Making Connections

Neue posted this article today, urging the Church to engage with the souls of twenty-somethings.

Charles Wesley was a 20-year-old college student when the Methodist revival began. Pioneering missionary Hudson Taylor was 21 when he climbed aboard a boat for China. Conversely, the father of all anti-supernatural philosophers, David Hume, embraced his convictions at age 18 and Joseph Stalin decided to leave seminary at age 21 to dedicate his life to communism. I could go on and on. Amy Carmichael, Catherine Booth, Charles Darwin, etc. etc. etc. all set their destinies and seeded their greatness into history by their early twenties.

The author goes on to point out the growing influence people in their twenties are having and then reveals that my generation is more spiritually disconnected than ever before. There are a lot of reasons for this, although it boils down to older generations, those in the seats of power at most churches and ministries, failing in their Biblical duty to mentor the younger generations. I can attest, as a single twenty-something living by myself, that I am hungry for those connections. Most of my peers are as well. The churches I’ve attended have done a poor job of reaching out to those of us at this critical point in our lives. The author of the article finishes with this quote:

The historic trend is not hard to see. If we are serious about reaching our world, we must reach these strategic souls. If we do, more leaders like Wesley and Taylor will send shock waves of revival through the Church. If we do not, more leaders like Hume and Stalin will use their intellectual and political skills to convince a generation that God is dead.

I would add that if the church does not get serious about reaching twenty-somethings, an ever increasing number will leave, become dissatisfied with and reject the claims of Christ, and ultimately, much of the blame for this will be laid on the heads of those who had the opportunity to reach these individuals but were to selfish or busy to do so.