THE NEXT GENERATION

One of the biggest norms in Christ is change, but change is only good for us if it benefits what God is doing in our lives. If not, then the change will drive us and others around us away from the truth of God’s word and God Himself. One of the biggest changes I have seen in the “Church” today is the move to change the means, to catch the next generation for Christ. We must be careful here, we must use discernment not to throw out God in a desire to see the next generation come to Christ. Now, this is a noble desire, but always remember what you use to win someone to Christ with you have won them to that. So if, you use: rock Christian music, a new look in the sanctuary, a stage show with strobe lights or like most seeker sensitive churches turn out the lights to add a nightclub affect, fog machines, a new sound system, drama, painting, and so much more then you have won the next generation to that. But if you use the word of God and His ways, even though they may seem like they are old fashion to the new generation, still you have won them to the word of God. There is no hip Jesus my friend. The message to come to salvation does not change, the Gospel, saved by grace through faith. Now the means, the things used to support the message can as long as it does not reflect the world. Remember, if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck and looks like a duck it probably is not a chicken. There must be a balance, there must be an awareness between the world’s ways that appeal to the next generation and what the Bible allows. The message of the word of God is not optional depending on the desire, likes, or dislikes of the next generation. I have seen Christian Churches and Bible Schools bend over backwards, for years, trying to satisfy students and make kids more comfortable hoping they will stick around, but usually what happens is the Church or Bible School comprises the tenants of the faith while saying they are making up for past failures of leadership. The old saying, “you must not let the chickens run the hen house” still applies today. If the spirituality and behavior, due to policy and structural changes of a Church or Bible School, begins to wain then that is a huge red flag to the leadership that signals a revisiting to the effectiveness of the change and then have the courage to go back to the old way of doing things if need be. Newer, bigger, brighter is not always better in God. I have seen this struggle between the old ways and the new ways, so that the new generation will get involved, but I am not so sure that message will really work in God if not careful. The key between creating greater problem or touching a “true” spiritual need in the next generation is the leadership’s discernment and ability to know the difference between the things of the world and the things of God. We know what the world and the nominal church offers, I described them earlier in this article and the end result is confusion, loss of time and money, and usually the next generation wanting more and more of the world. I have seen it all over the world. You know, today there seems to be a great hunger from Churches to want to be like the seeker sensitive Churches in America. They look successful, crowds, dancing, singing, but not always so in God. NO! Each Church MUST be developed according to cultural norms and how God wants them to be developed. To follow and copy a failed non-spiritual format like the seeker sensitive movement in America is insanity and void of all spiritual values. So, what is spiritual discernment? Well, spiritual discernment is the result of knowing Jesus Christ. If you know the Truth Himself, you are going to, well, know the Truth that pertains to Him – you are going to know what is of Him. This is, of course, a progressive revelation into which we have come. We really must understand that discernment is the result of knowing Christ. Too often we make discernment a gift and think of it as something we are able to do as a thing unto itself. No. For a Christian, everything is connected to life in Christ, and nothing operates independent of our relationship with Him nothing that is of God, that is. Thus, discernment does not operate independent of Christ, but rather, is a product of our relationship with Him, and knowledge OF Him. This tells us how to know error. Error is not simply bad theology, although there is plenty of that out there. Rather, error is a misrepresentation of Christ Himself. One way or another it is that. Thus, I cannot know error unless I know the Truth. I do realize that it is possible for discernment to operate purely on a theological or intellectual level. People DO have brains, and even an atheist can spot hypocrisy and some error. But the discernment of the Holy Spirit is much more than simply being able to compare notes and come to conclusions. The discernment by the Holy Spirit means that I am able to sense whether something belongs to Christ or does not. It is all based on Him, whether it fits into Him. Unless we know Christ, and therefore have Him as our basis of discernment, we are going to use something else. Usually we will use our understanding, how we feel about something, or whether something appeals to us. Sometimes Christians just do not think like spending vast amount of money to change outward surroundings, like a sanctuary, to please fleshly concerns. And often they simply resign and let others think for them. If there is one thing the church needs today it is the discernment that comes from knowing the Person of Jesus Christ. The fact that there seems to be so little discernment out there today is simply evidence that many, including leaders, do not know Him. The consequences are everywhere. The growing trend in churches today is the compromise of Truth for the sake of unity. Churches compromise to keep members and get them. This compromise is not merely seen in wrong things being preached. It is seen in right things being eliminated. Preachers like Joel Osteen openly brag about the fact that they never preach that we are sinners, must repent, or that there is a Cross that each of us have to meet. This, we are told by people like Osteen, is not necessary. We need a positive gospel, they say. And the fact that millions follow them in their error simply gives them all the more boldness to continue preaching it. It would seem that today more than ever, whatever will get the people in the pew is what is accepted as Truth. Or people just don’t care about Truth at all. Either way, the trend of the last 10-15 years is one of, "anything goes in the name of love." People like Osteen, Rick Warren, and Bill Hybels all of whom have ties to, or are echoing heretic Robert Schuller concentrate on you, and on making you the center of God’s universe. And since we all care about ourselves, we eat this stuff up. And yet this kind of message is actually the message of antichrist. Antichrist is basically Christ without the Cross. In other words, antichrist is man in Adam affirmed religiously, just as he is, and without the need to meet the Cross. The modern gospel of self-esteem is the fullness of the gospel of Satan. That is not an extreme statement. It is the Truth and it is here, right now, in the churches. It is one of the most subtle, yet damaging, deceptions ever perpetrated on the Body of Christ. Draw your own conclusions about what that means as to the times in which we live. All of this comes back to a lack of discernment, and the usual result: Trying to do for God, on the wrong basis, what only God can do on the right basis. God wants His church unified in Christ, and in the Truth. Today we are trying to unify the Church by compromising with both. We just returned from three weeks in Romania and Ukraine what a wonderful time we had, how God protected and kept us from harm and death. But, In Romania we know of a church, my most favorite church in the world, and a Bible School that is in the throes of this change. Now I know the leadership quite well and know in God they will make the right decisions. I have attended this Church since 1998 and watched it go from a cold, dark place, where you prayed on the hard concrete floor on your knees to a warm, inviting place, where the presence of God is tangible and the life of God is imparted to the people. Year after year, as God moved, things changed, things were removed and things were added. Little by little (that is important) God changes the inwards things of the heart and as the inward heart changes so does the outward. Not fast, but slow little by little. I know the next generation likes things fast, flashy, and shiny, but God does not work that way. Change not to look like the world or even America, but change because God said so. There is where the safety of change is found, not in the change to look like someone else, but change to be in the will of God. Written by David Stahl