Jim Wallis’ blog has just put an article I wrote up as a plea to youth leaders trying to do spiritual formation with young people who swim in a culture of injustice, violence and blindness. For those interested (click here)
“If Jesus and justice aren’t kissing in our ministry, are we (and a generation of young people) missing out on the fullness of the good news of the kingdom breaking in through Jesus?
As Rob Bell and Don Golden write in their book, Jesus Wants to Save Christians:
How do children of the empire understand the Savior who was killed by an empire?
How do kids who are surrounded by more abundance than in any other generation in the history of humanity, take seriously a Messiah who said, ‘I have been anointed to preach good news to the poor’?
How do they fathom that half the world is too poor to feed its kids when their church just spent two years raising money to build an addition to their building?
They gather, they sing, they hear a talk from the pastor, and then they get back in the car with their parent and they go home: the garage door opens up, the car goes in, and the garage door goes down… This is what Jesus had in mind?
The challenge for youth pastors and leaders that Don and Rob are pointing to is how do we create disciples of God’s kingdom when our youth’s imaginations have been colonized by the corporate consumerism of our current empire (that is literally costing us the earth)?”
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