Generating Hope - Reaching the Post-Modern Generation

GENERATING HOPE
By Jimmy Long
Marshall Pickering. 264 pages. £6.99
ISBN 0 551 03199 9

Jimmy Long is a regional director for the US InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and has written this book out of experience of moving among young people for many years.
The book seeks to grapple with the question of the form that the church needs to take on to be most relevant to the people of the third millennium. Its basic thesis is that Generation X (people born between 1964-1984) is radically different in outlook from the so-called baby-boomers (US term) born in the immediate post-war period. The central reason for this radical difference is that Generation X is the first generation to be brought up within a post-modern environment. Whereas the post-war kids craved freedom and felt that the future was theirs for the taking, Generation X has been on the wrong end of all the mistakes the Boomers made. They are the children of divorce, of economic slow-down, the latchkey children for whom the TV was their baby-sitter. Many of them are people profoundly hurt and lacking in hope.
With this in mind, Long explains that the church's response to these people is very often inept. Certain emphases of the NT gospel need to be given more prominence to help these youngsters. Not only must the truths of adoption into God's family and the eschatological hope in Christ come to the fore, but in particular there must be a new building of community within the church. The young people for whom the family has failed must find real intimacy and godly love within God's family. Long sees this especially in terms of small groups and a leadership which, rather than pretending to be 'perfect' (Alanis Morrisette's song of '95 gets a plug here), are prepared to be vulnerable 'wounded healers', who share truth out of their own experiences of hurt and failure.
This book will be controversial but is enormously worthwhile to read. You may not agree with all its conclusions but it will stir the grey cells. This is a matter which deserves serious thought. How is the church to change with the times? We must not be complacent. Yet at the same time, we are not be over-anxious. Even as we enter the third millennium, Christ's promise: 'I will build my church', still applies.

JEB

Dr John Benton

© Evangelicals Now - July 1999
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Main Articles

• The Star Wars myth
  The hype surrounding the release of the film Star Wars Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace (reprinted from World Magazine)
• Sorted for Es and wizz
  Tim Thornborough talks to a drug addict who found Christ
• Porn pressure
  The temptation of pornography - particularly on the internet - and the resulting effect on society
• So you want to be a leader?
  An edited speech by Roy Clements at Word Alive 1999 challenging the church to rethink its policy on choosing leaders
• Small churches can work
  Advice for small evangelical churches - Eric Harmer shares his wisdom and experience
• Investments - should Christians care?
  The final part of an interview with Lord Alton on money matters

Other articles

• Dust To Destiny - Romans
• Notting Hill
• New Issues Facing Christians Today
• Mezzamorphis (CD)
• Revival - An extract from a series of sermons preached in the anniversary year of the revival of 1859 - from the book Revival
• Breakfast On The Beach
• Churches Beware!
• Stress Family Robinson 2 - The Birthday Party
• The Tree of Life - Proverbs
• The Servant King - Mark
• The Majestic Son - Hebrews
• Apocalypse Now and Then - Revelation
• The Human Christ - The Search for the Historical Jesus
• The Collected Shorter Writings of J I Packer - Vol 1 - Celebrating the Saving Work of God
• The Collected Shorter Writings of J I Packer - Vol 2 - Serving the People of God
• Who Am I? Discovering Your Identity in Christ
• The Man Behind The Millennium
• Generating Hope - Reaching the Post-Modern Generation
• Susanna Wesley - A Radical in the Rectory