I'm sore. I'm tired. My back and legs feel like they're on fire. Two showers later, and I think I've finally ceased to smell like a mosh pit. How I don't have a black eye or a mass of bruises on my person, I'm not sure.
But the dangers of the mosh pit were worth it to watch Thousand Foot Krutch during the Rock the River tour (sponsered by the Billy Graham Association and Ransom.TV) in Winnipeg on Saturday night.
Like many of the teens and young adults in the crowd, I'd initially been drawn in by the free concerts (And to listen to TFK and another one of my favourite bands, The Letter Black, both of whom I still would have paid money to see. To hear them both for free was a bonus.). Franklin Graham (the son of renowned evangelist Billy Graham) and his altar calls were... for lack of a better word, a bonus that the un-churched in the crowd may not have been expecting.
During one of the many counselling sessions over the evening, when people would be able to pray for salvation, a recorded video from Skillet (which happens to be my favourite band of all time. Just a side note.) was played on the screens for everyone to watch. In it, frontman John Cooper spoke of how the church has done a bad job of relating to real-life issues that the kids in the church are going through- such as relationship issues, depression, problem 'friends', drugs and suicide. Skillet's popular song "The Last Night" is one such example- 'normal' churches have evidently classed that song, which tells of a girl who wants to kill herself and is told by God that she doesn't ever have to spend another night alone, as too "out-there" or too negative for a Christian band. Despite that, countless teens have mailed, emailed, Facebooked or otherwise told Skillet that that song has saved their lives and kept them from following the girl in the song to suicide.
How many churches talk about suicide? How many churches talk about real teen issues, such as premarital sex, drugs, depression, or even 'simple' things such as friend issues or relationship woes, to the people who need to hear it? How many instead sweep everything under the rug and assume that parents will talk to their kids about that, or instead just say that it's wrong to be involved with any of that and will jeopardize one's relationship with God? Why does the church not want to dirty their clean hands with real-world dirt and grime that the rest of us have to trudge through?
For that manner, how many churches actually preach the salvation message in their sermons, instead of just assuming that everyone in the service is a Christian already? Why do churches like to speak of grand, deep mysteries hidden in Paul's letters or preaching about the Books of the Law, instead of reiterating the simple Gospel messages that the unsaved need to hear?
The teenager who got dragged to church against his will by his parents doesn't need to hear about the deep, theological messages in Ephesians. The alcoholic present on the invitation of his neighbour doesn't need to hear one of the Pslams picked away to its theological bones. That theology's fine for some, but those people need to hear what Jesus did for them, and how much God loves them, more than they need to hear theology that makes no sense to them. Because motivational Christian speakers like Franklin Graham or Reggie Dabbs can't be everywhere to tell the unsaved what was done for them two thousand years ago, or that the real-life issues they're dealing with, but are too afraid to tell the church about for fear of judgement, are forgivable and fixable.
Where did we, as the church, go wrong?
"You are the light of the world... let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." -Jesus Christ (Matthew 5:14-16, NIV)
No comments:
Post a Comment