...or anyone who works with kids, has kids, or is planning on having kids.
"imagine just how much is available to them. they have more at their fingertips than any generation in the history of the world-more information, more entertainment, more ideas, more ways to kill time, more options.
many of them own more than one pair of shoes.
there are even some among them who have eaten at least one meal every day of their lives.
so we are talking about a miniscule minority of kids in the world.
at the exit off the highway near their church is a best buy and a chili's and a circuit city and a mcdonalds and a wal-mart and a bed, bath and beyond, much like the other towns in their state and in their country. the music they listen to is distributed by one of five major corporations, which also own the movie studios that create the movies they watch, which are also connected to the corporations that create the food they eat and the commercials they watch, which also have significant ties to the clothes they wear and the cell phones they own, and the ring tone on their cell phones, the one by the artist who is signed to the record label that is owned by the same company that owns the cell phone company and the advertising agency that announced the artist's new album, which is owned by the same company that owns the beverage company in whose advertisement the artist appeared, drinking that particular beverage, singing the song that is now a ring tone on the students' phones that they purchased at the mall across the street from the olive garden nest door to the home depot on the other side of the starbucks.
and so each week gather to hear a talk from the pastor.
their pastor tells them of the Jesus revolution.
about Jesus resisting the system.
about the blood on the cross.
about many of the first christians getting arrested.
about Jesus having dinner with prostitutes and tax collectors.
about people sharing their possessions.
about Jesus telling a man to sell everything.
about the uniqueness of their story in the larger story of redemption.
how do children of the empire understand the savior who was killed by an empire?
how does a twelve-year-old who has never had hunger pangs that lasted more than an hour understand a story about a twelve-year-old providing fish and bread for thousands of chronically hungry people?
how do kids who are surrounded by more abundance than in any other generation in the history of humanity take seriously a messiah who said, "i have been anointed to preach good news to the poor"?
how do they fathom that half the world is too poor to feed its kids when their church just spent two years raising money to build an addition to their building?
they gather, they sing, they hear a talk from the pastor, and then they get back in the car with their parents and they go home; the garage door opens up, the car goes in, and the garage door goes down.
this is the revolution?
this is what Jesus had in mind?"
- rob bell, Jesus wants to save christians (pg. 136-138)
any thoughts?
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6 comments:
Great to have you back Sam! How do we live as though the world around us is a mirage(which it is) and instead live as though the world of BILLIONS of starving, oppressed, and forgotten people is real? I don't know the anser to that. I guess we just respond to opportunities to change things as they are presented to us.
Sam, do you think this is a challenge only for youth, or do you think adults face the same disconnect?
my first thought was to say, "yes, it is only a challenge for youth." and i think to a certain extent it is because some don't have the ability to think abstractly yet.
but for some of the kids growing up in the last 10 years or so they don't know any different and in some ways they have a better sense of the world around them because of the advances in technology.
but, because of that, adults (who we'll call anyone over the age of 30... just for the purpose of this discussion) have been around before there was the internet, before there were cd's, mp3 players, xbox (even though an argument can be made for the original mario brothers for nintendo being one of the best games of all time!) so they have had to adapt to this new and growing technology even more so than todays youth who have grown up in the thick of it.
does that make any sense?
just a thought that i had from your question.
do you have a rebuttal?
I don't know if this is a rebuttal, but maybe an expansion of Bell's good thoughts.
I think Bell is saying that there is a disconnect between the world of America's youth and that of the first century Roman Empire. He sums it up by asking, "How can children of the empire understand a Savior who was killed by an empire?"
I am just wondering if my generation or even my parents' generation is any less a generation of "children of the empire." Take our church, for example. How many people in our church have experienced real poverty? How many have ever gone to bed hungry? How many have ever been persecuted by the government?
A handful of them have probably experience some of these things, but nothing like the original Christians. The things that we "suffer" are unlike the things that they suffered. I think there is a disconnect with the biblical world even among adults.
i concur.
but i think for the "youth" (using the parameters i listed earlier) it is harder for them to identify with the first century roman empire even more so.
you and i can try and imagine what it was like for those early christians more so than a junior high boy can, but you are right in saying that we have not experienced real poverty or persecution.
that being said, how does that change the way you and i preach the gospel? (you being to the church, me being to my friends...)
thats my rebuttal...
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