Generation-X

Generation-X

When most people hear the label Generation –X they think of a hopeless generation of youth that have given into the pressures of the world. I would like you to think of the X as the Greek symbol for “Chi” which is used as a symbol for Christ. In this decade the youth involved in the Christianity has grown significantly. Youth are responding to the church in ways that the past generation did not. Where mom and dad embraced the tumultuous sixties their children have taken hold of Christianity. The youth organizations that promote the Protestant doctrine have seen the youth membership grow by 50% since 1990. Catholic Churches have witnessed their youth involvement double in the last decade. The youth are coming from all walks of life, backgrounds and income levels. Although the majority seems to be whites, the number of young blacks involved in Christianity has become notable.

An example of this movement is at the First Baptist Fellowship Church in Pine Bluff, where aggressive steps have been taken to introduce the youth to the teachings of Christianity. Youth pastor Chris Meyer says that in the past seven years the inrolment of the youth has grown from around Fifty to over two hundred as of February 1999. Meyer says “ The membership in our youth program began to explode in such a short time that the church didn’t have a place big enough to hold them.” Of the two hundred or so young people (ages 14-24) 25% of them come from Pine Bluff’s low income black population. Most of the black children came to the church by way of the Light House, a old bakery in the middle of the black majority neighborhoods that the Church set up to counsel people in the poor part of town. Meyer says “ kids began to hang around the ce...

... middle of paper ...

....” This scripture is consistent with the growing youth movement. Young people are receiving salvation, witnessing and praising God with a passion that has not been seen in the recent past. All of this seems to point to the Second Coming of the Lord, which makes the work of the ministry all the more urgent. Take a look at your own church. Does it have a passion for young people or has it written them of to being a condemned generation? Jesus said in John 3:17 “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” Review your every day world and see if there is a young person that you could influence and share the news that Jesus loves them. Remember the words of Jesus in Matthew 9:37 “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”