Jesus Army: Magazine - Prophetic Word

“WE’VE GOT nothing to believe in, except having a good time, all the time, and f*** the consequences.” (The Face, July 2002).

If you can get past the profanity, this is a startlingly accurate and concise summary of the beliefs of most young people in Britain today.

If humans are in any way consistent, our foundational beliefs distil into values by which we live, and these in turn, shape our attitudes and behaviour. For young people for whom the right to be happy is a core belief, values by which they live include wanting that happiness now, not delayed or deferred; exploring happiness through acceptance of others; and enjoying life most in leisure and by commendations from others for doing something well.

These values can be seen in the attitudes and behaviour that young people engage in which I summarise as: purchasing, watching, drinking, bonking, engaging with music, sport, getting high and messing around. All of them are intended to make the young people happy.

When we look at almost any aspect of youth culture it seems to be at odds with ‘church.’ Indeed, churches have often said a resounding ‘no’ to all of the activities mentioned above. Young people translate this as churches saying that they are not allowed to enjoy themselves. Churches will not intentionally communicate to young people that they want nothing to do with them – quite the opposite. Some use activities in these areas as the basis for outreach to young people (particularly music and sport). The problem we have is that our message is essentially the antithesis of theirs and does not sound like good news.

So where do we look for an answer? Christians affirm both Jesus’ divinity and His humanity. However, our view of His humanity may be distorted by our view of His divinity: we don’t seem to place as much emphasis on some of what we would see as the ‘baser’ aspects of humanity as we do on His character, His story-telling ability and His emotions. We are in danger of misrepresenting Jesus if we do not pay attention to His social life as well as the other parts of His life.

Jesus was accused (incorrectly) of being a glutton and a drunkard (Matthew 11:18-19) because He socialised with others. The shock of Jesus “welcoming sinners and eating with them” (Luke 15:2) is lost on us today, but He was breaking all sorts of social and religious taboos by doing so – and it didn’t bother Him in the slightest. Indeed, it seems to me that He took the taunt that He was a “friend of sinners” as a commendation! Jesus spent time in the ‘wrong’ places with the ‘wrong’ people and His holiness was not compromised.

I am not suggesting that Christians advocate or condone attitudes and behaviour that are contradictory to the teaching of Scripture, but how many of them are so bad that we cannot contemplate being anywhere near anyone who engages in these activities? Can’t we risk being called “gluttons and drunkards” and “friends of sinners” for the sake of the Kingdom of God? Religious people hated Jesus for it, but those who needed to encounter Him, loved Him for it.

We need to challenge the judgmental and condemnatory attitudes that we find in our churches and rediscover Jesus’ passion for young people whose lives have not yet been sorted out. This might mean:

Becoming more rebellious against injustice and abuse of power
Being powerless and vulnerable when we might feel safer being in control
Being more humble in our evangelism
Taking some risks in leaving our comfort zones
Discovering new ways to equip, support and encourage Christian young people to be with their friends.

‘Living it large’ is a phrase used by young people to describe a lifestyle that gives them the most enjoyment possible. I believe that our churches need to be far more accepting of young people who are doing just that, even if they do things we might consider unacceptable, because God loves them as they are and we want them to know that. I also believe that our churches need to learn from young people and be rejuvenated in order to be more authentically the way Jesus intends us to be.

This is a shortened version of an article first published in ‘Quadrant’, the magazine of the Christian Research Association, July 2004 and used with permission. Rev Nick Lear is Mission Adviser, Baptist Union of Great Britain.