Holiness and Today''s Youth

You could have knocked me over with a feather. Never in all of my 37 years of life had I heard of my dad or mom going to the movies. I mean, we were holiness people. We just didn't go to the movies. So when they informed me last spring that they had gone to see Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, I was floored. When I asked what happened to "not going to the movies because we were holiness people," Dad said he'd never really had a problem with going to the movie theater. I nearly choked on my tongue when he said that. Funny how the years have caused him to forget those rules he laid down for my siblings and me when we were young.

Although my father and I have joked about this issue since last spring, at one time our ability to live a holy life was measured by certain acts we did or didn't do. During my teenage years, my family occasionally rented a movie that had recently been shown in the theaters. I remember wondering what the difference was between watching the movie in the theater and watching that same movie a year later at home. Even though I didn't hear any explanations at home or at church for the big difference, I just accepted the fact and didn't argue.

I'm glad the Church of the Nazarene now recognizes and defines the issue as a need for people to make wise moral choices in entertainment—whether at home with the television, playing video games with the kids, at the movie theater, or at the local Blockbuster® video store. We've learned that identifying holiness by outward signs is dangerous. That characterization leads people toward trust in a works-based salvation, something we'd all agree that Jesus never intended for us. Unfortunately, "holiness" stereotypes are sometimes hard to shake. Some of our old definitions can be dangerous when dealing with today's postmodern teens.

This generation of youth is savvy. Their postmodern view doesn't accept the "institutions" of this world simply because "that's how it's always been." They don't define truth—real truth—by what can be proven or not proven. For them, truth is primarily derived after they have experienced it. These young people may not take the Bible as the final authority. The information-crazy world they live in has made them skeptical of many things that the older generation takes at face value.

Here's why that matters for the church of tomorrow. They have seen the church in the Western world preach a good line about salvation, sanctification, and compassion. Could it be they have seen more compassionate works through their unsaved friends than they have actually witnessed in church? They see parishioners gather weekly to sing praises to God, lifting hands high as they join their voices in song. Yet these same people wouldn't lift a hand to help in a soup kitchen, reach out to the homeless, or touch the sick. These same people who credit God with all the blessings in their lives, for the most part do nothing to return those blessings in hopes that God's kingdom might be increased.

These might be gross generalizations. But if we were truly honest, if the church in the Western hemisphere were being the Body of Christ as we are called to be by Christ, then churches in Canada and the United States would be flourishing instead of being in decline. Our great blessings have become our god and are becoming our downfall. Yet it doesn't have to be that way.

While today's teenagers might be highly skeptical of the Church, they are insatiably hungry when it comes to spiritual matters.

If captured and nurtured properly, that spiritual passion can make them deeply authentic Christians, rooted and completely surrendered to a Holy God.

They want that. They need the Church to demonstrate that. This generation of youth intuitively understands that a completely surrendered—sanctified—life in Christ will not just result in great worship music on Sunday mornings, but also worship of God in our actions throughout the week. However, this intuition will remain only a thought unless they experience it actually happening.

A sanctified body of believers will draw their teenagers toward sanctified lifestyles if they choose to demonstrate the grace of God to the community. In addition, they must involve their youth in ministry to the community instead of just letting them be bystanders. Only after seeing and encountering the results of a life fully surrendered to Christ will today's young people transfer their intuitive ideology into truth, real truth.

Jeff Edmondson is a 15-year youth ministry veteran. He currently is the company manager for Barefoot Ministries, the youth ministry resource branch of Nazarene Publishing House and Nazarene Youth International.

Holiness Today, January/February 2005

Please note: This article was originally published in 2005. All facts, figures, and titles were accurate to the best of our knowledge at that time but may have since changed.