EUREKA!

             I just heard a statistic yesterday that said four out of five young people are leaving church.  Woa!  How in the world are we going to be a light to the people around us if the people who know the in's and out's of Christianity are saying there is nothing here worth following?  The mantra of today's Christian young people is that we want something more.  The whole impetus behind the emergent church is a belief that the typical Bible belt Christian of America has missed something drastic.  The core of America's Christian stereotype is a moral, Blue Collar, Republican, Caucasian, from a rural area who works hard, goes to church on Sundays, and does good community things the rest of the week.  For some reason there has been a reaction in the past ten years to this picture of Christianity.  Listen to Shane Claiborne, Rob Bell, and the rest of the emergent church and you will hear the subtle tones that "normal" American Christianity has missed really missed something.
               Now, if I thought the emergent church had their head in the sand and was seeing some kind of false reality I would pass the whole movement off.  However, I feel strongly that the emergent church has put their finger on a huge problem, and so I rise up with the young people of my generation and say there has got to be more to Christianity.  As I voice my opinion, I find that I am far from alone.  The cry of the Christian young people of our age seems to be either that Christianity was not the real deal and so I left, or if Christianity is the real deal there has got to be more to it.
             A number of years back, convinced that I was going to do "big things" for God I began searching for where God wanted me to serve.  Surely it had to be on some great mission field doing exciting things, because this is always where you find the real Christians.  I began asking God, "Where do you want me to go?"  I went on mission trips to test different areas.  I prepared to leave the area by going to college so I would have access to foreign limited access nations.  In the middle of all this God seemed strangely quiet, and so I searched harder and asked with more desperation, "God, what is your will for my life?" I asked day after day.  I searched and searched.  Nothing seemed to break through.   Dream after dream of a life of excitement crumbled in front of me until I finally came to the realization that God is calling me to live in "Bible belt" Lancaster County.  I'm Caucasian.  If you don't know me very well you'd think I'm a Republican.  Everywhere I look I see fields and cows - yup, it's a rural area all right.  I work hard and go to church on Sundays: a normal church - we don't meet under a bridge or in a coffee shop or some other cool place.  I try to do good community things when I'm not at church.  Yea, you guessed it.  I'm the stereotype of American Christianity and for a while it drove me crazy.  I knew God had missed something.
               All my life I've wanted to live an abnormal life.  I didn't want more normal Christianity, but every time I heard God's voice it was calling me back to a life of what I thought was normalcy.  Finally I gave up trying.  I found a job 5 minutes from my house where I work 40 - 50 hours a week.  I decided to put my energy into my local church - not that exciting but it's where God called me.  The amazing thing is that I am finally finding the fire that I've been looking for for so long.  I feel like I was a worm and I just stepped out of my caccoon.  Suddenly some things are looking a bit different.  Maybe way different.  I'm also seeing in more and more ways that what I'm finding, perfectly lines up with story after story in the gospels.  Let me explain myself.
                In Luke 17 the disciples ask Jesus, "Lord, increase our faith."  I can almost read their thoughts.  Wow we are gonna soon be able to really do great things for God once we get this truckload of faith.  Jesus' response is very intriguing.  He almost brushes the question off with a quick statement that if you have faith as small as a mustard seed you will be able to move mountains.  Jesus basically said that with virtually no faith at all you can move continents around if you want to.  Okay?  Jesus goes on to truly answer the disciples question.  He gives the example of a master and his servant.  The servant has been working for his master all day while (reading between the lines) the master has been out playing golf for the day.  When the master comes home who gets to eat first?: the master of course.  After the master has eaten and all the master's needs are met the servant finally gets a chance to sit down and get some food and rest.  What is the servants proper response?  "I have only done my duty."
              What is Jesus saying?  I think he is saying that the issue at the heart of God is being faithful, not having faith.  But aren't these two words the same?  I believe he who is faithful should be thought of as a person of great faith (full of faith = faithful).  In modern Christian terminology we do not use these two words the same.  We think of faith as a thought, a mind over matter projection of my intellect.  However, a person who is faithful is one who consistently obeys the wishes of his master.  The commonly accepted thought process is that if I can just think correctly about God I can heal this person, I can do this miracle or have this prayer answered.  That is what I believe the disciples wanted.  They were not content with the stereotype God-following Judiasm of their day and they wanted more, and so they asked Jesus to increase their faith.  Jesus called them to be faithful.
             For years my prayers to God were, "God show me your will."  However, I'm seeing more and more that my prayer should be (as it says in the Lord's prayer), "Father, your will be done," and "God, help me be faithful."  Since I started praying these two prayers my Christian life has been anything but normal.  There has been a huge change, but it has not come from changing what type of building I meet in Sunday mornings, or going to some far-out place to do missions.  The change has come from being faithful.  I pray that one day I will be eligible for the Hall of Faith, not because I knew how to concentrate my beliefs in God in the right way so I could do miracles and be an extremely "alive" Christian, but because I have simply done my duty.
             This idea of faithfulness is everywhere in the gospels: the 5 virgins who stayed awake,  the poor widow who kept begging the judge, the servants who were given talents,.......  Ephesians says, "By grace you are saved through faith."  God extends salvation to the people who are willing to faithfully follow him.  Does that mean we're earning our salvation? No.  Part of my journey of learning faithfulness has been a whole new concept of salvation and the gospel message.  Let me explain it like this.
           I believe the book of Nehemiah paints a picture of the Christian life.  The nation of Israel was in captivity because of their sin.  The city of Jerusalem was broken down.  The land was ruled by God-mockers.  The temple was burnt.  Our lives were like the city of Jerusalem.  They were broken down with sin.  "Self" the God-mocker, ruled our heart.  The temple God's place of residence in our life was completely non-existence.  At salvation a new king comes to rule the city.  Our lives are under new management.  God's presence moves into our lives as our hearts become a place of worship.  However, just like the walls of Jerusalem were still broken down for years after the Jews returned to Israel, there are many areas in my life that still need mending.  As we faithfully follow God he rebuilds our walls.  The king resides in the city whose people are willing to be faithful.  We are saved through faithfulness.
          The initial establishment of a new king in the city occurs as we accept Christ's invitation to the wedding feast (to use an analogy from another of Jesus' parables).  Sure there is some "head-work" done here because we have to believe that there is a God who is inviting us to a wedding feast.  All we do at salvation is accept the invitation to let God be king.  Our faithfulness to God is a response to him becoming the king  To conclude I believe the faith that God is talking about has more to do with our modern day usage of the word faithful, than our typical modern day use of the word faith.
           So you want more from Christianity young person?  Start being faithful.  Many young people have not been disillusioned by Christianity because the last generation was not exciting enough but because the past generation was not faithful enough.  To get true Christianity back we cannot go searching for excitement but for faithfulness.
          These are a few of my musings as of late.  Next week they will probably be slightly refined and changed but I thought I'd throw the very very rough copy out on the table for now.