The Message, the Belong Tour, and the Lost Millennial

Last updated on: July 13, 2017 at 8:21 am by Anne Kennedy

The Message, the Belong Tour, and the Lost Millennial 2017-07-13T08:21:11-04:00 Anne Kennedy

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

So, it seems, that Eugene Peterson searched his feelings and discovered that the LGBT community can be spiritual too. Everyone brighter than me has already commented. What I found most interesting, besides RHE’s* passive aggressive Facebook post that no doubt Peterson would have an easier time of it than Jen Hatmaker because he’s a man and she’s a woman (I think I’ll circle back to this some day because it’s not true and I think it would be worth saying why), the thing that I found most interesting is that the news arrived for me right after I’d read this article–why millennials aren’t interested in church any more. It’s kind of long, so you might want to skim it.

Surely these two things have nothing to do with each other! I mean, gosh, the quiet drift away from the church of young people, that’s probably a random event that has nothing to do with all other events. What could possibly be causing it?

Not Eugene Peterson, that’s not what I’m saying. It’s not his fault. Any more than my particular sin issues caused me to have a wonky thyroid. But, I do think we might say that trends are trends. And whatever produced the drift of a younger generation out of the church is not unrelated to the popularity of the Belong Tour, nor the theological phenomenon of the Message. I have a theory about what it is. Indeed, I think it’s what probably made RHE reconsider her theological underpinnings. She hinted at it in her book. And that is….

Terrible Preaching. Let me lay out my case with breezy self confidence.

Some years ago I was handed a crumbling old pamphlet describing the missionary push West of the Mississippi by some Anglicans. They had gone to the frontier of North Dakota or somewhere, and planned to provide church, essentially, to the rough settlers of some hastily thrown together town. I savored the description of how they spent their day getting ready. First they had to find a room. Then they had to find some chairs or benches or something. Then they were flummoxed because there wasn’t going to be an organ and so they weren’t sure what to do. They eventually came to grips with their loss but then they had to go out into the highways and byways to compel, I mean, embarrassingly mention that there was going to be some sacred event of some sort, whispering softly that hideous word, ‘church.’ I read on, waiting for the priest, pastor, father, whatever he wanted to be called, to realize that in mere hours he might have a chance to crack open not Only his dusty prayer book, but his bible as well. Surely he would want to spend a few minutes reading a text or something. The account continued on and the poor gentleman never seemed to find the time. He just went from one activity to another, and in the evening, they had church. What he said when it came to that blank space after the scripture readings was not recorded.

Because, you know, it wasn’t that important. But I imagine that if I had been sitting there in my frontier bonnet, he would have told me to do good and not evil, amen. Fast forward to the description of RHE about the kind of preaching she endured–women be good women, men be real men–and you can see the aching hunger for the promise of Life Giving Speech at something like the Belong Tour. But when you get into that vast auditorium, filled with women similarly desiring to know God and their own place in his cosmos, you get to hear funny Jen Hatmaker whose mention of the divine, or even Jesus, intermingled as it is with hilarious women empowering anecdotes, turns out to be thinly spread. Trade the hard pew of Evening Prayer sans sermon for the lights, pep, and empowerment of the woman on the stage and you haven’t gone a very far distance.

So there you are, still bearing up under your ordinary life, and you one day wander the aisles of the bookstore and stop, chewing your nails, in front of the Message. And it’s fine. It’s nice. It gives you a sense that God is somebody or other. And that you are special and that He cares for you. But when you’re in a serious crisis…when you don’t even know if God exists, when you’ve been educated to be a lawyer but now you’re at home with three babies and you don’t know how to do laundry, or worse, you’re a single mother trying to get your kids to Head Start so you won’t be late for your grueling job at Walmart, well, in that case, the Message and the Belong Tour are too expensive anyway. But even if you did make it to church, and why would you want to, the sermon would be about your potential and also all the extra stuff you need to do to be a good person. Keep working lady! Make sure all those church chairs are in a straight line!

And so God, the author and savior of mankind, is forgotten in the gentle lapse of a hundred years. And everybody is hungry, and tired, and angry, or wistfully gazing at the beauty of nature with Bono, that great theologian of our times, and none of us really know anything of substance any more.

Have I painted too bleak a picture? The fact remains that language matters. God cares about it so much that he identifies his very self as The Word. Christians need to stop feeling like their deconstructed post post modern best is good enough. Don’t phone in your sermon on Saturday night. Don’t read the Bible and try to imagine yourself in the text. Don’t stand up and say that if the congregation is good, God will love them. Open the book and learn what the words mean and then relay that meaning intelligently to others. Don’t just pray stream of consciousness or chat about what you Feel like God might be like. He is a Being so vast, so profound, but so particular as to desire to be known. You can know him, but not just by being who you are.

Feel like I’m yelling and waving my arms? I guess I am. I’m praying for the Petersons, for Jen Hatmaker, for RHE, for the new owners of the Belong Tour. I mean, I’m even praying for myself–that I would be able to articulate the content of the Christian message, that I would be formed and shaped enough by the Bible that when I meet another person I wouldn’t fritter that moment away with empty and vapid words. And I’m praying for the generation that has decided church is not useful for them. It’s hard for me to argue their point. But it may be that God, so ill considered by us, will himself come to interrupt our arrangement of chairs and panic over the microphone popping.

*RHE is short for Rachel Held Evans who wrote A Year of Biblical Womanhood

culture watch

Reading the Bible

Work and the Christian

Previous Post

July 12, 2017

Death or Vacation

Next Post

July 14, 2017 7 Not Quite Quick Takes

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category books Catechesis of the Good Shepherd Children in Conversation culture watch Daily Devotions Demotivations with Anne faith alone for the grandparents GAFCON In conversation with children In the News Kitchen Notes Lambeth Learning Notes Life Going On Men are Human Notes from Home Pictures Reading the Bible Saturday Links Sermons Signs of the Apocalypse The Bad Word Association The Prayer of Jonah Travel Notes Uncategorized Witless Wednesdays Work and the Christian

Select a Month June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 July 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who was struck dead instantly for lying about money they gave to the church?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Ananias and Sapphira Simon the Sorcerer and Demas Aquila and Priscilla Judas Iscariot and Mary Magdalene

Books by This Author Books by Anne Kennedy

See All Titles »