The other day I was talking to a young man in his mid 20’s with a young family. We talked about the times in which we live with all the cultural turmoil, the Covid virus, vaccines, the political unrest, last year’s election, cattle futures, gas prices, and the church. His comment to me was: “How is the church relevant to people my age? I’m not that worried about the times we live in,” he said, “every generation has had their own issues to overcome. Your grandparent’s issue was WWII and Nazism. Your parent’s issue was nuclear war and communism. Your generation was abortion. Ours are things like national debt and socialism and cultural unrest. We’ll get through them just like you got through yours’.”
Times have definitely changed. What worked in the church 10 or 20 years ago isn’t necessarily working today. I know the Bible never changes and people all have the same spiritual needs that have been the basic needs of the human soul since the beginning of time — but the way we reach them changes all the time.
In my childhood and much of my adulthood, church was a cultural stable. Even if you didn’t go to church, it was recognized as an important tenet in society. It was respected and honored. There was basically one God and one religion with several different branches. We didn’t have to contend with a bunch of other religions “competing” with Christianity.
Creation was the settled science behind life. As students, we were taught creation and evolution side by side. Creation was taught as science and evolution as theory. Our collective biggest worry in the world was the Soviet Union and communism. Now, the idea of socialism, according to George Barna, is almost as popular as capitalism in our country.
In my conversation with this twenty-something year old, he wanted to know why he should come to church? That’s a legitimate question. You know why the church is relevant to every generation? It’s relevant because God’s Word, the Bible, is timeless and relevant to every generation of people. We, the people, are the Church. It’s not supposed to be an institution — where we get together, go through a set of rituals and formalities and then go home.
I received a letter this week that said in essence: We come to church because we are yearning for more courage and less fear, more passion and less routine, more relevance and less ignoring current events, more spontaneity and less structure.
We need to be equipped with God’s Word to take on the challenges we face every day of our lives. Each one of us who is born again, is a temple of God. The Holy Spirit lives in us. Collectively we hold back evil. And whatever the issues are of our time and each generation, we get equipped to take them on by regularly meeting together, studying God’s Word, sharpening each other’s wits, encouraging, praying, and listening.
And, no matter what the demands are on our lives, individually and together we “resist the devil so he will flee from us,” as James 4:7-8 says, and individually and together we “draw near to God so He will draw near unto us.” And every opportunity we have, we push back against evil. We don’t let a lie pass without respectfully refuting it with truth from God’s Word.
We all have issues of one kind or another, and we need each other. For the Christian, Sunday should be the most important day of the week.
— Reflections appears regularly on the religion page. The column features a variety of local writers, coordinated through the Monroe Area Clergy Group. Kevin Cernek is senior pastor of Martintown Community Church.
