Light And Darkness

Light and Darkness

Ephesians 5:1-14

Rev. Brian Bill

March 23-24, 2024

According to a new book by Sarah McCammon called The Exvangelicals, younger generations of evangelicals are drifting away from the church and pushing it into a major identity crisis. She herself has turned her back on the church. This comes with reports of many who are deconstructing their faith. Alisa Childers, who is speaking at the Women’s Iron Sharpens Iron conference at Calvary Church on April 13th, defines deconstruction this way: “The process of systematically dissecting and often rejecting the beliefs you grew up with.”

As several researchers have confirmed, about 30% of Americans select “none” when surveyed about what religion they identify with. Recently, a rising category has emerged among the younger generation called “done,” referring to those who are simply done with church. Hearing about the “nones” and the “dones” can be discouraging.

At the same time, I’m seeing our students and young adults at Edgewood embracing their faith and living out loud for Jesus. I’m so grateful for how God is using Pastor Kyle, Pastor Chris, and Micah Kongkousonh, along with their team of servant leaders.

A couple weeks ago, Trevin Wax posted a very encouraging article called, Rumblings of Revival Among Gen Z? There’s a link on “Sermon Extras” if you’d like to read it. On Tuesday, the pastoral team read this post out loud during our team time and celebrated what God is doing for His glory among this generation made up of ages 12-26.

Trevin begins with this quote:

Gen Z is spiritually starved. The disorienting circumstances of the last three years—a global pandemic, countless mass shootings…a contested election, rapid inflation, and widespread abuse scandals—created a famine of identity, purpose, and belonging. Gen Z is hungry for the very things the empty, desiccated temples of secularism, consumerism, and global digital media cannot provide, but which Jesus can.

Celebrating signs of spiritual hunger as evidenced in the Asbury Awakening, Trevin interviewed Pastor Mark Vance from Cornerstone Church, which launched the Salt Company, a ministry to college students. Their aim is to plant a thriving church and college ministry for the 400 major universities across North America. So far, there are 29 established network churches. Some of our young adults have been saved and discipled through this ministry when they were in college.

Here are six signs of God at work:

1. Conviction of sin among believers. Repentance has become normal and is evidenced by a deep remorse and a heartfelt desire to turn from sin. He tells of a young woman who was living with her boyfriend and came under conviction during a message on holiness and decided to move out that very night. Sleep-walking Christians are waking up.

2. Heightened desire for spiritual disciplines. Young people are hungry to encounter God through ordinary means, such as deeper study of God’s Word and a yearning to pray well and often.

3. Missionary fervor and purpose. Young people are experiencing an increased intensity of passion to live on mission for Christ. Many are renouncing physical comfort or better career prospects to join the work of kingdom expansion amid cultural opposition and the challenges of reaching the globally unreached.

4. Ground zero for apologetics. Almost everything for this generation now centers on the question of identity. The cultural craziness of the moment is an opening as many of them lament, “I know what they’re telling me at school about gender is wrong.” They see close up the wreckage of the sexual revolution. They’re hungry for someone to speak sanity into their lives and to testify to reality.

5. Increase in conversions. The conversion stories fall into two categories. For many, they’ve grown up around the gospel and have some kind of church experience, and yet suddenly they come alive as if the Spirit just electrified their hearts. For others, the background stories include dramatic circumstances, total turnarounds, and people far from God who are suddenly ready for salvation.

6. Beautified church. Many are coming to faith in Christ, partly because when sleepy Christians wake up and nominal Christians get converted, it beautifies the church. The church becomes an attractive and powerful place. In the end, the most powerful apologetic for Christianity is the presence of God’s people. The display of grace-filled gospel Christianity is irresistible for many. The moral witness of the Christian faith shows why it’s better to desire the commitment and stability of marriage than to settle for casual hookups or the loneliness of pornography. To see the joy of intact families, of young people striving for holiness—this is desirable because it’s profoundly beautiful.

Here’s my message from this Baby Boomer to those who make up Gen Z: “I see your zeal and long for it to spread to my generation. May it begin with me. You are not the future of the church; you are the church right now. The church needs you. I need you.”