Exiles
So I have been having a number of conversations recently with people about things that I heard and experienced in Atlanta, books that I am now reading or preparing to read, and just thoughts that have been coming up for me as a result of these things. There is too much to sit down and write it all in one sitting, but I would like to write a brief reflection on the first 4 chapters of the book I am currently reading, You Lost Me, by David Kinnaman. You Lost Me is a book about "why young Christians are leaving the church...and rethinking faith." (that's actually the subtitle). I am finding it a really interesting read. So far the book has been about the dropout problem as it relates to young adults and who these "dropouts" are. There is so much I could write about this phenomenon, obviously as Kinnaman wrote 4 chapters about it. But what I want to talk about is the three categories young adults who leave the church tend to fall into - Nomads, Prodigals, and Exiles. I would also like to emphasize a point that Kinnaman emphasizes throughout these chapters - while there are themes in the stories of the young adults leaving the church, each story has its own unique factors, and every story matters. But for the sake of looking at this as a broad topic rather than in relation to a specific person, here are the descriptions of the three categories:
1. Nomads - Nomads are people who leave the church because it has become less important to them. Often they had no intention to drift away from the church, but they just became involved in other things. It may not be important to their friends, and become unimportant to them for that reason. Nomads still call themselves Christian, and typically have no ill feelings toward the church, they just don't consider it to be important to them right now. Many of them think they will one day return to the church.
2. Prodigals - Prodigals are people who walk away from the church and no longer call themselves Christian. They may label themselves as agnostic, atheist, or even claim another religion. They often have had negative experiences with the church that have led them to this decision. Those who have not had negative experiences with the church often have intellectual conflicts with Christianity.
3. Exiles - Exiles are people who still love Christ and want to live out their Christianity in the world, but are struggling to match up their faith with their life outside of the church. Many exiles see big problems in the church and feel the church is heading in the wrong direction. They sometimes feel they can do God's work more effectively outside of the church than within it.
I see all three of these groups in the young adult population, but I think the one that hits home most for me is the exiles. Honestly, I see some of my own struggles within that category. I can understand the temptation to try to do God's work outside of the church, but my basic determination is that while there are issues with the institutional church, we can only correct those issues from inside, not as outsiders. And that is why I have determined that being a part of the church is important to me.
I bring all of this up to give a background to what I am thinking right now. See in the section I just read of Kinnaman's book, he compares the modern day exile experience to that of Daniel. Daniel was an exile. He was from Judah, but was forced to move to Babylon and live under the rule of the king. He was forced to figure out what living out his faith in this new understanding looked like, to figure out what it meant to live in but not of this world. Daniel and his friends could not live out their faith in the same way that their parents did in Judah because their context was different. They were in a world where they were told to worship the king and the many gods of Babylon. But as they adjusted to their new reality, they found new ways to be genuinely faithful. And that is what we must each do in our time as well. Each generation presents new challenges. The world around us is constantly changing, and we must continually adapt how we live in but not of the world to these changes.
We need to accept that the next generation's faith will not look exactly like ours because their reality is different. So instead of trying to pass on our faith, we must give them the tools to live genuinely faithful lives in new ways that work in their context. When we tell people that our way is the only way to live out faith, and they feel the tension with the reality they see around them, we are creating exiles around us. When the true reality is that my faith will not look exactly like your faith. And that's ok. Because God has given each of us unique gifts and abilities, unique dreams for the future, unique experiences to draw from, and with all that, there is no way that any cookie cutter faith will ever fit.
We have this phenomenon in our culture that I refer to as the "I'm right and you're stupid" phenomenon. It is one of my biggest concerns when I look at our society as a whole, and especially when I see it within the church because we do each other a disservice when we view the world this way. After all, who was it that Jesus had the most issue with during his time on earth? Those who were so focused on the law and how faith must be practiced that they forgot to love people. So what if we let go of this idea that there is a "right" way to do faith, and instead focus on loving people and working to figure out how to live out faith in our new reality together? I bet we could change the world...
1. Nomads - Nomads are people who leave the church because it has become less important to them. Often they had no intention to drift away from the church, but they just became involved in other things. It may not be important to their friends, and become unimportant to them for that reason. Nomads still call themselves Christian, and typically have no ill feelings toward the church, they just don't consider it to be important to them right now. Many of them think they will one day return to the church.
2. Prodigals - Prodigals are people who walk away from the church and no longer call themselves Christian. They may label themselves as agnostic, atheist, or even claim another religion. They often have had negative experiences with the church that have led them to this decision. Those who have not had negative experiences with the church often have intellectual conflicts with Christianity.
3. Exiles - Exiles are people who still love Christ and want to live out their Christianity in the world, but are struggling to match up their faith with their life outside of the church. Many exiles see big problems in the church and feel the church is heading in the wrong direction. They sometimes feel they can do God's work more effectively outside of the church than within it.
I see all three of these groups in the young adult population, but I think the one that hits home most for me is the exiles. Honestly, I see some of my own struggles within that category. I can understand the temptation to try to do God's work outside of the church, but my basic determination is that while there are issues with the institutional church, we can only correct those issues from inside, not as outsiders. And that is why I have determined that being a part of the church is important to me.
I bring all of this up to give a background to what I am thinking right now. See in the section I just read of Kinnaman's book, he compares the modern day exile experience to that of Daniel. Daniel was an exile. He was from Judah, but was forced to move to Babylon and live under the rule of the king. He was forced to figure out what living out his faith in this new understanding looked like, to figure out what it meant to live in but not of this world. Daniel and his friends could not live out their faith in the same way that their parents did in Judah because their context was different. They were in a world where they were told to worship the king and the many gods of Babylon. But as they adjusted to their new reality, they found new ways to be genuinely faithful. And that is what we must each do in our time as well. Each generation presents new challenges. The world around us is constantly changing, and we must continually adapt how we live in but not of the world to these changes.
We need to accept that the next generation's faith will not look exactly like ours because their reality is different. So instead of trying to pass on our faith, we must give them the tools to live genuinely faithful lives in new ways that work in their context. When we tell people that our way is the only way to live out faith, and they feel the tension with the reality they see around them, we are creating exiles around us. When the true reality is that my faith will not look exactly like your faith. And that's ok. Because God has given each of us unique gifts and abilities, unique dreams for the future, unique experiences to draw from, and with all that, there is no way that any cookie cutter faith will ever fit.
We have this phenomenon in our culture that I refer to as the "I'm right and you're stupid" phenomenon. It is one of my biggest concerns when I look at our society as a whole, and especially when I see it within the church because we do each other a disservice when we view the world this way. After all, who was it that Jesus had the most issue with during his time on earth? Those who were so focused on the law and how faith must be practiced that they forgot to love people. So what if we let go of this idea that there is a "right" way to do faith, and instead focus on loving people and working to figure out how to live out faith in our new reality together? I bet we could change the world...
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