Hipsters Un"IN" church

Ecclesiasticus 8 : 8-12

Do not ignore the talk of the wise,

  be conversant with their proverbs,

since from these you will learn the theory and art,

  of serving the great.

Do not underrate the talk of old men,

  after all, they themselves learned it from their fathers;

from them you will learn how to think,

  and the art of the timely answer.

Yesterday, I went to a class for young adults.  The class’ purpose was to explain why Millennials are leaving the church.  If you haven’t heard, we are leaving the church.   Some say that this is because we’re taking longer to get married.  It is common for young people to stop going to church on their own in college and get back into it when they get married and have kids.  However, these days if we get married at 30 and have a kid at 35, then there is a lot longer window of church inactivity.  Others say it’s because we believe in science; as if we never did believe in science.  This class explored a study and subsequent book about why we said we were leaving.

Millennials said they were leaving because they have doubts and they never felt like they could express those doubts at church.  They say they look for more authentic expressions of faith than they find at worship services.  This class was attended by quite a few older people.  These older people genuinely wanted to know what may have been holding back their own kids possibly.  These older people listened with rapt attention.  I was bored.  I just think we’re full of it.

I think the generation that invented hipsters isn't seeking authenticity.  They’re seeking the inauthentic but calling it authentic.  They want to listen to the bands that no one has heard of.  They want to wear ironic clothes that aren't practical.  They seem beatnik but their just using that as a front.  You cannot join their secret club old, unhip, uncool people; you can’t join even if you listen to old music and like funky old clothes because their rules are just tactics for exclusion.

Kids are just bored.  They’re seekers of fix.  They’re hopeless romantics because the things that they’re passionate about are fame and influence; but they seek them with flippant twitter feeds and ironic shirts and facial hair.  That which they want they cannot get with what they’re doing and so they are HOPELESS.  They have no hope.  They aren't skipping church because, ‘it’s a temple built to man’s hypocrisy.’ (That isn't a quote; just sounds like something stupid that they’d say.) 

The truth is that the older generation is genuinely seeking for a way to engage with a generation that is incapable of engagement.  Not all of us obviously, but our generation is bored and large swaths of us are broken.  We say things like, ‘we’re searching for more authentic expressions of our faith,’ but we’re not.  We say things like, ‘we believe in science and anybody who believes in the metaphysical is a buffoon,’ we saw it on the Daily Show.  We have the world’s knowledge at our fingertips on our smart phones but we find wisdom creepy, boring, even a little too slow.

If the church wants to reach the young people that are running away they don’t have to go and pander to them.  They don’t have to coddle them and assure them that they can be anybody they want to be inside the church walls.  The youth need to meet the aged.  The young need to get in touch with the generations that have gone before; the generations that built the Empire state building in 415 days.  Our forebears fought world wars and grew facial hair without it being ironic.  Our ancestors got law degrees while tending a farm.  Our founding fathers learned to read by lamp light with wicks they had to tend.  The bigger limbs of our family trees fought wars while cutting enough firewood for the winter and living in houses they built.

The old is hardened; the young is doughy, fluffy, and plump.  The old are sinewy; the youth are syrupy.  If the church wants them to come back it needs to get them in shape.  It needs to help them pump up.  WE, millennials, generation X and WHY and all of the rest of you and us who are 20-45 and aren't in churches you aren't NOT in church because they’re inauthentic.  Man up; you’re just lazy.  I haven’t had a conversation with you about something of value outside of the church in my life.  Your weakness reflects back at you in church.  Your complete and utter blobiness scares you out of church; not faith, not Christ, not Christians, and not God. 

Please forgive me for using strokes too broad.  I know there are bad churches or bad people at good churches, but a bad church isn't an excuse to run off and be sad; it is a mountain to climb.  We blame it on the rain but never on our fear and shyness.

Look at what Jesus has to say.  “Listen to your grandpappy and grandmima.  Pay attention when they give you rules to live by.  He’ll/she’ll teach you how to attend to greatness.    Don’t brush them off as crazy old coots.  They learned it from their forebears and from there it was drawn out of the primordial soup of history.  It isn't knowledge.  Knowledge is on your smart phone.  It is wisdom.  It needs no wi-fi and has much greater value.

A couple of ideas for growing in wisdom this month…

Talk to an elderly relative every day/week.  Call them on the phone.  Take them out to lunch/dinner.  Adopt someone who you know.  Make a list of questions to ask them about substantive things.  Listen; don’t talk.

Read a book by an author who is at least 100 years old.  Put your smart phone to work for Wisdom.

Do something difficult every day.  Try a menial task that you do after you’re home from your hard day of work.  If you’re young there is a high likelihood that your work isn't hard; it’s just arduous.  If you can’t think of something, make your food for tomorrow every evening and a sack lunch to give to someone who is homeless.  Try dusting all of your books.  Try moving all your furniture and cleaning underneath.  Clean your garage.