The Apathetic Messianic Generation
Recently in the election cycle, we saw a large number of Millennial and last Generation X folks come out to protest, get involved, and remain a very vocal group of individuals. They are very passionate about their perspectives on policy, race, and culture as a whole. This got me thinking, where are the Messianic Millennials?
The majority of our movement’s speakers are in their 60’s, the majority of our pastors as well. If you watch FB or other social networking sites you see the majority of the Messianic’s speaking out are also upper 50’s. The conferences are primarily of the same age demographic.
Where are the Messianic Millennials? It sure seems as if we have an apathetic generation.
Just in case there are some here who don’t know what apathetic means it is defined as showing or feeling no interest, enthusiasm, or concern.
To me, this defines the current state of the majority of the Messianic Millennials.
Now before we go too far this is not going to be a beat-up session on Millennials. In fact quite the opposite. If there is a problem or a lack of interest we must troubleshoot to see why this exists. This has been an interest of mine for at least the last 4-5 years. We see throughout scripture Moses to Joshua, Yeshua to the twelve the disciples are a product of their mentor.
This is not a beat-up session but a real look at what our focus is and how the next generation is responding to that focus. My goal is simply to examine are we making disciples like Yeshua did or creating a group of 21st Century Pharisees.
A couple of key things I want you to ask yourself-
- If returning to the Torah is so good, and it has blessed our lives then why are our kids not as excited?
- If we are the last generation and we are to model similarities to previous generations in the Bible do we look like Joshua’s and Caleb’s?
- Are we making disciples or rebellious young adults?
- If it’s broken why don’t we want to fix it?
1. We hear in our movement returning to the Torah is good, we hear Torah used as the balance for judgment, discernment etc. So I ask you which is more important the Torah or Yeshua? The trick question I know right? We know that Yeshua states if you love me you will keep my law. No one can take away the good changes we have seen inside ourselves after we have started to keep the commandments of the lord. However, it hasn’t translated to our children. Let me tell you why. A child expects their parents to love one another, to have a good marriage, to treat them with respect. To offer a safe and happy environment. There are certain unspoken things they expect because they know no different. So we don’t get a medal for not screwing up those things. However, a child also expects respect, trust, honor, and fairness. Most of those are ok, but the Bible isn’t fair, and neither is life. We failed our kids when we broke fellowship for no reason, we failed our kids in chasing all kinds of strange doctrine, and the fashion styles that go with them. We failed our kids in our reasoning for doing what we are doing. A 20 will never see it as a good reason to return to the Feasts and Torah because the world might end. The world might end? It is just starting for me and now it is over? They will automatically associate the Feasts and Torah with something negative. Something they can’t do, or shouldn’t do. This is why so many go after Christianity. Messiah is hope, God is love, forgiveness, joy! There is no condemnation in Christ. The focus of the cross. Yet we also pick apart the validity of the New Testament and thus we invite Anti-Missionaries into our minds before we ever meet them. Why because there are errors in translation and culture. The overwhelming concept of Christianity is that the cross and Messiah was to usher in heaven or hell for you or for me. The overwhelming concept of the New Testament is actually about bringing the Kingdom of God to earth and establishing it here. Yet we see a more active youth movement in Christianity than we do in the Messianic movement. Why? Have we missed the point? Are we focused on the wrong things?
2. If we are the last generation why aren’t we more like Joshua’s and Caleb’s? We actually sound more like the spies who were fearful or we just don’t care. We have become so desensitized to the end of the world that it just doesn’t matter. This is a problem though. Rather than a sound and righteous wave, we have one that has no interest or is reacting out of fear and lack of faith. I need to get married otherwise the world will end, should I even go to college? Who cares none of this really matters so let’s just live it up. Again this isn’t Joshua and this isn’t Caleb. Excited to study the word, to be raised up. To want to see the Lord move. The coming of the Lord should be an awesome thing, not a fearful thing. At no time did Joshua and Caleb bring a positive report due to facts, logic, or by using rational. They brought a positive report because they knew the Lord was with them and they trusted in Him. Are we trusting that by doing the right thing, being righteous, and living Godly that God will take care of us? God will vindicate us, our reward will be full in the return of Messiah? Too many self-fulfilling prophets are running around talking about doom and gloom and the fact Messiah is coming today for one reason. They are facing their own mortality and they are scared. If God doesn’t come back I will die, I might suffer, and I really don’t want any of that. So Messiah is coming today, He’s coming tomorrow, HOLD THE LINE, Messiah is almost here. Messiah will come whenever He wants. We should prepare every day to meet Him. No amount of rolls of quarters, no amount of ammo, no amount of dried foods will bring back Messiah quicker, and in the end, none of that matters if your heart isn’t ready.
3. Are we making disciples or rebellious young adults. We know that Yeshua mentored 12. One was a doubter and one was a betrayer. So the greatest teacher even had troubles with students. Yeshua however taught his disciples how to enjoy life with the boundaries of the Torah. How not to make it rote. He fought against the unnecessary traditions added by the Rabbi’s and yet kept many other traditions. Making disciples is what we are called to do. To make a disciple you must teach, encourage, and be accountable to one another. It is a bond like that of a Father to a son, or mother to daughter. If you leave any of these items out you create rebellion. You teach but are not teachable, rebellion. You teach but don’t encourage rebellion. I’m not saying I am a perfect parent, I am not, but I sit in the middle of two generations and see a general lack of understanding of each side. I see a lack of the Holy Spirit’s leading, a lack of love, a lack of balance in our spiritual walk. I hear the adults say things like the youth are stupid, lazy, and entitled. If that’s the case you are looking at what you created. You created the youth. You were their mentors, you are their leader. You created it. You can also fix it. It’s all in your approach. Thankfully we only have to look as far as the example of leadership set forth by Yeshua to re-calibrate our methods.
4. For the last four years I have witnessed a growing divide amongst the two generations of Messianic believers. One that makes me sad. The relationship, respect, trust is broken and has been, but no one seems to want to listen. Why don’t we want to address and fix our future? We are supposed to make disciples of the Messiah. Yet we don’t worry about the salvation we worry about obedience. We don’t worry about relationships we worry about knowledge. We don’t worry about humility we practice pride. Why? It’s broken and more youth are leaving organized religion than ever. The structure isn’t the problem, the people are. We must be better. We can’t worry about Lady Gaga if we are first setting a better example in our homes and in our relationships. If we do that then Lady Gaga will be of little interest or concern to us and our lives.
We have raised a group of youth who don’t want to participate in worship in our services because we say worship must look like this, the only acceptable dance is our dance moves, and we don’t evolve or grow. Let’s make one thing clear, I don’t want any of you to do Davidic dance. David danced naked so what we do is a clothed replica of Davidic dance. You aren’t dancing naked in my church, I don’t care what David did. We stay the same. Yet if you look at Yeshua’s example he was able to walk freely amongst the religious elite of those days and set forth a movement that changed the world forever. We can’t say Jesus because those types of semantics define us. There is a saying you can be right and also be dead right. We don’t preach salvation we preach obedience. We don’t preach discipleship we preach preparedness. We don’t preach the Holy Spirit and prayer we preach study and midrash. Our minds are smarter and more confused now more than ever, and yet our hearts are just as empty. The youth see this, and they want no part. They want a soulmate, not a date. They want a relationship, not an acquaintance. They want to feel the breath of God rather than know the meaning of words. They want life. You want to know if these youth believe in God! They sure do. They believe in Him because they see him in His creation daily. They find the beauty in Him. They don’t fear his creation. They don’t fear the end of the world. They fear turning out like their parents constantly worried if they are keeping something right, dressed right. If we are all honest we remember what that feels like. We must do better to train, to show, to focus on Messiah’s example. Then and maybe then we can reverse an apathetic Messianic generation.