There
are dozens of "posts" in our current day and age. These include, but
are surely not limited to, post-Christendom, post-modern, and
post-colonial. I want to talk about another one though and how it
relates to our mission as Christ's Body.
Growing up I was
taught about the "American Dream". I never had a class that dealt with
the term and never saw it in a text book, but I was taught it
nonetheless. Basically, it was the idea that if I worked hard, was a
good person, and was determined to be successful, I would be. This
would bring me all the things that make life easier. Things like a good
wife, a few kids, a nice house, a nice car, and all the handy things to
put into that house to make life blissful. Maybe I'd even get a white
picket fence. That's the dream. I know we could argue for hours on what
the American Dream really is and what it consists of, but I think my
description is a fair one as far as this post goes.
I was born
in 1972. Kind a weird time for the American Dream. We were about to
learn just how much we couldn't trust our government. We were about to
see the divorce rate hop on a rocket and take off (my parents split up
when I was 5). We were close to seeing our economy go on a virtually
unending series of rises and falls. My generation was one of the first
to see the American Dream for what it really was. A farce.
In
many ways, I have achieved lots of the milestones associated with "the
dream". I have also, many times, lived through the antitheses of "the
dream". Most of the anti-dream stuff I have lived through was purely
economic, but there are other issues out there that can all but
obliterated "the dream". Divorce is a huge one. Absent parents has
hurt. The emergence of an extremely individualistic society (one of the
toys you try for while pursuing the dream) has done much harm.
This
leaves many folks in our society in a weird kind of limbo. The
generation before the Baby Boomers, "the Builders", still believes in
"the dream". By and large they have lived it and still do. Many
Boomers I know still believe in it as well even if they haven't
achieved it. My generation, the busters, or Gen-x, or whatever we are,
have heard of it, been taught it, but by and large think it's not real.
Then you have the Generation Y and Internet Generations who really
don't know what it is and would laugh if you described it. Their world
is much different than the Golden Age.
That's where the Church
comes into the picture. We are called to be salt and light in the
world. We live in a lost, hurting, and dying world. We say that all the
time, but sometimes fail to define and describe what that means.
We
live out amongst people who's lives flat out suck. They are on drugs or
know someone close who is. They have AIDS. They live in a world where
porn is easier to find than a clown at a circus. They're parents are
not only split up, but neither of them care about them so now they
don't know how love anyone. Those who's parents are together have
watched them struggle to keep work, or have had a hard time finding or
keeping work themselves and the only help they've received is from the
government. In spite of medical advances they know someone close who
has a cancer or some other terminal disease and know they will lose
them to it and feel alone. They are mired in depression because of the
ugly, violent world we live in. War and terrorism are words they are
numb to now, but still haven't learned how to deal with.
What
kind of Church do all of these people need to be reaching out to them?
Do they need the churches full of folks who are taught to seek "the
dream" and hold it up as God's favor? Do they need 10 steps to a better
life? Do they need a church that preaches against them instead of
wrapping it's arms around them? Think they'll respond to "good words
and prayer" instead of action and love from a group of affluent
believers who drive $50,000 dollar cars and live in houses too big for
their families?
I don't mean to pick at other believers with
those questions, but it's time that we, as a Church, once and for all
put away this idea of the American Dream. We may not directly talk
about it, but with our lives and actions, we are buying into it and
functionally telling everyone that it's the pinnacle of living.
So
I am going to go out and find these people. I am going to go and love
them, and tell them about the real dream. I am going to go and let them
know that there is indeed a God and not only does he love them, but he
wants to redeem them and everything about their lives. He wants them to
not only bring their lives to him, but their addictions, their broken
relationships, their let downs, and all those things that get in the
way of living life to the fullest. Because see, to be reconciled with
God means that not only are they safe and redeemed for eternity and
have a home with God in the future, but they have a relationship with
the Almighty. That means that no matter what tries to move into their
lives RIGHT NOW and make them miserable, he has already overcome it.
That's a much better message that fire insurance. And he doesn't need
to give them money and things and houses and cars to give them joy.
So
let's go ahead and put out the smoldering pile that has been known as
the "American Dream" and show people Jesus. He'll give them a new
dream, a real dream, and live it with them.
(I have ranted a little. If I have offended, frustrated or aggravated, I apologize.)
Allegiance.
I can remember saying it all through school and being very proud. The
ideas in this short succinct pledge are what we should strive for as a
nation.
this
up. Well, I have recently had more than a few conversations with young
adult non-Christians about what bothers them most about the “Church”
and Christianity. I was trying to find out what their turn offs were
and what keeps them from making Christianity a part of their search for
things spiritual. What was one of the big reasons that each had on
their list? Money. (Remember that I am in the USA, these folks are, and
their experiences are with Christianity in America. I know that it’s
not like this everywhere in the world.) 
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