A Better Life

In the last year our Mission and Evangelism committee has carefully considered our purpose and calling and our hopes for how the church would be active in mission and evangelism. This involved thinking about what mission is and how we do it. At the same time, I am involved with our presbytery Mission and Ministry committee, which has been editing its purpose statement and reconsidering its role in the presbytery. Both of these things happening at the same time has caused me to think quite a bit about God’s mission in the world and our role in it.

In these two groups we put some profound and carefully crafted words together around what it means to be on mission with God. However, the other day I was struck again by the thought that mission and evangelism (and discipleship, for that matter) really begin with simply declaring “life with God is better.” Of course, that is just the beginning, but it is a surprisingly simple and truthful beginning.

I recently finished reading The Anxious Generation by Jonathon Haidt. The book is a secular look (Haidt is an atheist, though he spends a chapter talking about the benefits of religion) at the ways that technology and trends in parenting are causing many young people to grow up anxious and depressed. It is a very interesting read, though the book made me a bit anxious and worried for my kids. Haidt argues throughout the book that we have lost many good things in recent years and have tried to replace them with the hollow promises of social media and technology.

After the book came out, Haidt published an article by a Gen Z’er named Rikki Schlott who wrote about trying to explain Gen Z to their parents. You can read the whole article here if you like, but I want to quote a large section of it:

“Gen Z has inherited a post-hope world, stripped of what matters. Instead, we have been offered a smorgasbord of easy and unsatisfying substitutes.

All the things that have traditionally made life worth living — love, community, country, faith, work, and family — have been “debunked.”

Sentiments I hear often from peers:

Love — “Monogamy is so outdated.”

Community — “I have enough friends online.”

Country — “I’m embarrassed to be an American.”

Work — “I’m quiet-quitting.”

Family — “I’m not bringing kids into this melting world.”

Faith — “My parents are such naive Bible thumpers. By the way, what’s your star sign?”

Everything that matters has been devalued for Zoomers, leaving behind a generation with gaping holes where the foundations of a meaningful life should be. They’re desperately grasping for alternative purpose-making systems, all of which fall short.

I’m not saying all Zoomers should become church-going office drones who churn out babies and never question their country. But our dismal mental health records and the scars on our wrists seem to indicate that becoming faithless digital vagabonds is just not working out for us.

Of course there are well-adjusted teens in spite of the forces working against them, but the overall figures are bleak. In fact, nearly half of teens agree with statements like “my life is not useful,” “I do not enjoy life,” and “I can’t do anything right.” Back in 2010, fewer than 30% of teens agreed with those statements.

Something is clearly wrong. Gen Z is quietly begging for help. Naturally, the opportunists have swarmed in with ready-made plugs to fill our voids and make us “whole.”

Do you feel isolated? Why don’t you take a peek at what all your peers are doing on social media, or just make digital friends on message boards — all without leaving your bed!

Are you struggling in love? How about a paralyzing stream of commodified potential partners to swipe through on a dating app. You can cycle through as many transactional relationships as you please!

Are you lacking positive role models? How about a voyeuristic trip into an influencer’s live-streamed morning routine. Or a self-appointed life coach with lots of opinions and no real expertise.

Has your faith waned? Just hook your identity to a pseudo-religious political ideology. Spluttering commentators stand ready to lead you down rabbit holes, until the only people you see eye-to-eye with are extremists on the other side of a screen.

The quick-fixes on offer are endless — and enormously profitable for the influencers, app developers, and social media masters who have seduced perforated Zoomers with the possibility of feeling whole again.”

What struck me most strongly from this article and from Haidt’s book was the deep need for a greater vision of what life can be. I don’t mean a return to an imagined utopia of 1950s and 60s America. I mean a very real future of the kingdom of God. What Gen Z and every generation longs for is the hope, purpose, grace, life, and future that God offers to his people. What I mean is this – Gen Z is clearly hurting and longing for more in life. As Christians, we have the opportunity to say, “Life is better when it is lived in relationship with Christ.” That is the basis of Christian evangelism and mission, offering people the best life possible in restored relationship with God, their neighbor, themselves, and the rest of creation.

Sometimes it can be easy to think of all the complexities of Christian mission, and we should consider the implications and the best practices and the theology behind mission. However, we also need to remember that it can be as simple as expressing to a hurting person that life can be better, in fact, God wants to make their life better. No app or AI or social media popularity will ever fill a hole made to be filled by relationship with God. No digital relationship can replace the church. No game can replace the life-encompassing call of God to reveal how his kingdom is coming on earth.

So my point is a simple one: God is calling you to join him in his mission to love and care for people and to declare to them, “A better life is available to you, let me introduce you to Jesus.” 

  -Pastor Bryan