The problem is all these pastors, youth pastors and music directors keep telling us young folk what bores us, what we really like, what we find interesting. And guess what, THEY’RE WRONG! If one listens to the young Catholic voice, one would find we are yearning for beauty, for tradition and for truth. Traditional Catholicism honestly fascinates us! We go all week hearing perky pop-songs, jumping techno and chatter that doesn’t leave a minute of silence. We go to church and we get exposed to the same exact things. Thus, of course we find it boring! Why should we go to Mass when we can stay home and sing “Gather us in”, listen to a preacher on tv and fill our rooms with noise? Young people are sick of the world. We long for a safe habitat where we can bow before God and think. We crave contact with ancientness, with a strong grounding, with strong Catholic identity. God’s people are chosen out of the world, set apart, destined for a heavenly home. We want a taste of that!!
More often than not it is the boomer parents and grandparents who want snap their fingers, tap their toes, sway to the beat, and enjoy the entertainment... Young Roman Catholics and Lutherans are looking for more... for depth, beauty, faithfulness, continuity with the saints of old, and solid food...
Another argument for the benefit of our (baby boomer's) dying off.
ReplyDeleteThe fruit doesn't fall so far from the tree. How many DCE's have ten children, or even five? The people who love pop culture average fewer children. Now that enough time has passed for the trends to bear fruit, well whaddya know, those traditional people with more children on average filled the church with their kids and those who had fewer, well they didn't fill the pews with their kids. I am talking about averages. There are traditional people with no children and super duper pop culture lovers that have a bunch of kids. But the trend is lovers of the world's fun stuff average fewer kids than the traditional types.
ReplyDeleteAs a 22 year old: Amen. I crave the moments of silence and reflection that church and the Divine Service can provide. Too often, however, we fill our churches with noise and rush through the service at the expense of mediation and silent prayer.
ReplyDeleteI'm 23 and I agree with Dave and with this post. I'm tired of the Me focused services and songs. I love the Christocentric focus of the Liturgy. I love the deep theology in our hymns. I love the Lutheran identity and history. There are plenty of others like me. Just ask the 400+ people who attended the Unwrapped Campus Ministry Conference this month!
ReplyDeleteI often walk out of a contemporary service at an LCMS church with the feeling that I have not even attended a worship service.
ReplyDeleteSadly, the LCMS district presidents cannot tolerate traditional worship and are working overtime to stamp it out.
Pastor Peters: Even if increasing numbers of LCMS pastors who graduate seminary see the errors of Rick Warren and Bill Hybels, how can they convince their congregations to return to traditional Lutheranism?
If the Unwrapped Campus Ministry Conference attracted 400+, how many more will it attract next year?
ReplyDeletei know that we are not privy to the attendance figures and statistics, but how will we know when confessional initiatives such as HIgher Things, Christ on Campus, and Unwrapped are deemed a success in drawing more people into Lutheranism?