vintage Christianity

In high school, we were taught that there are three angles in which to view history: the political, the economical, and the social. The social was always my favorite. I'm so intrigued by cultural trends and see how society is changing. Whether it's the history of American cities and the birth of the suburbs, or the impact of immigration during the Industrial Revolution, there's always something fascinating.

But what fascinates me more, is that we're in the midst of one of the greatest cultural/generational shifts of my lifetime. The post-modern/post-Christian "age", if you will. Let me break it down:

In the beginning, there was church. It was dull and boring. Very traditional, not very creative. Then out of that spawned a revolution to reach the "unchurched"...which became known as the "seeker-sensitive" style.

Not to offend anyone, all sacred and religious "artifacts" were taken out of the church. Crosses where taken down, the alter removed, stain glass was replaced with projection screens. Some even replaced pews with theater bucket seats. Everything that looked like church before was taken out to appeal to those who didn't like church. Fog machines, lights, drama, and video where now the cool hip media bringing the gospel to many. It was and still is very much a Boomer-esque style of worship.

While the Boomers kept on coming, churches noticed a drop in their gen X and gen Y attendance. Youth groups and young adult ministries weren't hitting the same chord they once were. It was time for a change.

It came to be that the younger generations wanted something more authentic, real, intimate, sacred. Enter the post-seeker-sensitive/post modern/post-Chistian movment. Church leaders and youth group planners started to rumage through the church's attic to retrieve all of the artifacts that were taken out during the seeker-sensitive era. Crosses were put back, lights where replaced with candles, stain glass was projected on the screens, the band went unplugged. All of the sudden it started looking like church. Attendance was back up. "Vintage faith" is in.

So what does this look like for the suburban mega church that holds 2,000+ people? How do you create an atmosphere of intimacy and authenticity? Do you create a seperate service or venue that's targeted just to gen Y? I'm not sure.

Obviously I don't have the answers. But I do have the facts. Vintage faith/post modern/post-Christian is here to stay, at least for now, and it's time the church embraced it.

Click here for more information on vintage faith and the emerging church.

No Perfect People Allowed also explores this in much greater detail.