Young people turn against their parents' 'church lite'

For evidence of generational upheaval these days, you might skip over the usual suspects -- sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll -- and consider instead Christianity.

Two decades after baby boomers invented the suburban megachurch, which removed crosses or stained-glass images of Jesus in favor of neutral environments, their children are now wearing "Jesus Is My Homeboy" T-shirts.

As mainline churches scramble to retain young people, these worshippers have gained attention by-creating alternative churches in coffee bars and warehouses and publishing new magazines and Bibles that come on as anything but church.

But does a T-shirt really serve the faith? And if religion is our link to the timeless, what does it mean that young Christians replace their parents' practices?

The movement "has a noble side," said Michael Novak, the conservative theologian at the American Enterprise Institute. He remembers how much he enjoyed the Christian comic books of his youth. He compared the alt-evangelicals to missionaries, who "feel they've learned something valuable from their faith and want to share it" using the native language.

For many in this generation, the worship style of their parents feels impersonal: not bigger than their daily, media-intensified lives, but smaller. Their search is for unfiltered religious ex-perience.

"My generation is discontented with dead religion," said Cameron Strang, 28, founder of Relevant Media, which produces Christian books, a Web site and Relevant magazine, a stylish 70,000-circulation bimonthly that addresses topics like body piercing, celibacy, extreme prayer, punk rock and God.

Strang, a graduate of Oral Roberts University, is in some ways a model alt-evangelical, with two earrings, a shaved head and beard. He left a megachurch, he said, because he felt no community at the slick services. Now he attends an alternative church in a school gym, with intimate groups and basketball after services.

This stylistic shift is critical, said Lee Rabe, pastor at Threads, an alternative, or "emerging," church in Kalamazoo, Mich. Where megachurches reached out to baby boomers turned off by church, the younger generation often has no experience with religion. They need to be beguiled, not assuaged, Rabe said.

"The deity-free 'church lite' of the megachurches, that's the last thing these people want," he said. "They want to talk about God. It's hard-core, not in a fire and brimstone way, but it has to be raw, real."

The changes are often more stylistic than doctrinal. Many alt-evangelicals espouse conservative theology, but reject the censure of some churches. Strang sees this as a blueprint for an evangelical left.

"We're all sinners," he said. "Your sin isn't any worse than my sin. We don't say, 'Stop the horrible gays.' You want to reach them, you don't want to protest them. If we looked like goody-two-shoes, clean cut, we couldn't have a conversation with our lesbian friend at the coffee shop, because she couldn't relate."

Increasingly, this conversation borrows from pop culture, in the same way that hip secular culture borrows the cabala and the cross.

Critics say this engagement comes at a price. Timothy Williams, 48, a pastor at Sound Doctrine Ministries, a non-denominational church in Enumclaw, Wash., sees flirtation with pop culture as a capitulation to sin. "More and more, the church is seeking to be like the world around it," said Williams, who has written a pamphlet denouncing Christian rock. "But the Bible says that anyone who becomes a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. If we're going to be relevant or on the world's level to draw people, we might as well give free beer in the parking lot."

But evangelicals have long used pop culture and new technology to spread their gospel, said Stephen Prothero, chairman of the religion department at Boston University.

Christian tracts handed out in the 19th century were one of the first mass media. In the 1930s, the evangelist Charles Fuller used the new medium of radio to broadcast his sermons. Four decades later, the Jesus movement of the 1970s adopted the vibe of the 1960s counterculture.

The actor Stephen Baldwin, a born-again Christian, has just directed a DVD called Livin' It, pairing extreme sports with faith testimony, from which he hopes to spin skate Bibles, clothing, CDs and Bible-study guides, all tied to a non-profit youth ministry.

"This could be the first get-down rock 'n' roll, cool Christian brand," he said.

The underlying romance is familiar from any Nirvana video: the Christian as rebel or outsider, misunderstood, struggling against a world of conformity, commercialism and manufactured pleasures.

"It's a countercultural thing," said Tim Lucas, 33, pastor of an emerging ministry called Liquid in Basking Ridge, N.J. On a recent Sunday, Lucas wore a Hawaiian shirt and used images from The Lord of the Rings movies and a clip from Amadeus in a sermon about the book of First Samuel.

"They identify with being an underground movement, which is what Christianity was in the beginning," Lucas said of his congregation. "Living out a life with Christ at the center draws a lot of flak. Not a lot of people will celebrate that."

The movement away from middle-of-the-road theology and worship mirrors a trend on college campuses, where growing numbers of students claim either no religion or strong religious affiliation, with the middle ground shrinking, said Alexander Astin, director of the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA, which last year completed a national study of students' beliefs.

In the survey, more than 70 percent of students said they prayed, discussed religion or spirituality with friends, found religion personally helpful and gained spiritual strength by trusting in a higher power.

I'm in a church of 5000. We blew past the line about 2 years ago, as best I can tell. I just woke up one day and realized where we were. I don't think we can get back to be honest.

Yes, and this believer is not edified by seeing movies in church. Not at all. Nor do I think it is an effective way to reach the lost. The movies were made to mean what the producers, directors, and screen writers intended them to mean. Twisting them into some sort of spiritual context is just ridiculous and offensive.

With that I agree. I would be appalled if our church did that. The closest I've seen to secular movies being used in church is the "red pill - blue pill" scene from The Matrix. It was such a powerful messege that it prompted me to memorize the scene and perform it in a Juvenile detention center when my prison ministry band performed there. It had a strong impact on the kids. It made being a Christian look like the "intelligent" choice. This matters in a world which throws out Christianity out of hand as the "mindless" choice.

I believe that is the limit to the scope of this particular type of message. Once the "intellectual" wall is penetrated, the spiritual message is free to find it's target.

Actually, using movie clips (like what I saw of the use of the scene from The Matrix) is kind of a modern equivalent of using analogies or parables. It is a way of explaining a thing people don't understand too well through something they do.

At the time the Matrix analogy was being used, the movie was extremely popular. The whole audience had seen and liked the movie. The scene had an obvious context and the youth pastor exploited it to help young people understand that the Christian life is more "real" than the so-called "real world." On a side note, it completely changed the message of the movie (which they had already seen) as well.

>>I'm in a church of 5000. We blew past the line about 2 years ago, as best I can tell. I just woke up one day and realized where we were. I don't think we can get back to be honest.<<

In my humble opinion, if you don't like where your church is on a particular issue, it is of high doctrinal importance, and you believe you cannot change it, you change churches. I've never had to change churches for that particular reason however, but I am always prepared to.

If we looked like goody-two-shoes, clean cut, we couldn't have a conversation with our lesbian friend at the coffee shop, because she couldn't relate
___

Never occured to him that this says a lot about that lesbian's stereotype of people(and his own).

Well, now that you mention it, it was confirmed to by a very senior partner when they were recruiting me that for many years (possibly even at that time, wink, nudge), becoming associated with General Wickersham's firm was as sufficient condition for inclusion in the Book.

Worship services in many modern churches are focused on the people. In fact most leave and decide if the service was good or bad based on how it effected them. Worship is about what we do for God. It's not about going to church with the need to be "wowed".

Not just modern churches, but a lot of old, dead churches as well.

I have been in a lot of religious churches in my life. They all have one or two soloists and a choir to entertain the chosen frozen.

Most all of the dead denominational churches today follow this "wow" formula with solos, choir and even orchestras... while the religious audience sits in the pews with arms crossed, staring at the stained glass, waiting to see how good the show is going to be.

And, if my community is any indicator, 50% of (non-mainline) churches in this country must be "doing" A Purpose Driven Life. I wonder what the next Christian book-of-the-month club will produce?

If you ask anyone what the elements of worship are as commanded by Scripture and revealed in Scriptural example, they would have no clue.

You are right.

One "Bible" church near my home started having a "problem" with certain people during worship.

So the erected large "DO NOT RAISE YOUR HANDS IN THE SACTUARY" signs, even though the Scriptue tells us that this is how we should worship.

So these "Bible" Christians are led to believe that raising your hands in praise to God is not Biblical, when it is.

In my humble opinion, if you don't like where your church is on a particular issue, it is of high doctrinal importance, and you believe you cannot change it, you change churches. I've never had to change churches for that particular reason however, but I am always prepared to.

I don't disagree with you. The problem is that I've been there since I was 9 years old in 1968. My family is there. All of our friends are there. We have a lot of relationships that we enjoy. Changing churches can be a difficult decision. Anyway... best wishes and have a nice evening.

Agree with you lucky. We are in a small church now and the feeling is much more intimate. We know everyone and everyone knows us, we can call our pastor and know he is available and knows who we are. I'm having my baby in a few days and so many folks walk up to me and express that we are in their prayers. We tried a bigger church before this one, same denomination, and it was very impersonal--we felt like we were just another cog in the wheel. They had lots of this and that groups, but nobody really knew each other well.

Yes, that was my point--wish I had seen this first. I wonder if that young man could sit down with a "goody two shoes" if he comes armed with those preconceived notion.

I disagree with you about the movie clips. There are stiff requirements about who should lead the church. I am quite sure that godless atheists are not supposed to lead. So why invite them into the church to perform? Would you invite Britney Spears in to sing "Oops I did it again" just to illustrate Romans chapter 7 about the sin nature? I don't think so. It's the same idea with secular movies. If you like the story parable then tell it. But don't turn the church into a Hollywood advertisement.

Lutheran, Congregational, Episcopal, United Methodist, some Baptist & some Presbyterians. They tend to be liberal in their theology & rules.

Other, newer conservative denominations have broken away from the above to form new ones. For instance, the Wesleyan Church broke away from the United Methodists over slavery in the 1860's. Those breaking away thought it was wrong.

I'll agree with your statements. It's one of the reasons why I left a big church.

I went to a Christmas Eve service. It was sooo packed that you had to get their 45 minutes in advance, and I also had problems parking when I did get there in advance. I ended up going home, and stopped going to a huge church. Yes, the services were spectacular, especially Christmas Eve.

However, I felt for me like it was more entertainment than true worship (or fellowship with other believers). I am not saying anything bad about this church. It is a wonderful church. I know that they reach a lot of lost souls. I just needed something more intimate.

I've also always gotten more spiritually from small Bible studies than I ever have from going to worship services. However, I think going to worship is something to show reverence to God. It's not all about what I get from worship. (I hope that makes sense.)

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