The Pulpiteer

There is an interesting article that was put out by the AP today.  It’s about the role of faith in the lives and happiness of “young Americans.”  The article reveals two things that are becoming fairly common knowledge among those who work to minister to the next generation.  First, faith of some sort is seen as important.  Many people believe in God, but the differences come in what or who God is defined to be.  And that is the second point of the article.  Many kids are what the article labels as, “tolerant” which means they accept that there may be many ways to heaven or God or fulfillment.  I was not surprised much by this second point.  In fact I am more surprised that anyone interviewed by MTV would claim that their faith was the only way since that particular aspect of any worldview is so villainized.  Take for example, the very use of the term “tolerant” in this article.  Tolerant is made to mean Universalist.   The irony is that  this Universalist view is put forth by many as the only sensible and proper position and it ends up being a rather intolerant position.  Tolerance has nothing to do with the exclusivity of the worldview.  Tolerance means simply that I give you room to have your beliefs.  In the 20th century there were people who believed in the “Flat Earth” theory in America.  I think they were very wrong.  The authenticity of their worldview may be appealing in some sort of romantic sense, but when it comes down to it, the world is not flat in the sense they believe.  Tolerance means that we can disagree and allow them to have these beliefs.  We did not exterminate “Flat Earthers” because they were wrong.  We did not outlaw that belief.  Those things are what it means to be intolerant.

As we seek to minister to people who are outside the church context we must realize that we are engaging in discussions where others have stacked the deck in many cases.  If pop-culture is allowed to define words such as “tolerance” in such a way as to better espouse their unadmitted agenda, then we may be engaged in debates we cannot win.  Christianity has always been a countercultural movement at its heart.  It must continue to be such if it is to reach the yet unreached generation.

No Comments »

I’m back from vacation and it was wonderful. Anne and I had a great time visiting friends we haven’t seen in a long time. Friends are such a blessing from God.

I want to post a couple of things here. First a link to a great article in the Lansing State Journal by John Schnieder. It is his reflections 5 years after the loss of his daughter. It is wonderfully written.

Next, I want to include a few pictures for your enjoyment. Since he has been a recent commenter, I’d like to put up a picture of Ron from our time at church camp together. Ron dislikes “warm fuzzies” so the kids give him a ton of them for some reason. It’s really wonderful.

The second is a picture of Elijah and me swimming at a friend’s house in Pennsylvania. He loves the water, and this was one of my favorite parts of the trip.

No Comments »