Collin Hansen has a great article in Christianity Today today.
He first states the problem:
You know the guy. He somehow managed to graduate college, but he still lives with his parents. And he doesn’t plan to move out anytime soon. Or maybe he has a decent job. He lives with some buddies in the city. But he blows most of his money on video games and his latest efforts to bring a girl back to his place.
….
“Dating gives way to Facebook and hooking up,” [David] Brooks writes. “Marriage gives way to cohabitation. Church attendance gives way to spiritual longing. Newspaper reading gives way to blogging.” It’s not that young people today just want to slack off and don’t care about each other, Brooks cautions. “It’s a phase in which some social institutions flourish—knitting circles, Teach for America—while others—churches, political parties—have trouble establishing ties.”
He then points out the need for and difficulty with finding a solution:
Certainly this challenge requires a missionary response from our churches. If these men will not come and join our worship services, we must go and seek them. This imperative seems to inspire the current “missional” rage among evangelicals. Evangelistic appeals grounded in felt needs won’t do the trick with these men. What good is this approach when we see no evidence that these young men feel the need to change? And if we adjust our beliefs and behaviors in order to attract these men, we run the risk of peddling the gospel and precluding God-given transformation.
the solution that Collin proposes resonates with me. it is what I was driving at here, here and here, for instance.
here is part of what Collin proposes, but you have to read the rest over at Christianity Today.
No, there must be something different and demanding about the gospel if we expect these men to abandon their self-concerned lives. Thankfully, that’s exactly the gospel we proclaim, Jesus Christ and him crucified. Jesus himself set the standard for discipleship. “If anyone would come after me,” he said, “let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matt. 16:24-25). Jesus calls his followers to entrust their anxieties to him and devote themselves fully to serving God and his kingdom. These are difficult words, but we cannot survive the wrath of God unless we heed them. Seeking first the kingdom means nothing less than abandoning ourselves for the refuge of God’s grace.
so, the exit question for us all is: “is this really the gospel we proclaim?” if not, why not?