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Today was the first really nice day we’ve had in a while.  On my daily walk through the neighborhood this evening, I saw a number of people out, mostly kids and teens.  A lot of kids seemed to be finding good stuff to do, playing on playgrounds, riding bikes, throwing footballs around.  They were having a great time. 

The teens, on the other hand, seemed to lack useful amusing activities.  I spied at least one ankle bracelet on one 15/16-year-old courtesy the local corrections department.  As I crossed a bridge, some of them decided to throw rocks at me from a long distance - not close enough to actually hit me or do any damage, but, well, it was enough to ignore them and move on.

Prayer is my habit on these walks anyway, but this encounter pressed me deeper into prayer for the community, and I soon was led to consider the following idea: these are the children of the unchurched. 

Thirty years ago, the nation’s religious landscape was in a period of rapid change.  A few churches and church leaders (the “young evangelicals” of the late 70s - early 80s) picked up on this development and began a wide range of churches and ministries in response to these de-churching trends.  From the “megachurches” and “seeker-sensitive ministries” to the Vineyard movement and Christian brodcasting (both big-hair and small-hair formats), the young evangelicals worked to transform the approaches, styles and methods to ministry in the new religious context.

However, the rank-and-file churches did not, by and large, make the change.  To their credit, many churches made small or partial changes that integrated many of the new ministry styles and methods into their existing structures, and had considerable success.  Nevertheless, most churches did not make the systemic, systems- and structure-level changes necessary to meet the new ministry environment. 

Thus, the trends of de-church-ification continued unabated.  In fact, one could argue that such events actually accelerated the process.  Now, in the days of what Bob Webber called “the younger evangelicals”, the vast majority of churches are now realizing that something is missing.  Those that were unable to connect with the Baby Boom generation did not connect with Generation X, Y, or Z either.  Thus, the average un-churched child, teen or young adult is not just un-churched but a child of an un-churched person.  This compounds the ministry contextualization issues at work in our churches.

The first-generation unchurched person generally has a religious point of reference.  Often this is expressed in two attitudes toward church and “organized religion”: either indifference, as the church has made no significant impact on their lives so what’s the point; or rejection, usually via some negative experience in a church context or with Christians.  (No blame assessment here.)

Beyond the first generation, unchurched persons no longer have that point of reference.  Therefore, their responses to Christians and the Christian message are often much more nuanced.  Moreover, they do not understand even the most basic of the basics.  For instance, I recently was asked by someone how much it costs to join the church!

All of this presses home the need to engage the community at its level on its turf to discover how we may make connections with people in order that they may participate in the life of God toward discipleship and eternal life.