Heart Transplant

Most people don't even realize that seventy to eighty percent of college-aged people are leaving the church today. One should ask himself how this could go unnoticed. What is causing the drastic decline in this generation? Could it be due to the way people are raised? Where does the responsibility lie? Could it be that possibly the church in general is failing this generation? I believe so, but I am not here to point the finger at one particular group of people. Francis Chan wrote in his book Crazy Love that it's easy to “bash churches…it’s far too easy to blame the church without acknowledging that we are each part of it and therefore responsible”. So how do we, the church, remedy this? We must first identify the problem.

A surgeon won't do reconstructive surgery of the face if a heart transplant is needed. It's easy to get caught up in the outward appearance of things. We tend to focus on aspects such as the building, the music, the chairs, the lights, the projectors and the measly pens with our ministry names printed on the side. We want to make ourselves memorable, could this be materialism? Should this be our sole purpose? Performing a complete makeover, a full face lift in the church today won't make it more attractive or appealing to this generation, especially those leaving. They're fed up with the outward appearance of “church people”, and they want something real. Surveys have shown tha most college-aged people are leaving the church today because they feel no connection to it, “it” being the people, not the building... or the pens. Could we say we may have some things backwards? When we try to fix the problem from the outside we lose the level of reality and connection. What appears to be real is no more than a human’s poor attempt to hold on to people they never had to begin with. This generation sees that. They are longing for relationships but unfortunately most feel like all that exist is religion and tradition, and they want no part of it. This generation sees the people they “go to church with” and not many view them as very different from the typical unbeliever, give or take the fact that they probably drink and swear less than average. This is heart breaking and personally I can understand why most people who see this don't want anything to do with the Church. What is really so different from the world besides the partially sanitized lives? Even Jesus Himself said, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but the inside is full of extortion and self indulgence. Blind Pharisees, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also" (Matt. 23: 25-26).

There must be an inward change, a change in the deepest parts, in the source of life. To remedy this we must go straight to the heart. We need a cleaning out of the arteries that have become so clogged with the mundane religion that gradually slows the flow of life out of the churches. It has become so subtle that few notice what is happening until the shock of the heart attack. When the church is left somewhat paralyzed, unable to function fully like it is created to, that's when they notice. The church is dealing with the effects of a heart attack today, realizing they are losing this generation. There must be a serious paradigm shattering in the church.

Jesus said the two greatest commandments are this, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27). François Fénelon once said, “To just read the Bible, attend church, and avoid “big” sins- is this passionate,wholehearted love for God?” As the church we have a responsibility. Because of the cross of Christ we have been given not only the capacity, but the command to love like Christ. Religion produces a selfish blindness to the truth, holds us back from being who we are called to be and say we are. We say we love people but where are our actions? Our love has slowly faded into merely word and tongue, not in deed and action. This leads us to tradition. Tradition “makes the word of God of no effect” in our individual lives, this is what is seen today. Tradition produces a “form of godliness with no power”, not change in the individual. The church is called to be lights for the world to see our good deeds and therefore glorify God the Father. We are to take on His image, His face; when reconstructive surgery is done by Creator God it will never compare to ours. We can attend service on Sunday morning, tithe, be on the board, teach Sunday school, and give to missions; but what about our neighbor next door, the elderly woman across the street, the homeless person on the downtown corner, or even the young people flocking to the exits of our buildings? Where is the fruit of who we say we are? Where is the extended hand of love that reflects the hand of God that pulled us out of the sin we were in? This generation sees this hypocrisy and says things like “I believe in God, just not organized religion” If the church truly lived like we are called to live one cannot help but wonder what the expression would change to?

If we're ever going to reach this generation we must start with us. We must allow for a heart transplant, not reconstructive surgery of the face. This generation is not looking at the outward appearance of vainness but the genuineness of an undeniable, passionate, pure love among the people who profess His name. We are in desperate need for change and if we don't do something soon we'll simply continue to deteriorate, slowly becoming more unaware of the blockages in our heart until it kills us. We can no longer ignore the heart attacks of our malfunctioned heart. We need a transplant.