I'm writing a 'book' called:
Reaching the Kids
Shoving the Gospel down Gen Z's Throats.
Here's my first draft of my first two chapters. (And so you know where the 'book' is heading, I've also included the CONTENTS page immediately below.)
Tell me what you think!
CONTENTS PAGE:
What’s in this book?
1. My story.
2. Times haven’t changed!
3. The kids are living in a postmodern world…
4. …pressed to accept a pluralistic approach to God.
5. We’ve taught them individualism…
6. … and manipulated youth culture for our own gain.
7. We have created a materialistic generation…
8. …who have too much time and too much technology.
9. These commercially brainwashed kids…
10. …are encouraged to pursue hyper reality.
11. I CANT UNDRSTND THEM…
12. …but I can still engage them; right?
The gospel of Jesus Christ is the singular most powerful and amazing event that has occurred at any stage in the history of mankind beside the initial creation of the world. In fact without it, there is no purpose and no truth to life. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the solution to our greatest problem; our individual yet universal rejection of God. Yet for some reason, the culture that we are currently working overtime to create is turning into something resembling a first year Psychology tutorial class. Everyone is searching for truth and almost everybody has an opinion on what it is.
The problem is of course, that opinions are like bellybuttons. Everyone has one and their pretty much useless.
Throw into this calamitous casserole the amount of technology that our kids are using on a daily basis and we have a recipe for disaster. The kids are disengaged. The fact that they’re disengaged from school is no big problem. The size of your brain has never been a prerequisite for any religious afterlife proposal.
The problem is however, that when it comes to the gospel of Jesus Christ, the kids are either completely confused or just not interested.
Here is why. And here’s what we can do about it.
CHAPTER 1.
My Story
‘After two years, I began to think.’
Josh Mansfield
I hated university, so it makes sense that I was excited when I received my first real job. I had spent four years at university being given explicit teaching on how to do just that; teach. I was now a teacher. And not only that, but I was a teacher of kids who were now officially known as Generation Z[1]. I had always thought that, even though I was anti-rebellious growing up, I was hip enough to engage kids in almost any topic I was asked to teach. And so I was even more excited when I was told that I would be teaching Biblical Studies to 13 and 14 year olds in a reputable Christian college. I was officially in full-time ministry and getting paid a decent wage.
I still remember my first lesson. I walked into a class of 28 fourteen year olds and asked them to freeze frame a favourite moment in time from their recent school holidays. Not the world’s greatest and most creative lesson, but I was young and hip and surely this was going to be enough to engage these kids so that I might be able to teach them a glorious truth about the wonderful news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I was wrong. The activity was a disaster. They thought that because I was ‘hip’ that they didn’t actually have to do what I asked. I had no backup plan and so inevitably, I stumbled through not just this particular lesson, but each and every lesson for the remainder of the year.
I began to do some thinking. I started to wonder how many of the kids that I was teaching in Biblical Studies in a Christian school were actually Christian. In subtle and not-so-subtle ways I began to find out. My conclusions went something like this.
In a typical class of 30, nearly all of the students, when pressed, would say that they were Christian, but only a handful would actually know what it is to be a Christian and were living in a real relationship with God.
(Ok; so my research doesn’t compare to ABS[2] or other fancy pants organisations, but at least it was cheap.)
The kids that I taught over the next two and a half years were proactively destroying my Bible lessons and ensuring that nobody heard, let alone understood, the gospel. It was disheartening.
After two years I decided to do some more thinking. It didn’t make sense. Why was I having so much trouble teaching the gospel? I was as creative as possible. I put in nearly as much effort as I should’ve. I bargained with the students. I pleaded with the kids. I worked hard on building a relationship with them.
Then I realised, the reason that I was having so much trouble was that I was teaching them like I wanted to be taught. We were two different generations (still are come to think of it…), and I was attempting to engage them in ways that I was able to be engaged.
I talked a lot. I gave lectures. I handed out worksheets. I put them in seating plans. My general rule of thumb was ‘Don’t stop talking, because then they’ll start talking.’ I wanted to be in complete control, because that’s how I liked my teachers.
I had forgotten that these kids are different to me. And then, as I read a little bit further and thought a little bit harder, I realised just how different they are.
These kids are living in a postmodern world and are pressed to accept a pluralistic approach to God. We’ve taught them individualism and manipulated youth culture for our own gain. We have created a materialistic generation who have too much time and too much technology. These commercially brainwashed kids are encouraged to pursue hyper reality. And we can’t understand their language.[3]
But I can still engage them right?
We can still engage them right?
Yes we can.
CHAPTER 2.
Times Haven’t Changed
‘If history has taught us anything, it’s that every generation’s favourite topic is themselves.’
Shaun Micallef
I was sitting next to a 9-year-old student one Friday afternoon. He was frantically texting on his mobile phone. I watched him for a moment and then we had an incredible conversation that went something like this.
Me: How come you need a mobile phone mate?
Kid: In case my parents need to contact me.
Me: Oh. But the school has plenty of phones. Don’t they know the school’s phone number?
Kid: Yeah. But it’s… ah… in case I need to call them.
Me: Aren’t students allowed to use the school phones?
Kid: Yeah. But it’s… ah…
Sure it wasn’t a scintillating conversation but nonetheless, it got me thinking, again.
Apart from the fact that they have arms and legs like me, the kids these days are almost unrecognisable. They know more about computers than they do about their family. They speak in a completely different language. FYI ROFL CU L8R apparently makes sense bro. They have more money than I do, and they just can’t sit still.
The times are changing, and with this change comes confusion. Society’s adults are trying to raise society’s kids, but at times it feels like we’re not even on the same planet. Unless you know who Flo Rida is, twitter regularly, wear skinny’s and flat hats and watch Chop Socky Chooks, you’re in trouble.
What they wear and what they watch, while important, is not as important as who they are listening to and what they believe. Their eternal destiny is at stake while on this planet and during this lifetime. False teachers abound and hollow and deceptive philosophy is on every billboard. Surely, we have hit a spiritual crisis like no other in the history of mankind. At no other point in history has the search for truth been such a battle, right?
Speaking of truth; we couldn’t be further from it. The battle for truth coincides with our entire chronological history. All throughout history generations have been influencing the popular culture view of spirituality, and the gospel. From the Greek philosophers who decided to do more thinking and less living, to the Reformation where Luther risked his own life by nailing his theses to the door of the very institution that was creating an anti-Christ culture; throughout our history books there are examples of eras where the search for truth was difficult.
This is a reflection of our sinful nature. Sin is first a foremost the rebellion against and rejection of God. Or in other words, a rebellion against and rejection of truth. Just because we say that God doesn’t exist, or that there are other ways to achieve happiness, doesn’t make God any less real.[4] You see, this is the false doctrine that is bandied across university Psychology courses and is filtering down to our kids through all sorts of mediums (both old and new). We are saying that truth is only truth if I want it to be.[5] Truth is only truth if I, in my selfish and sinful nature, say that it is. This is a load of horse manure.
Conveniently for us, this societal rejection of the truth of the gospel even goes back as far as the Bible.
Our apostolic hero Paul writes to the church in Colosse in the book we know as Colossians. He sits them down, and with tears in his eyes he recalls how much he loves them (1:3-14), reminds them of the supremacy of Christ (1:15-23) and then chastises them lovingly for being taken ‘captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy’ (2:8).
Have another look at the way Paul goes about this. Paul reminds them of the fact that he has earned their relationship (1:3-14); therefore he has earned the right to speak to them about the things they are struggling with. He reminds them of the ultimate truth (1:15-23) and then he tells them to steer away from deceptive philosophy (2:8).
Ultimately, the gospel stays the same. God, his supremacy, his story and his sacrifice will never change. Because this is the case Paul continues, it’s time to lift our eyes. Stop looking into the philosophies of the culture in question and start looking at God’s priorities.
Colossians 3:1, ‘Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.’[6]
The issue of falling captive to false teaching occurs over and over in the New Testament. Paul encourages the Corinthians by saying, ‘For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough. But I do not think that I am in the least inferior to those ‘super apostles.’ I may not be a trained speaker, but I do have knowledge. We have made this perfectly clear to you in every way.’ (2 Corinthians 11:4-6)
The church in Galatia is in similar strife: ‘Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.’ (Galatians 1:7)
The biggest issue that Paul seems to face is that of his constituents deciding that the gospel of Jesus Christ wasn’t good enough. That it needed editing. It needed a touch of sugar and a dash of salt. The early church was listening to false teachers as they preached a different gospel to the one Paul preached. A gospel that looked and tasted good, but that doesn’t lead to Christ.
At no stage does Paul freak out and give up. He simply and patiently refers his beloved churches back to the supremacy of God and the truth of the gospel.
‘He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rules or authorities; all things were created by him and for him…
… Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behaviour. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation…
… This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.’ (Colossians 1:15-16, 21-22, 23)
Perhaps the only difference in the 21st century is that our gospel modification is subtler. A billboard suggesting that a brand new house is ‘The only dream you’ll ever need’, may seem harmless enough, but it challenges our view of happiness and modifies our view of life purpose. A celebrity calling for tolerance of all religions de-sensitizes our Christian worldview and offends the core event of the gospel; the death and resurrection. It’s dangerous. And it’s just the tip of the iceberg.
The gospel is a timeless truth. Crossing cultures and breaking barriers, the one thing that you can know for sure is that the Creator of the world wants a personal relationship with all his creation.
[1] wikipedia.com suggest that ‘Generation Z is the generation of people living in Western or First World cultures that follows Generation Y. Experts differ on when the earliest members of Generation Z were born, ranging from 1990 to 2001.’
[2] The Australian Beaurau of Statistics is an organisation that collects and reports on data. You really should’ve known that…
[3] Pretty cool paragraph hey…
[4] Just because someone says that the tree over there doesn’t exist doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist. Truth is truth is truth…
[5] More on this in chapter 3… So as they say; read on!
[6] Emphasis mine
13 years ago
