Postmodern generation prompts change in worship style, feel of
worship
By Lori Arnold
CHRISTIAN TIMES

SAN DIEGO — Two by two they come seeking refuge from the driving elements. Just like in the days of Noah, God's people seek shelter from the punishing environment. Unlike in the days of Noah, these people—coming solo, in groups and by pairs—are desperate for the flood.

It's Sunday night and the gymnasium at College Avenue Baptist Church is pitch dark. To the outsider, the evening service must be hours away. To the insider, it's just one chord from reality.

Welcome to The Flood.

"We wanted to give them the feeling that this is not their office building, this is not their school," said Matt Hammett, the high school pastor that oversees The Flood, one of six services at CHBC.

With dim lights, candles and an outdoor coffeehouse, The Flood was designed for younger adults, an increasingly difficult group for churches to corral.

Many in the circles that understand these things attribute the phenomenon to a concept called Postmodernism. A theo-philosophical term that is as difficult to define as the age group it targets. Gen X, Generation Y, hip, aloof, demanding, unreachable, searching, gadget-savvy, drawn to the simple.

"As the enlightenment period started it was probably difficult to define it and how it was going to go either way," said Dan Kimball, pastor of the Graceland service at Santa Cruz Bible Church.

Like College Avenue and dozens of other churches across the country, Santa Cruz launched the service after discovering a significant void in the post-high school crowd.

"I noticed something was changing culturally while we were trying to reach the non-Christian kids," Kimball said.

"The church here is very dynamic. It's not like we don't have relevant services to offer."

With the young people clearly not responding to what his church had to offer, the leadership went about revamping the service.

"We now have instant access to a global world," Kimball said. "It's starting to change people's views and our responses to everything. The method of reaching young people needs to change, too."

Hammett agreed. The Flood, he said, emerged out of a monthly Prayer Jam, a deep time of worship for the high schoolers.

"It was a chance for kids to experience God and have a serious time of prayer," he said.

After several trial runs last spring, The Flood was launched Oct. 22, drawing about 100 people.

"It's not meant to be exclusive, but stylistically it's geared toward younger adults," he said. "I just know it's clearly a style that this generation is dialing into."

The service now draws more than 800 on a regular basis. It could prompt a second service, he said.

"We continually forward the Gospel to new addresses," Hammett said. "The Gospel doesn't change, but where we are sending it does. It's not even an issue of keeping up with culture. It's an issue of meeting people's needs."

Nearly five years ago, Mark Driscoll, then the college pastor at Antioch Bible College, was seeing a similar trend in Seattle, considered by many to be the grunge capital of the United States. Statistics also show it's the least churched state in the country.

"After high school they fell off this cliff and they normally didn't crawl back until they got themselves in trouble," said Driscoll, founder of Mars Hill Fellowship in Seattle.

Felt called to the city, Driscoll said young adults were left in the backdraft as young married couples flocked to the suburbs to raise their families.

"We wanted to get people earlier, before they settled in to that," Driscoll said. "But the models we saw weren't reaching the people they were trying to reach."

While the tinkering has been challenging and the evolution consistent, the pastors said there is no choice. Christ commands his people to reach the lost and disciple the saved. Figuring where to start, though, isn't always as clear-cut. And, like it or not, Graceland's Kimball said, young people are getting theology whether they are in church or not. Concepts such as Armageddon and Satan are being learned, scripturally sound or not, through the media, sometimes through silver screen sagas with plots that are grounded more in entertainment than in the Gospel.

Kimball said the mission for spiritual leaders hasn't changed much over the past few decades. When the post-Cleaver generation began to shun the religion of their parents, churches responded by removing crosses, stained glass windows and pews, replacing them with concert-style auditoriums.

"Now what's happening, more and more, kids aren't even exposed to church," he said. "We find ourselves minus square one because you have to deconstruct Christianity and then reconstruct it correctly."

Another obstacle, he said, it the postmodern's view of Christians, which is more negative than ever before. Previously, apologetics centered on the church, now the focus is the followers of Christ.

He said a recent survey asked young people what they thought of Jesus Christ. The responses, for the most part, were favorable, with answers such as beautiful, wonderful teacher or someone I would like to be like. When the same group was asked about what they thought about Christians, the responses included such words as warped, dogmatic and people who point out wrongdoings.

Even concepts about God have shifted from the Old Testament view of an angry God to an ultra New Testament interpretation that God is so loving that just about anything goes.

"The biggest thing is the Bible is viewed differently," Kimball said. "They see it as a man-made story used by the early church and today for control and power over the people. Years ago, when Billy Graham held up the Bible it had authority, even for non-Christians."

Even so, Kimball said he's found a remarkable interest among young people who are willing to discuss—and listen—to issues of spirituality.

"You don't have to skirt the issue anymore," he said. "You can talk straight out about heaven, about hell and about sin. There is more openness to talk about the blunt things of faith."

Driscoll said he believes the effort to reach young people would be much easier for churches to comprehend and tackle if their work was viewed like a mission field.

"We feel we're living in a new day and if we are going to be missionaries, we need a new approach," said Driscoll, adding that he sees his work as similar to that done by the Apostle Paul.

"Most churches do missions over in other countries," he said. "We do missions in Seattle.

"In the United States we don't do that. The church exists separately. We study culture for the purpose of evangelism and not just because we think it's cool or because it's hip."

Kimball is amused by comments that his service is cutting edge because it focuses so much on prayer and quiet time.

"It's not that one thing is right or one thing is wrong, but it's more of a rawness, a back to the basics, which is why it's not really new," Kimball said