Our Hope Lies With The Youth

Our hope lies with the youth.  It's no secret that any church that wants to stay relevant (and in business) needs to have a strong youth demographic.  The purpose of this post is not to dwell over the numbers of youth in our Episcopal congregations, but to look at what it is the youth of our church believe. 

Common sense would suggest that the youth in our church would be more receptive to praise bands and modern liturgies.  Common sense would also suggest that the youth in our church have less use for historic hymns, the Creeds, the prayer book, and other treasures that define what it means to be Anglican.  However, in this case, common sense is not reality.  In this blog, I've made it not secret that I'm supportive of many directions the Episcopal Church has taken, especially the inclusion of our gay/lesbian brothers and sisters.  That said, I'm strongly committed to the historic creeds, the prayer book, and traditional Anglican theology and Christian understanding.  I would go as far to say that many, if not most, Episcopalians feel this way.  However, it seems that trashing the Creeds (Spong), the liturgy (disco and Bob Dylan masses), and rejecting the deity of Christ (Spong and Jesus Seminar) is something that can be done in the Episcopal Church without any sort of protest by leadership.  It seems that some of our leadership seem downright afraid to proclaim Christ as the risen Lord! 

This is where the youth come in and why I have hope for the Episcopal Church.  Middle-Aged Episcopalians (now the leadership of the Church) and baby boomers seem to be the biggest demographic that is obsessed with changing or tolerating almost anything and everything that takes us away from being Anglican.  To be sure, not all feel this way and are actively doing these things, but we cannot ignore what seems to be the truth.  Take a recent poll on the possible revisions to the 1982 Hymnal.  The poll found that those under 29 were the most hesitant when it comes down to any sort of revision.  What group is most willing to accept and even desire revision and changes?  Baby-boomers and middle-aged Episcopalians.  These findings are quite consistent across the board, the youth place great value on tradition and ancient liturgy, while middle-agers seek to move on from these traditions. Many even go as far to claim that these things are necessary to bring in the youth! http://thesubdeansstall.org/2012/05/15/dont-do-it-for-the-kids-of-hymnal-revision-and-young-adults/

Not only will changes to the liturgy and ancient traditions not bring in any new young members, but it will effectively alienate most of the youth that we actually have! It's amazing to see how much value our youth place on traditional Christian theology and how much they value our Anglican heritage.  Being under 29, I'm one of them. Many middle-agers and baby boomers don't seem to understand that you can be committed to traditional Christian theology and be welcoming and inclusive of all God's children.  Fortunately our youth understand this issue that seems to be perplexing those in leadership.  If you want to bring in new people, you have to stand for something, you can't be all things to all people, that is impossible. Therefore, despite the bleak outlooks for the Episcopal Church, I remain very hopeful and confident that our youth has what it takes to turn this ship around.  Thoughts or comments??