There was an interesting article in The Times the other day, about the new Church of England report Making Sense of Generation Y. Basically, they conclude that while there might be some interest in spiritual matters among the young, there doesn't seem to be any great spiritual hunger - there is no sign of a "God-shaped void".
iMonk has written helpfully about this. I guess I'll just try to throw out a few quick thoughts as to why there is no hunger...
I might expand on these at a future date:
- No sense of God's holiness
- Failure to recognise the transcendent authority of God - he isn't just the God of Christians, he is God
- Lack of awareness of their own mortality. More to the point, it scares them, so they don't think about it.
- Almost complete absence of any sense of enduring guilt, sin or unworthiness
- They don't see that true joy can be found only in Christ
Why don't they understand? Why don't they hear? Why don't they hunger after Christ?
Because those failing aren't just the failings of society, they are also the failings of the church in this society. I don't know which came first, whether the Church lost its awareness and that caused society to lose it, or whether the Church blindly followed society.
Perhaps if we as Christians lived those out, then people might notice and might start hungering after God.
2 comments:
'Most of us are desperately afraid of any kind of conversation or relationship that puts us in the position of allowing unbelievers complete and total respect.' - writes the Internet Monk.
How true those words are.
Absolutely.
Works the other way round too, of course.
Post a Comment