doing this immediately. Do they accept they are sinners in need of God's forgiveness?

Also many of this generation are wealthier than any other generation. They can depend on themself to provide their daily bread (as well as many luxuries even if it on credit). They have no perceived need of God in this sense.

Christianity is viewed as rules. I've heard some say that living Christianity is tooooo hard. I believe that this generation need each other more than ever with the corrosion of Christian principles in society.

Christianity is also seen negatively in society.

I believe that they need to get back to basics. No more personality tests etc... but put the emphasis on Christ more. We are meant to be glorifying him. Also christian adults need to be actively living there faith in love.

[ayin jade]

One thing that was not mentioned so far is the philosophical view that all things are relative, that there is no absolute truth, and whatever works for an individual is just fine. That seems to be taught to the young now. When 9/11 happened, there was a lot of problems in my area with college age kids struggling to reconcile the relativism they were taught with their inner need to see 9/11 as wrong. They were taught that it was not wrong, that they have their truth and we have ours, and both are ok.... yet they knew in their hearts that it was wrong. I think that plays a role here too.

[femelle]

I would look at who it is that's inspiring young people, what it is they are saying and how loud.

[Fiosh]

Thanks everyone for your input! I've been following the thread and giving all your responses careful consideration. While most here do not agree with the philosophy/theology of the Emergent movement (myself included), how the Church responds to this new generation is a challenging question. And, it starts with understanding.

It's interesting to hear all the unique perspectives you've offered. There is truth in all of them.

Peace,

Fiosh

[Massorite]

Statistics show that in approx. 20 years (if current trends continue) only 10% of the population of the U.S. will attend church on a regular basis. Some call them the "postmodern" generation.

Whatever you call them, what do you think is behind this?

What is creating a generation of young people who feel they do not need the church?

Is it the culture? Is the Church pushing them away---or not effectively drawing them in?

Is it a more global phenomena?

Why are we not effectively reaching this generation with the Gospel?

Your views?

Thanks,

Fiosh

When you have the Ted Haggard's, the Weeks and Bynums, the White's, doing that which God says not to do, the high profile preachers falling down on the job hard. When nationally known pastors say"the devil made me do it". It is no wonder that the up coming generation says "I don't need that". When the gay agenda is gaining so much ground in our churches, making it a hate crime or calling the word of God hate literature or those who believe it, close minded and condemning. It is no wonder they don't want any part of it. The coming generation has grown up with the gay agenda, evilution, all religions being equal and having worth, sex education as it should not be taught, being taught in our schools. What else can we expect? God used to be a central point in school but since prayer and God was taken out of our schools the church and its influence on the up coming generations has been waning and today it is nose diving. Not to mention the reemergence of Gnosticism, books like Harry Potter and movies like The De vinci Code.

I have a 19 year old daughter and all the way through her high school days I had to fight to keep her on the right track where God was concerned. I had to fight to keep her from believing that to be gay is OK, that we didn't evolve from apes or dogs evolved from birds. Today she is in her second year of collage and she still has not seen the need to seek out an intimate relationship with Christ. She goes to a church (Lutheran) that has a pastor who agrees with having openly gay clergy in the church. She knows it is wrong but she doesn't see the significance of the pastors belief.

She is in Gods hands now and as much as I would like to force my beliefs into her I know that for me to try that it would push her farther away from me and the church/Christ.

As the Spirit of Compromise Rages On

[Zadok Rox]

I think the problem started long before prayer was banned in schools by the Supreme Court. If everything was going along good God-wise, there wouldn't of been a group of Justices willing to boot prayer out of school. In fact, there wouldn't of been an individual who was so bugged by prayer in school to go to court about it.