The Most Relevant Story Ever

Finally in this Christmas week of dark stories comes a ray of light.  Josh Code at The Free Press on “What Drives Gen Z to Church?”  The stories of a revival of faith among younger people are quite wonderful.  They give hope in a time when humanity seems hopeless.  This little video piece reflects the few young people that are showing up at my church  and it is fascinating.  There are a couple of things worthy of note.

First of all as I listened to all these young people discuss why they are returning to church I am struck by how much they sound like everybody that has ever decided to go to church routinely – anybody that has ever picked up faith in their lives.  The difference, I think, between them and a few generations earlier that rejected faith as a trend, is that they are more in touch with themselves.  They are paying attention to what their needs really are.  They seem to instinctively understand that a person is not a person outside of a community and that faith is the only force that can build genuine community.  Families fail, work places fail, neighborhoods fail, but church keeps going.

The difference, when you get down to it, is that they view themselves with humility; they understand they are not self-sufficient.

The second thing I note is that this quiet revival seems to be aimed squarely at Catholicism and Orthodoxy to a lesser extent.  Mainline Protestantism is, apparently, past the point of no return.  Evangelicalism, where what growth has occurred did occur until recently is somehow too worldly for this bunch.  Which, if you think about it, seems in line with my prior observation.  Though I am evangelical in my outlook Evangelicalism is largely the church of first steps.  Declaring oneself a Christian over and over and over again, but never probing deeper – like stepping into a cave but never going deep enough to lose the surface light.

So these young people go to the most ancient expressions of Christianity, seeking depth because they are looking deeply at themselves.

Christmas is the ultimate first step.  It begins the journey of Christ’s life, THE life.  Almost everybody goes to church this time of year.  That is an excellent first step.  But this year let’s pledge to take the next one, and bring someone along with us.