overheard… on younger Christians
16 December 2008 1 Comment
Read this today…
I’ve observed four small, but vital, movements energizing the Western church. The first, which sprang up in the late 1980s, is the “emerging” stream. They were committed to engaging a population, like the arts community in Liverpool, England, that would never come to either the charismatic or the traditional church. Next, the “missional” stream began in the academy as an effort to remind the church of its identity as a sent church. The third one is “mosaic,” made up of younger people planting multicultural churches. The fourth steam is the “monastics,” essentially urban Franciscans working with the poor and living in community.
These young people are challenging all of us to reexamine our assumptions about what it means to be disciples, be churches, and do mission. Because their ministries are innovative and organic, they require very little overhead. Nevertheless, these young people tend to be more generous than older generations, refusing to think of stewardship in terms of a 10 percent tithe. They’re calling us to authentic, whole-life discipleship and stewardship, and to put mission much more in the center of church life.
The person speaking is Tom Sine, Christian author and activist. His most recent book is The New Conspirators: Creating the Future One Mustard Seed at a Time, which I’ve begun to read and look forward to blogging about in early 2009. The quote above is his response to a question about how younger Christians are addressing the challenges facing the church now and in upcoming years. The whole interview is here from CT’s LeadershipJournal.net.
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