We often read or hear that the youngest generation in America is resistant to the Gospel. This view is backed up by the statistics which indicate that only 15% of the Millennials (born between 1980-2000) claim to be followers of Christ.
Many members of this generation have even said to me that the 15% figure seems high to them.
What should we make of this?
First, this is not the only resistant generation or group. The very nature of the Gospel makes people resistant. Jesus told people to count the cost and consider the significance of a commitment to follow Him. Jesus is not looking for lip service or uncommitted acknowledgement; He is looking for people to surrender their lives to Him. This, in itself, makes it difficult for many people to believe and follow Christ.
Second, God’s Spirit is greater than man’s disbelief. Think about the woman at the well at Samaria. She came from a very resistant group. Samaritans and Jews had nothing to do with one another. Jewish men did not talk to women in public who were not their wives, and, possibly most difficult, Jews and Samaritans believed differently.
In spite of all of this, the woman became a believer and took Christ to her whole community. Many people from this resistant group came to know Christ because of the testimony of this woman.
Third, people become believers when they meet Jesus. This woman had known the beliefs of Jews for all of her life. It was not Judaism that brought her to faith; it was meeting Jesus. While religion may not be attractive, the life and person of Jesus is magnetic.
People may not like our worship services or ministries, but they deeply respect the person of Jesus as found in the Gospels.
Finally, people become believers when they see the power of Jesus to give them a “rich and satisfying life” (John 10:10, NLT). The woman at the well experienced a broken life. She looked for meaning in failed relationships; she found joy in the work of Christ to completely save and change her.
Let us not give up on the youngest generation. Let us pray, encourage, love, and care for the people around us. Let us live lives of service and prayer, caring for their eternal destiny.
God has called us to take the Gospel to all people–whether resistant or not. Let us be faithful to the call of God.
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One Response
We are a funny bunch of people to urge young people to learn to think for themselves and then to urge them to surrender their will to another and expect them to do so without question. “Because I said so” may have worked in the sheltered insulation of past generations, but no more.
Your challenging your readers to seek Him is a balm to my wounded soul; because you invite the questions, solicit dialogue and seek to reason with both the mind and heart of an individual. An awareness of an inborn knowledge helps. Perhaps it is essential. We often find that we know or have something, only later to be able to label it.
There is a proverb: Even a child is known by his doings. This proverb is multi sided. A child observes in black and white contexts, contradictions are noted, what is done absorbed over what is said. Context is the key to approaching God, the key to making disciples, the key to coming to the conclusion of both the existence of God, and His Purpose. I write this not as an original thought. I write with the biography of C. S. (Jack) Lewis as a back drop. C. S. Lewis on Joy is suggested reading.
As I have written that Romans 8:28 must be viewed by the Christian as an opportunity to draw closer to God to glorify Him in the travails of life, so too, is it incumbent upon the “Believer” to embark on the adventure of discovering the other parts of His and ones own Body in Christ, as revealed in Scripture.
May each work out ones own Salvation to find the interdependence intended.
Thank you for Blessing me.
Blessings