The Generation That Will Change The World

Received this in an email today:

The day has arrived - Einstein said it and he was right... 

Having a coffee...

Getting together at a restaurant...

Enjoying beautiful art at the museum...

Pleasantly chatting in a cafe'… 

Enjoying a day at the beach...

At the stadium rooting for your team...

Having fun with the girlfriend... 

A drive in a convertible... 

 

Albert Einstein: "I fear the day when the technology overlaps with our humanity. The world will only have a generation of idiots."

I see this attitude prevalent in many folks from my generation and older (Gen X through Silent). This is kind of thing breaks my heart. Here is my response:

I respectfully disagree with this email as someone who has given his life to take the Gospel to emerging generations.

Technology may be overlapping with our humanity but this generation is hardly a generation of idiots. There is great potential in this generation. They care deeply and are motivated to create change. Just look at what is happening in the Arab world. It is this generation. Every year thousands of students are going to the world with the Gospel through organizations like Cru and InterVarsity. Or just look at the members of this generation that serve faithfully in Appalachia.

Einstein was indeed wrong. I believe this generation will be looked back upon as one that sparked a great revival leveraging a global communication system that allows the Gospel to go to all peoples. Very much like the Roman roads allowed the Gospel to explode all over the known world.

No, Einstein was indeed wrong. This generation is not a generation of idiots. If we think that, then, we are the idiots. If we think that, then we have failed as their elders and mentors. If we think that, then, we need to get off our Facebooks, emails, and TVs and begin a relationship with a member of this generation. They are hungering for relationship with those older than them. Yet we ignore them or think we have nothing to offer. They are crying out to be discipled yet we are too busy or regulate that to the professional "youth pastor" who is a few years older than them.

This generation wants to learn to to worship but find it difficult as they have been largely shoved into a corner of most churches to only be seen and not heard. 

Einstein was wrong. This is not a generation of idiots. It is a generation of activists that desperately needs the Gospel.

I am disembarking from my soapbox. Grace and peace to all of you. 

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How Facebook Timeline Challenges Our Desire For Control

Do you want to see people rant like lunatics? Change something on Facebook.

There has been no change in the history of Facebook that the masses have initially liked. However, it isn't long until everyone likes the new feature or change and gets on with their life.




One of the biggest changes to come along recently was when Facebook changed from "profiles" to "Timeline". I was really struck by the keynote address that Mark Zuckerberg gave to announce this change. There were two key phrases that were repeated over and over, "the story of your life" and "complete control".

Facebook is such a powerful force in the daily lives of most because it was the first means by which the masses could tell their own stories to the world. The West is fascinated with fame. People can now be famous by simply trying to be famous (see the Kardashian sisters).

There is something intoxicating about posting a status update on Facebook and having scores of people 'like' it or comment on it. You feel famous. Facebook knows that we are a people who love to tell stories and we really like telling stories about ourselves.

The other thing that Zuckerberg was driving home was this concept of "complete control". We like to tell stories and we really like to be in control. The new Timeline was to give us not just control of our stories, but complete control.

All of this is a delusion though. Delusion is defined as, "An idiosyncratic belief or impression that is firmly maintained despite being contradicted by what is generally accepted as reality,..." We are not in control. We are certainly not in complete control. We cannot be. We are finite creatures that are dependent on so many things for our mere existence.

More specifically what we have here is evidence of Romans 1 being lived out before our eyes. We have a social media company making promises that it cannot keep. We cannot have complete control because we are creatures not the creator. 

Yet, we are drawn like moths to the flame by this promise. We in our arrogance want to be like God. We want to have complete control. It is our desire to be the captains of fate and destinies. 

I wonder, what areas in your life are you trying to hold on to control? 

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Enjoy...

I am working through a life plan through Don Miller's storyline. This morning I was struck by this statement, "You exist to enjoy a relationship with God."

While not wholly an accurate theological statement, there is something in it that resonates.

It's something I've forgotten.

Enjoy a relationship with God.

Simple. Profound. Beautiful.

I am finding myself to be thirsty for deeper intimacy with God. How about you?

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Gospel Gone Gentile

Check out my recent sermon on the centrality fo the gospel that is by faith alone.

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The Social Experiment

My wife and I have a combined social network on Facebook of around 1300 people. While there is some overlap many are unique.

We are launching a church planting movement in Ypsilanti, MI called the The Antioch Movement. Part of launching this movement requires us to raise about $40,000 for 2013.

Amy and I believe that we have 40 friends who will give $1,000 each for 2013. We are going to try and primarily raise this via Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.

For me, this is a grand experiment of social media. Of our 1300 friends, will 40 be connected and invested enough in us and the vision of launching a church movement to actually give financially?

That is the question.

You can learn more about being one of the 40 by clicking here.

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A Prayer

Heavenly Father, 

We adore you for you are sovereign and good. The date, 9/11, while it lives in our collective memory like a splinter, serves as a reminder that we are a frail people, easily broken. You, however, are our rock and our shield.

Today, we thank you again for the bravery of those who ran in when everyone else ran out. Men and women who chose to be your hands and feet in a moment of chaos. They brought with them order and for some new life.

Today, we confess our need of vengeance and hatred. Thank you for your grace and forgiveness.

Father, we lift before you the broken families who lost Moms, Dads, Sons, Daughters, Brothers, and Sisters. Would you continue to bind their broken hearts and heal their wounds that run deeper than flesh and blood.

Thank you for caring for us and reminding us on days like today that there are things bigger than our momentary afflictions. Father, you are good and sovereign, caring and personal, may each of us today experience the touch of your hand.

Finally, remind us, that life is brief, that we are but grass. May today serve as a reminder for us to give our lives freely to that which is best.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can bet against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?

 As it is written, 

"For your sake we are being killed all the day long;

we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered." 

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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A Sent Savior Sends a Sent People

The book of Acts tells our family stories. Take a listen as I share the story of the church at Antioch.

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