I was recently asked a question, something to this effect: “What has happened to the younger generation Christians? Why are they not worshiping God seriously?” I wondered if the younger generation wasn’t asking the same question about my generation.

It reminded me of the account regarding the church where Matt Redman attended, the author of the popular song The Heart of Worship. (see links below) The church leadership realized that they had made an idol of their music. So they did a bold thing and stopped it altogether, at least the instruments and sound system. They worshiped God in silence, they prayed, and they sang songs a cappella. After several weeks they began to reintroduce instrumental music. The song The Heart of Worship was born out of these events.

The issue, I think, is what is called “religious trappings.” I think we’ll find that were all guilty of that in varying degrees. It’s not just the Catholics with their ceramic idols, beads, and worship of saints. Last Sunday the question was posed, “are you ‘all in’” referring to a term in poker. That is, are you completely sold out to God? Have you given everything, risked everything for Him? Another question was asked, “does your love of Jesus inspire you to shout as loud as you would at the Super Bowl?”  The parable was brought up of the man who sold all that he had to buy the field with a precious treasure.  (Matthew 13:44)

If we are honest with ourselves I think we must admit that we have our own sort of idolatry in spite of the first couple of commandments, that our relationship with God isn’t what it ought to be, and that we practice religion more than we practice the life of Christ in us.  (Ephesians 1:18-21)

At our church we are using a tool called Christian Profile Life Assessment Tool or CPLAT for short. It helps assess ourselves amd each other in three areas, our beliefs, our practices, and our virtues. I rated low on compassion which was no surprise to anyone. It did reveal some other things which encouraged me to want to improve on them. None of the areas where I needed improvement were really any surprise to me. I had simply neatly tucked them away and conveniently forgotten about them.

So now I’m asking questions about myself. This verse in Ephesians comes to mind, “don’t be foolish but find out what pleases the Lord.”  (Ephesians 5:17)   There’s another verse, one that references Eve, the only New Testament reference to her, where the writer says, “I fear that you’ve lost your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.”  (2 Corinthians 11:3)

I am concerned about some things that I see in some younger generation Christians. But I first need to get the log out of my own eye. I also need to remember that when I, too, was young and foolish I was young and foolish. In other words, I need to give this younger generation time to grow up. I need to trust God in this matter. I need to pray for this younger generation. And I need to remember my responsibility to mentor and encourage anyone who will listen. I can’t just be concerned about them; I’m not off the hook: I have responsibilities.

It is vitally important to assess our health, our faith, find out where we are, what we are doing, where we are going, to see if we are growing, maturing, healthy, heading in the right direction, and worshipping God with sincerity and pure devotion.  I want to be more like Christ every day, becoming like Him, obeying Him doing the will of the Father and thus pleasing Him and glorifying Him.

Only as I do all this can I say to a younger generation, “follow me as I follow Christ.”
(1 Corinthians 11:1)

Links:
The Story Behind the Song as told by Matt Redman (audio file)
Song Story: Matt Redman’s “The Heart of Worship”
Lyrics to “The Heart of Worship”

Postscript: For all who searched incorrectly and still landed here, it is Matt Redman, not Matt Redmond. My son recently moved to Redmond, WA and I couldn’t seem to get the Redman not Redmond thing correct.