here's hoping the proverbial pen is mightier....

whoa, it's been awhile. perhaps more of my ranting will be publicized after finals/ uni graduation. my last few weeks of being a uni student are interesting; i've noticed a few things. The one on my mind right now is being brought about by sitting in BCM today - that's baptist collegiate ministries. So, we good little christian kids all have lunch together, listen to music, and then are treated to an encouraging message by a notable speaker of the week. I've been ticked by speakers before, but today really did it for me. So, a kinda loud southern guy in a suit. Hmmm... okay. Step one: not identifying with his audience. Sure. I can get over appearances.... but his message is no better... ranting, rambling... what's he talking about? Abundant life maybe? then he talks about the ministry he's involved in... telethons with Billy Graham crusades. he asks us trivia questions about Mr. Graham, the Graham family, the number of years of his ministry, his kids, how many people are saved because of Billy....
as can be imagined, most of the college students have no idea.
His basic point seemed to be "if you're not saved, you're missing out, cause jesus loves you and died for you"
and if you are saved "hand out these billy graham tracts to people, cause they know who he is and people are more interested in what you have to say than you think. As a matter of fact, there was this one time i was in the grocery store and i was talking to this lady..." then proceeds to give several anecdotes of people he's given tracts to.
"cause there's nothing better than giving these things out to people, all the houses and cars and pleasure in the world can't compare..."
Just a few points on this one:
1)contrary to what it seems, i'm not really knocking this guy. he seemed fine, nice, "genuine" enough. but he had several misconceptions about my generation and it's view on life and faith. Maybe he should stick to handing out his tracts to people his age. that's fine.
2)but we postmoderns know diddly about billy graham and church-as-usual. And most college students dont give a darn about either. Handing out billy's tracts aren't going to do much if anything.
3)yes, we would like to invest ourselves in other people's lives, and we'd like to think that our friendship and discussions are better methods of "evangelism" than pretty pieces of paper.
4)as we grow up, we're not going to become just like you. your methods arent going to work anymore. billy's going to die. The world's not just going to change...it has already changed, and we do things differently. and the way we do things is NOT wrong or unbiblical.
5)we dont really care so much about houses and cars. this is another generational thing. The baby-boomers can be super materialistic and will say things like "ask any college student, they'll tell you they want to be rich and sucessful!" i hear that in church all the time. and i'm not so sure that's true anymore. of course, who wouldnt mind having extra cash and a ferrari? But ask us what we really want, and it's to enjoy life. We dont have to be affluent, or even own a car. we just want to enjoy what we do, where we are, and the people we're around.
6)we dont want anecdotes. we want truth.
7)let's say i'm not saved. so...i'm missing out on some intangible "love" and some dead person and handing out tracts in the grocery store. whoop-de-do. but tell me there is more to learn, more truth, more meaning, something reasonable and logical and live-able without putting on a suit and being rich and doing these churchy things.. then maybe i'm in. we can talk more about it. (please note-talk, not tracts)
8)church as usual, telethons, crusades, tracts... yeah, we don't like that stuff. at all. (back to point 4)

The stuff we're being told... again, "church-as-usual" is not reaching the unchurched of our generation. It's not even cutting it for the churched kids. Tell me you don't long for church to be more than it is? Surely you hope for more? Ok... well, i do.