YeKengalé

Presentation at  the Jamaica Baptist Union’s  2009 Convention & Assembly.

…..I call on you, young men, because you are strong. 1st John 2:14

Strength, zeal, vigor are the characteristics of youth, the most creative, the most productive, the most vital period of the human life cycle.

Every society/community/organization of longevity that would prosper must have the energy of this critical group fully harnessed and engaged. This “warrior” class must lead the charge in the aims and purposes of the group. They must be fully initiated in and identified with the values and mission of the group. This is not the phase of life to be ‘back’ in anything. This is the most ‘forward’ group of each collective. They lead the charge.

The church as it seeks to engage the youth of the present generation grapples with its purpose and relevance :-

– The Church as Light – Its Vision must become contextualized in the present reality

– The Church as Salt – Its Mission must become relevant to the current contexts of culture and society.

Within these contexts the Eternal Spirit must find in us a relevant expression of the Eternal Word that reveals to, in, and through us the Eternal Father who changes not.

The youth of the church are on the front lines of this forward charge.

The main issue is which mode is the church in? Insular or expansive?  Fighting to hold its ground? Or aggressively seeking new territory?

What types of ministry engage young adults? Where do their talents lie? —Their interests, their passions? What turns them on? Talent has become commonplace. Tertiary education, once for the elite, has become almost standard fare for the middle class. The singer, actor, dancer of exceptional talent is no longer exceptional. Every other youth wants a “bus’” and can “do a ting”. If talent alone makes a person exceptional, there is no hope for this over-talented generation. Skills have become common place. Home studios abound. Everybody with a PC teaches themselves the technical skills of the day.

What is uncommon is vision. Vision harnesses talent and gives the young something meaningful to do, a chance to use meaningfully their creative talents. What is the vision of the church for its young adults?

Each month, CBN showcases the most “happening Church of America”. A church called the Basement has hundreds of young people expressing their worship in culturally contextual ways, their ministry of the arts meeting and surpassing industry standards of production such as in music, acting and tv production.

Those young people found an expression of church that was a credible alternative to the youth sub cultures with which they were familiar. They expressed their hunger for Christ and the worship of God in the familiar expressions of their native culture: Rock music, Reggae and other youth subcultures. It was the zeal of its pastor, a former drug addict passionately consumed with love for Christ and convicted of Christian values, which explained the momentum and appeal of this church.

We see similar explosions of church attendance in places like Australia (Hill Song) and in big cities of the States. Deep (or shallow) spirituality is divorced from the cultural contexts from which it emerges.  Superficiality or depth can express itself in long standing traditional garb. Likewise, we find in modern trends and innovations both profound expressions of deeply spiritual values, as well as profane expressions of rootless art and anchor-less creativity.

So many of us become culturally irrelevant by falsely imputing spiritual value to a traditional form with which we may have learned to associate our spirituality. But that form is neither appreciated nor understood by a generation that has chosen its own norms of expression. Do we cut ourselves off seeking to preserve our cherished forms, or do we allow our spiritual values to lead us to embrace and engage new and strange customs and manners for the sake of winning a generation?

In Jamaica, we have two categories of young people who are passionately engaged. There is the *‘Romping Shop’ generation, most of whom do not positively identify with Christian values. Then, there is the cry of the *‘Catalyst Crew’ of Christian young people who embrace Christ and Christianity but have been turned off by the church’s traditional expressions.

Both are hungry for the grounding experience of church to anchor their lives to lasting and meaningful values. Are the doors of the church open to either group? If they walk through the doors, do they feel welcomed? Or do they sense a necessity to conform to standards and expressions, which are alien to their psyche in order to gain our approval? In short, do they associate the Christ experience with our cultural nuances and a need to conform to them?

Recently, on the way to church, I gave a lift to a mother. She had three children and she made sure that they all went to church as children. She had lost the two oldest to gun violence after they had reached the age of independence (and rebellion). The 14 year-old was at home. Her last living child. She had left him because he was reluctant to get ready for church. So, I asked her if he liked going to church. She said no.

My concern was for the one left. What will happen to him when he comes of age? Will he find a church expression that turns him on to the Life of the Spirit? Or will he fall prey to the attractions of the hype culture of the streets.

A ‘dance hall’ church would engage his attention. But so many of the gospel artists and deejays seem reluctant to align their ‘ministries’ with a church experience or to create themselves a relevant church expression that can ground their zealous efforts to represent the kingdom of God.

We complain of the decadence in the media, which has become a sewerage of values in the name of commercial interests. Songs, TV and radio programming, films, movies, plays, poetry, the plastic arts all have succumbed to the gravity of degeneracy. The church has answered with media of its own; but by and large, it is still expressing its insularity in large measure through the new fora. Where is the forward charge?

Where is the Jamaican version of ‘Unshackled”?  (A radio program out of Chicago that has featured taped audio reenactments of real life transformations through the power of the gospel since the 1950s) Something with which our own inner city communities could identify?

The talent exists in the church to create music, TV sitcoms, movies and plays, expressive of Christian values and appealing to the dance hall generation. Is this talent being harnessed? Organized? Is there a vision for such? Young people with spiritual resources need to be creatively linked with young people of spiritual needs through media and creative artistic production that engage the passions and interest of youth.

There are many other fields of service. The society is in need of young, talented, trained, tolerant, tempered leadership. Can this leadership be identified within the church, and harnessed? When this happens, a generation of forward youth, passionate for Christ, ready to serve the nation in the areas of their God-given talent will be turned loose to moving ahead outside of the box of convention, but within the grounding relationships and covenant of church, ready to take new territory for the kingdom of God.

The church that still is parochial in its mentality, denominationally competitive in its disposition, will miss the opportunity to reap the harvest of a generation tired of church – at least in its traditional expressions… but hungry for Christ. The Spirit of Christ must be at the heart of ministry – regardless of cultural orientation. The Word – not “doctrinaire” but  “redemptive” must be the message. And the Father God of Love who is the Source, Sustainer and Saviour of the human spirit will be revealed.

I believe these issues to be at the heart of fully engaging the young adults who are more than a church asset but are called to be ambassadors of a very vibrant and compelling culture, the kingdom of God.

* ‘Romping Shop’ was a particularly disturbing, hugely popular dancehall tune sung by Vybez Vartel and Spice known for  its record breaking low standards in public decency with its raw,  explicit & vulgar sexual lyrics. It came to epitomize the moral rebellion the plastic and performing art forms in Jamaica had begun to channel in the face of an apathetic, compromised and ineffective church.

**  ‘Catalyst Crew’ is the name of a hugely popular Christian reggae band in Jamaica with a large following from both Christian young people, and the ‘dancehall generation’ who appreciated their musical vibez and down to earth culture; however initially, were largely criticized by Jamaican church leaders, and returned that criticism initially with  hostile anti- church rhetoric which in the eyes of some, including myself, compromised their gospel message.

yekengale (c) 2009