What a Trend We Have in Jesus

Photo by Kevin Smith in Dogma

He's literally everywhere. He's in newspapers and on the covers of magazines. He's on TV and radio. He's on football fields and on the tailgates of SUV's. He's in the great debates of the day from Afganistan to polygamy, from Darwinism to the environment. He gets endlessly beaten and tortured in a movie. He gets flayed and people flock to see it. He's everywhere in the media, then. He's a celebrity. He's hot. Hollywood stars Brad Pitt, Ashton Kutcher, Ben Affleck and Pamela Anderson have all been seen in T-shirts or hats that read "Jesus is my homeboy."

The worldview of many "non-believers" is shaped by rock bands such as U2 or Radiohead, TV shows such as The Simpsons or Supernatural and films such as Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter. People are searching for something. They mostly feel on the edge of society. As I explained to our church (using the music of U2 as a catalyst) about the rock concert experience: "It's all about power and community, and feeling the despair and anger that's going on in our world."

I am also arguing in my typical suburban United Church that we are worshipping in "postmodern captivity," holding onto and transmitting our faith in an increasingly hostile context.

Every Sunday in our worship bulletin for the first two years was printed: "From the Minister's Study: My vision for St. Stephen's United Church in Oshawa, Ont., is to know who our neighbours are (especially youth) and to reach them with the Good News and share in our spiritual journey." As most United Churches are scrambling to attract any young people, our congregation is struggling to understand those who do not share our deepest convictions.

Creating a tasteful place for worship, a well-organized greeting team, a competent preacher, or a meaningful order of worship is a waste of time without gaining some comprehension of what the "unchurched" believe, why they believe it, and how those beliefs work out in daily life. I have tried to provide discussion questions and advice about how to foster cultural literacy within an explicitly Christian context. My sermons are just as likely to contain references to Supernatural, Xbox, U2 or the Chronicles of Narnia.

I see in our United Churches people who have adjusted their emotional life on Sunday morning to willingly suffer something boring. They see that as, spiritually virtuous. Try explaining that to the teenager next door who is inspired by the vampire movie Twilight. The biggest cultural gap in our churches is between those who show up on Sunday, sing a few hymns, hear a sermon and go home, and those who are searching for an unfiltered religious experience - smaller than their daily, media-intensified lives.

Coming to a church near you: A skateboard park in the empty mid-week parking lot; The Simpsons in Sunday School; Fair-trade Coffee Bar instead of "fellowship time" after worship. Yes - understanding what matters to our neighbours is essential to today's Christian experience. If the church makes worship relevant and fun, teenagers will listen to what you have to say. The friendship and the community that first attacts new people to worship will be fostered by an approach to worship that respects diversity of opinion and civility of expression. If the churches continue to struggle to make decisions about what kind of popular culture they want to bring into worship, then we can start to understand what kind of Jesus we believe in and share.