“Son, that’s just the way it is. Some things will never change.” Bruce Hornsby, 1986
Since the assassination of Charlie Kirk there’s been a lot of great discussion about the movement he had begun and how attractive it was, and is – now more than ever – to young people.
This has been a great reminder of an abiding truth: young people are idealistic and oftentimes even altruistic. Whether they know it or not, they were made in the image of a perfect and passionately loving God and, at least to some extent, share His heart for a perfect world. If, in their young lives, they have served others, they’ve tasted the liberating joy of losing oneself in an act of kindness. At some level, they’re looking for something that is worth giving themselves to, and so much the better if it is seen as “the” cause which is world-wide in scope and guaranteed to succeed.
This basic longing, found in unregenerated hearts and misdirected by darkened minds and dangerous leaders, leads to all sorts of well-intentioned missteps, from immersion in ungodly cults to membership in violent political movements.
I guess I should know: I was one of them. As a teenager, I wanted to change the world – and fast. Before I realized that something was terribly wrong with me, I knew something was terribly wrong with the world and felt that maybe I should try to fix it. My movie heroes were people who stood up for timeless principles, gave themselves to causes and died trying to right wrongs. I wanted to be one of them, with a heart as pure as Thomas More, Ben Hur or the 1950s television Superman.
After a losing struggle against the truth of the gospel, the miracle of regeneration on God’s part and a gut-wrenching choice on my part, I knew that I had just joined up with the greatest cause, the greatest movement ever. I was thrilled to be part of it – and I still am. A campus ministry conference I attended as a new believer was titled – following the theme of a Coca-Cola campaign – “Jesus: He’s The Real Thing.”
But what is a movement? My Google search said: “a group of people working together to advance their shared political, social, or artistic ideas” or “a campaign undertaken by a group of people working together.”
I’m counting on my readers agreeing that Jesus is the “real thing.” The Jesus movement, which started well before AD 70, not in 1970, is the greatest movement ever. Christ is worth living and dying for. His love is worth more than any and all human loves. He is worth leaving home and family, friends, fishing boats and speed boats, mothers, fathers and unconverted or uncommitted lovers. No one will charge you anything to follow Jesus, though it will cost you everything, and it will be worth it. While still resisting the Spirit of God, by His grace I knew that if I trusted Jesus, He would be purchasing my life. I would be embarking on a great adventure. The last thing I feared was that it would be boring.
If this is true, and I’ve bet my life believing that it is, then please:
(1) Let’s invite the young into an authentic movement.
Young people have a nose for phoniness. They see “old people” in public and they see them in private and they know when the two personas don’t line up.
We know that the gospel is authentic but we’d better act like we know it’s authentic and we’d better do everything we can to be as authentic as the gospel itself. The Apostle Paul, in Philippians 1:27, calls it living lives worthy of the gospel.
(2) Let’s invite the young into an exciting movement.
Ask the young to describe their parents’ church. “Borrrriiinnnggg” just might be the first answer you hear.
If that’s true, something has gone wrong. Ask the twelve Apostles if there was anything boring about their lives after meeting Jesus. Okay; not everyone can be an apostle. So ask Mary the mother of Jesus. Ask the parents of John the Baptist. Ask the first believers at Philippi or Thessalonica.
We’ve been given an all-consuming mission. Missions are exciting, difficult and dangerous. I just heard a pastor who “gets it” say that his church has only one budget: it’s a missions budget; the whole thing, because the church is a mission. Many new churches build a building and then forget that they’re on a mission. All of a sudden “the church” has ceased to be the people and miraculously become a building.
It’s normal for young people to be looking for a movement. It’s normal for older people to be looking to avoid movement. I grew up in churches filled with people who were avoiding movement very successfully.
If we want the young to continue what we’ve begun we must offer them the leadership of the mission, not the keys to a building.
(3) Let’s invite the young into a loving movement.
Jesus could not have been more clear about the “mark” which he wanted to distinguish his followers. It wasn’t the cross, the fish, the steeple, some political affiliation or a grumpy attitude. It was, and is, sacrificial love which would result in supernatural unity (John 13:34,35, John 17:20-26).
Cults use “love bombing” to draw young people in. Why does it work so well, century after century? We all know why: we’re all looking for love that is real and enduring.
Fundamentalism was embarrassed by love, but love was and is fundamental to our success (John 17:20-26). If we can’t get this right, we’d better close our doors until we get it figured out.
(4) Let’s invite the young into an international, apolitical movement.
The gospel has significant political ramifications, but the ramifications don’t make it a political movement. We serve a king of a kingdom which is not of this world (John 18:36). We are, of course, dual citizens and must take our citizenship in whatever nation we live in seriously. We must seek the good of whatever form of Babylon we live in.
But our first and abiding allegiance is to Christ and his kingdom and we only dilute and defile the gospel when we add in elements of political movements. We’ll never strengthen the Christian movement with political alloys or political allies. However strongly we may feel about certain issues, the central claims of the gospel, that the world’s fundamental problem is sin and that the only solution is Christ, must be foremost in our minds and hearts. Exalting the making of conservatives over the making of Christians is all wrong in all sorts of ways.
Brothers and sisters, let’s invite the young into the greatest movement ever.
