X Marks the Spot

This is a message I preached at Unity Hill Ministry Centre (Port Lincoln Uniting Church) in Port Lincoln, South Australia. It has some local content of course, but I think the message carries some universal significance as well. I hope you enjoy it, the people at Port Lincoln did.

Damien.


Isaiah 54:1-3

They say you know you’re getting old when policemen begin to look young. I must be dangerously close to ancient because I was in Tasmania last week and I must say the government is looking young: although in my defence that is because they are. The premier of Tasmania is a chap by the name of David Bartlett, with Lara Giddings as his deputy. Mr Bartlett was born in 1968, Ms Giddings in 1972. The head of government in Australia’s smallest state is forty years old, and his deputy is thirty-five. Tasmania is being governed by Generation-X.

Gary Clarke, the senior pastor of Hillsong Church London defines the term generation as a group of people who are alive at the same time. In sociological terms we can talk about The Baby Boomers or Generation-X or other groups who are defined by their decade of birth: but for the most part it is probably best to say that “this generation” is you, whoever you are, who woke up alive this morning, Sunday 20th July 2008.

But, of course within us as a group we do find different ages and different ways of thinking which mostly characterise these ages. I don’t really want to get into who the different generations are, or what defines them: that is for another time, but allow me a brief outline so that we all know who we are talking about.

At any one time in history there are four to five generations alive, with three in the forefront and one in charge. Due to the changing nature of Western Society and advances in medical technology there are six generations alive today:

The Builders 1901-1918: born before or during The Great War.
The Silent Generation 1918-1942: today aged late sixties to late eighties.
Baby Boomers 1943-1960: today aged late forties to mid sixties.
Generation-X 1961-1980: today late twenties to mid forties. This is me (36)
Generation-Y (Millennials) 1981-2000: today entering teenage to mid twenties
Generation-Z: born in the twenty-first century.

You will probably agree with me that for the most part it is the Baby Boomers who run the world at present, with some Silents still in key roles, (for example Pope and Queen are both in their 80s, although of course neither was popularly elected), and with Gen-X on the cusp. It is this cusp that the Church needs to be looking at as Generation-X begin to assume more responsibility in government and business leadership in our nation.

Another phrase used by Gary Clarke is that every church is only ever one generation away from extinction. We are here now, but who will be here in 20 years’ time? It was for this reason that God reminded the Hebrews in Deuteronomy 6:7-9 to “tell these things to your children” and “write them on your doorposts”: we must continue to pass on the things that we know to those who follow after us or the information will be lost. Just because you know something doesn’t mean your children do, and if they aren’t told and don’t know, then that information is lost when you go. If that information is the story of God, then truly this part of The Church will be extinct when we are all gone and the last one with the memory of this dies too. If we are to continue as the Church we must be a body of influence.

So what is in the future, and how can we be a body of influence?

Megachurch.

Now I know what you’re thinking, and yes Megachurch is defined by Wikipedia as a church having 2,000 or more attendees for a typical weekly service: but that’s not where I’m going. I want to suggest a different tack and describe them not as churches with lots of people in them, (although almost invariably megachurches do have lots of people), but churches with lots of influence around them. For example the place where I belong in London, Hillsong Church, is a megachurch: not because it is the biggest church in London and the biggest white-majority church in the United Kingdom, but because it is impacting its nation, its continent, and its generation in ways that many other aspects of the Body of Christ are not. And this is not just through sales of our music CDs either. As the DVD says, there is a Church behind the music.

What makes Hillsong a Gen-X church is not that it uses a big band and a lightshow, although it does do those things. What makes Hillsong Gen-X is its focus on community for those who are alone.

Let me give you an example of how the three generations think: and put it in terms of cricket.

The umpire born in 1925: a “Silent” says there are three ways to be dismissed in cricket: there is run out, LBW and caught behind, and I call them as they are.

The umpire born in 1950: a “Baby Boomer” says there are three ways to be dismissed in cricket: there is run out, LBW and caught behind, and I call them as I see them.

The umpire born in 1975: a “Generation-X” says there are three ways to be dismissed in cricket: there is run out, LBW and caught behind, but they are not out until I call them.

For those who are coming into prominence now, and have begun to take over, any decision within the rules is a good one. How should we as a Bible-based Church deal with that mindset?

The megachurches of Australia are dealing with this mindset very effectively, so is it really just about doing the Hillsong thing? Or perhaps modelling ourselves on Paradise or Edge Church (Reynella), or even Aberfoyle Park? Of course not. We can learn from their model, but what we are charged with is being the Hands and Feet of Jesus on The Eyre Peninsula. We may not see thousands come to Christ in a year, but we can act as a body of similar influence. Hillsong Church London saw just under 6700 people come to know Christ in 2007, which is pretty close to how many people attend our Sunday services in central London. This is out of a population of 7.3 million people in our city. That’s one in eleven hundred and four, or zero point zero nine of a percent. In proportion to its population that’s the same as Unity Hill reaching twelve people in Port Lincoln or forty six from across the Eyre Peninsula in a year; as well as having that as a weekly attendance on any given Sunday. Hillsong may be a “megachurch” in global terms but in population terms it’s a drop in the ocean in our city.

To be a church of influence is to be a church of engagement. We must speak in the language of Generation-X without losing our ability to speak to the Baby Boomers, and be developing ways of speaking to the Millennials who are our teens and twenties today. So, how do we speak to Generation-X? There are many things to consider, but I want to give you just two for now.

1. It’s about community.
What makes the difference is not the “show”, but the smile. If seekers don’t like the people they meet at church they won’t come back. In a world full of music, AV, charismatic speakers and advances in all forms of informational technology it is the people that keep seekers in fellowship. Indeed for Gen-X seekers it is not the “truth” which keeps them from faith, but their perception of what Christians are like. They may well agree with our arguments but they baulk at making a decision that will make them “become like us”, or what they think we represent. People are attracted to Christ by the attractive lives of Christians, not by our water-tight arguments. Truth has moved beyond relative, truth is relational. The question is not “is what you are saying true?” but “who are you that is telling me this?” Despite what some may have heard about us, Generation-X don’t resist truth; we resist arrogance. We long to find something solid that feels true, but which is prepared to consider the claims of others. The Church does not have to compromise, in fact it is best that it doesn’t because that makes it look less solid, (and feel less true); but it does have to be willing to engage in discussion.

2. It’s about compassion.
In his book No Perfect People Allowed Texan pastor John Burke writes: nothing poses a greater challenge and opportunity to the church than the overwhelming emotional pains that drive our generation into so many addictive behaviours....If God is going to use his church to reach emerging generations the church must be prepared for these struggles of brokenness....If [we] are going to minister to emerging generations [we] must create a culture where broken people are welcome and healing happens....Broken people are wounded people...they often run from those attempting to help them. Leaders must create a safe climate, so that the healing work of God can begin in their lives.

Hillsong mindset is that all Christians are to be leaders in their world, so that last sentence applies to all of you in this generation sitting here this morning, although of course with special emphasis for those of you on Vision Team who make the decisions and set the culture of Unity Hill.

In our day there is a culture of aloneness, of people longing for community, but afraid to get close – surrounded by friends, feeling ever more alone. Generation X craves the sense of community inside a spiritual family. If we don’t experience hope for authentic relational support, it doesn’t matter how contemporary the style, or how loud the music, or how trippin’ the AV: we won’t stick. The challenge the Church faces is to learn how to live in community with others, and then to provide ways to ensure that nobody stands alone.

People don’t care what you know, until they know that you care. For the members of our society in their twenties to forties it is not so much the truth that they need to know, but the Grace-without-Law that Rev Rob spoke on three weeks ago. In my generation people belong before they believe, so we need to be made to feel that belonging is easily available.

But yes, as Rev Rob touched on last week: revival and renewal are coming. Hillsong Church London saw six and a half thousand people make decisions for Christ in 2007 and our numbers grew by almost that amount. The answer, along with Biblical truth in the preached word, is that we care for those who come to faith in our house. We consider it a privilege that God would trust us with His most precious possessions, the individual “Lost”, and we do all we can to connect them to friendship and resource: and for the most part those we are reaching are those of our age-group, Generations X and Y.

There is a generation coming: men and women in the prime of life yet hungry for what the gospel alone offers: a promise of eternal connection with a gracious and loving Father, within a welcoming and sustaining community. Again as Burke said the emerging church is not a Church for a post-Christian culture but is one forged out of post-Christian people. It’s not about coming out of our Christian bunker to make forays into a fallen world, but is an indigenous church rising out of the surrounding culture to form the Body of Christ.

The lost are people just like us: and by the Father’s grace and our welcome they can join us on the road to what we are becoming.

All they need is to be made welcome.

Sunday 20th July 2008 Unity Hill (PLUCA).