Breaking Down the Barriers
They are the most amazing group of people on the planet Earth. They resemble a mob of geniuses and extroverts without any apologies. They also represent a cool air about them that makes Fonzie on “Happy Days” look ordinary. They are happy and carefree and act as though they have a best kept secret that no one knows but them. They are gifted in many areas and have the brilliance and wisdom of Albert Einstein and the music and arts of J.S. Bach. You will recognize their statue by their off-beat attire but pleasing to the eye with a delightful twist: the millennials.
The millennials want to take over the world. If you sit down and have a chat with them, they will tell you what is on their mind. They are eager to always impart their magnificent plan for the world. Their zeal is quite contagious. This is why there are so many of them. They come in different ethnicities and races. Millennials all have one thing in common: to break down all the walls and barriers of tradition. Millennials detest tradition and regulation. If they can’t change it, they will withdraw themselves and sit on the sideline until there is an opportunity for them to express themselves and make change.
Millennials truly want to be heard. They yearn to speak out what’s on their hearts, dreams, and aspirations. They are motivated by change, change, change. Everything is obsolete and boring to them without change. They want to make everything new and current. They have strategically watched the generations before them: Generation X, Baby Boomers, and other generations in between. The millennials truly feel, somehow, that these generations prior have missed the mark. They have great admiration and respect for these generations before them, but yet they believe something is missing and they possess it. The problem is that they feel rejected and are not taken seriously in our society. Their dress attire can be unusual show-stopper fashions with often times unique or ornate hairstyles. Perhaps they feel this will get the world’s attention, and it does! Millennial fashion statements are bold, courageous, and quite beautiful. You can’t ignore that!
Many millennials are academics, computer, and tech-savvy. With this knowledge, society often labels them as socially unacceptable and often times an outcast. This is when it becomes serious and often times sad. It is the rejection of social functions and churches that can cause the millennials to isolate and become a sect, or even an army within their own right. This withdrawing from our society is not good because we need the millennials. Our society and the world need their ingenuity and optimistic views that come with it. Many enterprises and organizations reject such intervention fearing that their belief in tearing down the old and creating the new is terrifying. It is one thing to tear down and bring in a new idea, but to tear down and create a new idea is what society can’t bear. Our society feels that it is risky to create anything because of failure and lack of success. Millennials are willing to take the risk of failing only if the world would hear their bright ideas. Failing to millennials means raising the bar higher and to try again, but always with a new plan and new strategy. This, to our society, is gripping fear.
Tradition is another concept. Millennials do not gravitate to tradition. They can slowly chip away ideologies, philosophy and can erase the memories of pioneers and legacies because millennials believe that they are trail blazers. They believe they can make all things new and make it popular and acceptable, but tradition never changes. It stays the same and is kept from generation to generation, even this generation of the millennials. This is where the millennials collide with society by the reckon force of tradition.
Tradition will never leave or welt away. It is the power that has kept our nations a nation. Without tradition, there will be no religions or even ideologies. Tradition binds and reinforces our beliefs every time we even think about leaving or walking away from our government, democracies, or faith. It is our values and beliefs in our traditions that holds our course in life that bungie jumps our hearts back to our belief that our ancestors instilled in us so long ago. Tradition will always keep this nation and all nations on its true course. It is God’s way to keep all nations accountable to their own beliefs: traditions!
The church is based on the traditions from the Bible that were passed down from generation to generation. There is no room nor will there ever be to change and bring in new ideas to the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can wear all the holes in your jeans as you like with advertising tees and tennis sneakers to accompany it. You can even convert your pulpit to a stage with magnificent spot lights and smoky platforms or couches and lounge chairs, or you can change your entire setting of your pulpit to look like a concert. If that is what you like, then all is well with God, but the gospel of Jesus Christ you cannot change! Holy communion is holy communion. Prayer is prayer. Praise is praise. Worship is worship. And the word of God is the word of God. This you cannot change. Breaking down the sacred and holy traditions in the church you cannot do.
However, what the church can do is listen to what the millennial views are and how we present the gospel in a fashion that will attract nonbelievers like, casual dressing or community outreach as in helping the homeless, which millennials love. Millennials only want Jesus, no religion, none whatsoever. If they even smell religion, they will take off. All they want is Jesus, Jesus, Jesus! A lot of millennials believe that tradition is the cause of religion in the church. This is false. It isn’t the tradition that causes religion, it is the religious sects that want to take the gospel of Jesus Christ and make rules and legalism that will bound the people of God. The gospel doesn’t do this type of thing. Religion is horrible and dangerous and it can cause the millennials to stray away from the church forever. What a terrible realization, to lose this generation because of religion. Jesus Christ came to make us free, free in him and to love all men (mankind). Not free to sin, but to be set free from sin! Because the wages of sin is death but the gift of Go is eternal life. Tradition is not long cloths, no makeup and an intricate bun. Tradition is keeping our beliefs whether they are with the church or state. Tradition sustains you until you finish running your course in life. Religion will destroy you, so that you will not be able to finish your course in life. There is a difference. Tradition is to stay and religion is to go.
So therefore, let the church embrace the millennials new ideas and creations to help bring more of God’s people to him through Jesus Christ. We need the millennials and the millennials need us to break down the barriers of religion in the church and in the world. Jesus loves the millennials and so do we. We must be prayerful about the millennial views and their ideas.
God, our heavenly Father, prophesied in the Psalm that there would be a generation that would seek his face. How marvelous is that! The millennials could be that generation. Are you a millennial? Are you seeking God’s actual face? I have seen the millennials in worship at services. They illuminate with the glory of God shining on their faces. This type of encounter makes it clear that they have sought after God’s face and have found him. Millennials could be the very ones that usher in the glory of God (the return of Jesus Christ). We, the church, must be careful about this rising generation called the millennials and the millennials must respect our traditions in the church. Let us all reunite as a people and a nation, breaking down the barriers of religion but keeping the traditions of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
“ He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah” (PSALM 24:5-6).
“ Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle” (II THESSOLIAN 2: 14-15).
May the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.
Helen Trower
