The Kingdom's Generation of Tomorrow

A few days ago I returned from Passion 2010. The four day conference consists of many well known speakers and praise bands and allots time for small groups to meet and reflect. White attending I kept mulling over the thought that we as the "kingdom's generation of tomorrow" are horribly unprepared. We have many recourses such as "Christian Living" books, praise bands, mentors etc. and though they are all being utilized to great extends there is still a terrible neglect of two major tools: The Bible and Prayer. Seriously folks, we are SO enthusiastic for reading the popular books by the popular authors who right ABOUT Christianity yet we neglect the very book and author who are the FOUNDATION of Christianity! When you read these books they all reference the Bible...so you'd think there's something good in there, no? Hmm...yet it still collects dust. I think we cater too much to the youth of today in the name of love yet fail them by not exposing the entire capacity of it. This capacity of which I speak is the aggressive, direct kind of love. The kind that says, "I'm willing to accept some tension in our friendship if it results from me throwing some truth at you that will ultimately benefit you in the end!" I can't stand "contemporary love". The kind of love that only displays the kind and sweet emotions. Now I know that sounds weird but what about being firm? What about instilling some self-discipline in a fellow believer that will greatly and positively influence their walk with the Lord ultimately influencing those who they encounter and so the pyramid builds on. When we dish out one side of love we distribute an unbalanced collection of emotion that inaccurately trains our mentees or our "Joshuas" to carry on the torch of discipleship. I'm a fan of gettin' in a face when a face needs gettin' into and layin some law down! If a friend comes up to me saying he's struggling in his walk with the Lord first thing I'm gonna ask him is if he's been in the word and in prayer. If he says no then the problem is solved most, if not all the time. How sad is it that reading the Bible isn't cool? Oh sure reading Rob Bell, Francis Chan, John Piper etc. that's cool, I mean you're just not "hip" if you're not reading them...but the minute someone brings up something they read in the Bible the conversation starts to die. Now I have my favorite authors and I'm all about Christian Living books, however, they become no better than a CD or a magazine that you have to be 18+ to order when they start to replace the time you're spending in the Word of God. Prayer and scripture are the answers to most of your questions. It's simple. I mean to have further questions is normal and fine but for a lot of problems out their the cure is right in black and white...and in some cases red lol

I find it sad that these conferences have become so much about Self. The social aspect of these things is fun yes but when that becomes the motive for attending...when who else is going determines if you're going...it's just so disrespectful. It's basically saying, "Who wants to go to the conference to Glorify God?" and then basing your attendance on your friends’ answers. It broke my heart to see students so enthralled in worship during a band's performance and so passionately crying out to Jesus...yet later that same evening neglecting a friend, gossiping, being blatantly disrespectful to authority...it makes me question the legitimacy behind their "worship". For me to say that may sound very sketchy but so is imitating worship. To me if the Holy Spirit was in you to the point where you couldn't help but raise your hands, close your eyes, and shout the name of Jesus then the little things would fall into place. It's like the individual who goes on a mission trip to a third world country yet neglects his own family...it just doesn't make sense and does NOT reflect Christ.

Now, you're probably asking yourself why I'm writing this after just coming back from an amazing time at Passion 2010. Listen, I had a great time there. The speakers were inspiring, the bands led worship very well and my time with friends was encouraging. I'm just saying that I think it's more important to fix the problems right now than to go on saying everything is peachy...

You may criticize me for saying this or accuse me of judging but if you hear anything hear this question...what if the same message you just read came from an unbeliever?