talkin' 'bout my Generation

At UnitedLife we're about to start a new sermon series on one of Paul's letters (the unveiling will be this Sunday...cue the dramatic music). This past Sunday, however, I took a moment to talk about something that God's been putting on my heart more and more over the past few months. I wrote about it when I got back from KASE, but I think He's been working on me for awhile...KASE was just a place where some pieces were able to come together in a coherent way.

A lot of times at church we can get caught up in the whole "Jesus in My Pocket" phenomenon. In other words, as ministries try to help people develop personal relationships with God, people start to begin seeing following Jesus less as an act of faith and discipleship, and more like choosing which t-shirt to wear for the day. Suddenly God becomes an accessory, customizable for each personal agenda.

One piece of all of this is how we in the church tend to talk about our relationships with God. Specifically, a lot of the ways we talk about God, as well as a lot of the songs we sing about him, happen in the first person. As a result, we lose the fact that God has something to say not only to us as individuals but to us as a people. We miss out on the fact that we as a generation have common needs and problems. We become blind to God's bigger picture, and, as a result, we stand idly by as he moves in huge and incredible ways.

But it doesn't have to be this way. And, as long as God allows me to lead UnitedLife, we will not be a ministry disconnected to the larger picture of God and what he is doing in our generation. To that end, a few things:

- UnitedLife will be a place where "generational consciousness" is taught and encouraged. We're going to talk about what makes us us, especially those problems that we tend to share and how knowing Jesus addresses those problems. We're going to be thinking about "our issues" and not just our individual concerns.

- As one of those generational issues is a major discrepancy between what we know and what we actually do, UnitedLife will be a ministry that not only teaches about the problems facing the world, but actually does something about them, linking its members to appropriate organizations, and itself being such an organization.

- UnitedLife will be a place of comfort for the afflicted, but affliction for the comfortable. Though we know that we find true, authentic rest in Christ today, we also know that there are many who we have been called to serve, and we will not stand by doing nothing. In other words, we'll be a place of rest, not idleness.

"But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light."

1 Peter 2:9