There seems to be a lot of criticism drawn against The Great Church Exodus from those of the older generations: "These kids nowadays have no reverence for the church or for what is sacred;" "They are too dependent upon self instead of coming to the church;" "They are just so lazy." These are things that I often hear yet choose to bite my tongue on. I just feel that the voices behind these questions don't want an answer nor do they want to be apart from the solution.

These people don't understand the feelings of loss and frustration of having been on your own from the beginning of the adulthood and then having to move back in with your parents. I graduated during one of the toughest economic times since the Great Depression. I am entering the third decade of my life and am just now able to make a livable wage. I haven't put a dent in my student loans and I live with my parents. During the last eight years, it has certainly been a challenge to find the Hand of God in all of this. There were many false starts with a young adult ministry at my church. Accusations of feeding the social and not enough of the spiritual made it difficult to find stable footing in the church.

Much of my spiritual growth is largely due to my own hunger and thirst for knowledge. I studied. I prayed. I asked God for insight and understanding into difficult scripture. I asked questions and used Google to answer them. It was during this time that I didn't ask for much help at church, simply because I wasn't comfortable asking anyone. Mind you, this is the church where I spoke in tongues for the first time. It's where I learned who Christ was for me. Yet there was and is still a feeling that I do not belong there. The main reason for this feeling is that there isn't a place for myself and my transient peers. Where do we fit in?

There is always the question - does this generation reverence the church? My response to that would simply be "Where are the people that were supposed to teach us what is and is not sacred?" Scripture tells us "My people perish for a lack of knowledge." (Hosea 4:6) The church as a whole has done a very good job at shouting to the world what we don't believe, yet little is heard on what we do believe. There is so much knowledge that older generations have regarding this topic, but it isn't often shared. In the book of Titus chapter 2, it tells us that the older men and women SHOULD BE TEACHING the younger generations. Yet it has become all too easy to point fingers because I prefer to wear jeans and have tattoos.

At what point do we focus on moving the kingdom of God forward instead of my Old Navy jeans? When do we discuss scripture and not why I have my nose pierce? I feel that the younger generation isn't straying away from the gospel. Instead, we are embracing it in ways that may be imperceptible to older generations. Maybe ignorance is bliss.

Until next time,