Voices of My Generation :: Joshua Harris
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Every generation asks questions about what the generation before it says about life, the universe and everything. This is true in every culture and subculture. My generation, and specifically the sub-culture of my generation that was raised in the church, is no exception.
We asked questions about worship.
We asked questions about ritual.
We asked questions about hypocrisy in the church.
We asked questions about relationships.
Specifically, we asked questions about the quality of the culture and environment that was created by dating.
During that time a young man voiced what many of us were developing in our own understanding of relationships in his book I Kissed Dating Goodbye. While we had arguments and disagreements about the firmness of the stances he took on the issue, in that book Joshua Harris emerged as one of the voices of my generation.
One of the voices that is listened to.
One of the voices that can reach into our generation and culture and put into words the events and philosophies on our hearts.
We grew, we married, we experienced life, and Josh Harris continued to write books on these experiences. Now we're the adults in the world. We're the ones having kids, running companies and shaping ministries. As we enter this new phase of life, Josh has once again written a book that looks with insight into the ideas that our communities are talking about in his newest title: Stop Dating the Church
Once again, he says it all in the title. With the exception of my friend Andy, who has been part of the same church for years, most of us wandered from church to church in our younger years. We actually embraced the fact that they were the wandering years of our lives. I havent read Joshua's newest book, and being on the other side of the globe I might never get to read it, but it's not hard to see this is my generation's new challenge: Dig In.
If there is hypocrosy, weakness, dullness, whatever-ness in the church we have a choice. We can continue to "break up" with our churches when things aren't what we want and move on to something easier, something new and sexy, but that road leads to dirty old men, set in their hypocrisies. Isn't that what we had problems with in the first place? Or we can dig in, we can follow God and impact our brothers and sisters around us to do the same.
Many of us are still young, still prone to run, but it is time to dig those heals in and make the church our family, not a one-night stand.
We asked questions about worship.
We asked questions about ritual.
We asked questions about hypocrisy in the church.
We asked questions about relationships.
Specifically, we asked questions about the quality of the culture and environment that was created by dating.
During that time a young man voiced what many of us were developing in our own understanding of relationships in his book I Kissed Dating Goodbye. While we had arguments and disagreements about the firmness of the stances he took on the issue, in that book Joshua Harris emerged as one of the voices of my generation.
One of the voices that is listened to.
One of the voices that can reach into our generation and culture and put into words the events and philosophies on our hearts.
We grew, we married, we experienced life, and Josh Harris continued to write books on these experiences. Now we're the adults in the world. We're the ones having kids, running companies and shaping ministries. As we enter this new phase of life, Josh has once again written a book that looks with insight into the ideas that our communities are talking about in his newest title: Stop Dating the Church
...this book is marking a very important transition in my life. The church isn't some other generation's responsibility—it isn't somebody else's business. I have to take responsibility. I have to be passionate and committed to it. Through the pages of this book I'm calling my generation to do the same. -Joshua Harris
Once again, he says it all in the title. With the exception of my friend Andy, who has been part of the same church for years, most of us wandered from church to church in our younger years. We actually embraced the fact that they were the wandering years of our lives. I havent read Joshua's newest book, and being on the other side of the globe I might never get to read it, but it's not hard to see this is my generation's new challenge: Dig In.
If there is hypocrosy, weakness, dullness, whatever-ness in the church we have a choice. We can continue to "break up" with our churches when things aren't what we want and move on to something easier, something new and sexy, but that road leads to dirty old men, set in their hypocrisies. Isn't that what we had problems with in the first place? Or we can dig in, we can follow God and impact our brothers and sisters around us to do the same.
Many of us are still young, still prone to run, but it is time to dig those heals in and make the church our family, not a one-night stand.
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