Shifting Ideologies for New Gen of Evangelicals

Ingrid Schlueter of the Cross Talk Blog wrote before Christmas that forms of "youth ministry" in evangelical churches are becoming a joke. She thinks the focus of religious institutions is placed more on the entertainment of youth rather than the religious teachings of the faith.

"The real issue is that evangelical parents are too busy servicing their debt providing iPhones and iPods and laptops for their offspring to worry about the biblical training of their children. Fathers are too involved watching the NFL on their large television screens to lead family worship. Mothers are too busy working out to achieve age-defying abs to teach children Scriptures when they rise up and when they lie down. That’s what youth group is for, they think. Except youth groups aren’t doing these things either. Youth pastors, even those well into middle-age, are bent on proving their coolness to the students in their care. They got krunk, see? They like dance-offs and air guitar competitions and having food items lobbed at their heads for entertainment purposes. Biblical training? Catechesis? Ha Ha Ha. Right."

But a piece in last month's New York Times paints a picture of a different form of young evangelical Christians. Jenna Liao begins by explaining the work she does coordinating volunteers for World Relif, an organization that works with refugees and displaced families of war torn areas.

Another, Matthew Soerens, wrote a book with friends on immigration reform from the evangelical perspective called Welcoming the Stranger.

"Without disowning longstanding causes for evangelical activists like opposition to abortion or support for school vouchers, these young evangelicals have taken up issues previously abdicated to secular and religious liberals: climate change, AIDS prevention and treatment, Third World poverty."

Soerens goes on to say that he doesn't believe his generation of Evangelical Christians are rejecting the issues their parents are concerned with, but rather widening the spectrum of issues.

In January of 2009 Matthew Anderson of Mere Orthodoxy wrote a series of pieces on the cultural and political evolution of the new generation of young evangelicals titled The New Evangelical Scandal. Among other things, Anderson discusses the break in voting support from the GOP last year, and the extent to which younger evangelicals were supportive if not enthusiastic about President Barack Obama whose message was about a broader humanitarian focus and call for the common good, rather than all about gay marriage and abortion. (emphasis is mine)

"Even if the outline of our theology is broadly the same as our parents, as it is for an increasing number of conservative evangelicals, our ethos is different. And the differences are not strictly political—the political trends among young evangelicals that have received so much attention are grounded in different concerns and emphases that undergird younger evangelicals’ approach to culture and spirituality as well. This new ethos is largely a reaction to the abuses, failures, and excesses of our parents’ generation and contains significant clues as to the future of evangelicalism in America."

A local Oklahoma City magazine had a piece about the ways in which metro area churches were turning to technology in efforts to better connect to their members and other potential flock. The piece defends the use of the so called "debt providing iPhones and iPods and laptops" to create consistent connections to this new generation that one pastor said communicates "in a way so that each person has an opportunity to know, act or respond, [all of which] which requires mul­tiple avenues of communication." And the Lord said, "Let there be Twitter," and it was good.

While some scoff at the use of new fangled gadgets to communicate in youth focused services, it seems the "true message" that the Cross Talk Blog seems to be so concerned about, might actually be getting through. What older more traditional Evangelicals seem to focus on is rather a more restricted, right-wing, political ideology backed by elders of their faith and preached from the pulpit. This might be the reason for the disconnect for younger generations of young evangelicals who seem to be more interested in acts of good works and the common good rather than shilling for Sarah Palin.

Happy Sunday!