Of Economic Superfluity: Young Adults

I got into an interesting conversation with some older adults on Sunday morning.

One of my favorite things, besides Julie Andrews and The Sound of Music, is pastoring folks that are older. It's not that  I delight in power trips. Nay, pastoring means serving. I simply delight in leading people into meaningful conversations that span any normal category of cultural interplay. For instance, there are not many organizations in the United States, mired as we are in cultural subgroups, that have older and younger interacting together on a regular basis. The church is one of the few (the only?) places where people who do not belong together are together. And when the nature of that conversation- older and younger interacting- takes the shape of what makes us different, I hone in.

So, on Sunday, I was talking with a bunch of folks old enough to be my parents, and we were talking about my generation, current Millenial young adults. And in my church, one of the responsibilities I have is to minister to folks of that age range. So, naturally, I have a lot of thoughts on the subject, and those thoughts are as follows.

Generational monikers are a sociological invention. They are helpful descriptors (the Greatest Generation, the Builders, the Boomers, Gen X'ers), but in this day and age they can often overreach their claims. The USA Today or The Wall Street Journal or George Barna or some other news outlet is always seeming to run articles on the Millenial generation, trying to figure us out. We are told Millenials don't trust institutional forms of religion. We are told that Millenials are unnecessarily entitled. We are told that Millenials fit into some other box neatly.

There is a load of truth that goes with these descriptions, but there's also some misdirection as to whom Millenials are. Millenials have grown up in the Information Age, with a million different technologial choices presented to them everyday. Chris Anderson, in his book The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More, shows that economic preferences are continually more diversified today because of the rise of consumer technology, of which most notably is the internet. Increasingly, there are less "hits" in popular culture (movies, music, tv, etc.), but there is also a corresponding increase in the amount of content and consumer products that are available. No generation more characterizes this shift in consumer habits than the Millenial generation.

Millenials preferences and attitudes, then, are not monolithic. That's why the generational moniker has some, but not broad, explanatory power.

So I live and breath in the world of young adulthood, ministering to and serving with these folks. And I hear broad-sweeping statements from young and old alike on what young adults prefer in anything, often informed the various media outlets above. For example:

• "Young adults don't like institutional church." If that's true, then why are so many young adults flocking to Anglican, Roman Catholic, and Orthodox expressions of the Christian faith? Though these are the most institutional forms of Christianity, they also offer the highest expressions of the transcendence of God, and the mystery that lies therein.
• "Young adults prefer _____ type of music." If that's true, then why are so many young adults flocking to Orthodox expressions of the faith AND the Passion movement, filled with all types of modern worship? The answer: see the consumer spending habits noted above.
• "Young adults prefer a variable work schedule, and lots of verbal encouragement since they've been coddled all their life." How can this possibly account for all the young adult missionaries, increase of volunteerism, and social services that young adults are giving their lives to? How does it also explain the many young adults that are already worn on the service industry- restaurants, healthcare, etc.- and how variable and unsustainable that schedule is?

In other words, the Millenial generation, more than any other, is increasingly not able to be nailed down as one monolithic form of anything.

So I found myself in that conversation on Sunday morning, expressing thoughts along these lines. We talked about music style and how to minister to disinterested young adults. Regarding our choir, who is older, I suggested that one of the biggest reasons that there aren't younger people in the choir isn't worship style. That's because it isn't. The biggest reason is that choir is a 2-hour long practice on a Wednesday evening and most young adults are working then. And to top that off, the cardinal sin of ministering to young adults has gone unnoticed: nobody is inviting the younger people.

So the big takeaway is this: instead of trying to understand young adults, or trying to craft an economy or a church around such people from the data or misinformed impressions you have, have a conversation with a young adult. It will be wildly different than the conversation you have with the next young adult. Just get to know us, like those folks on Sunday morning took the time to get to know me. Reach out to us. Stop worring about statistics and just know one young adult in your life. Take them to lunch, and mentor them. If you are a young adult, then find someone even younger.

How else would you know that one of my favorite movies is The Sound of Music?

On College Football Expansion

Update: Nebraska joining the Big 10 (now 12 schools) as soon as Friday.

If you are a serious sports fan, then you know that conference expansion in college football has been a legitimate news item for weeks now. Let me give you a brief summary of the news.

There's 6 "major" conferences in college football (Southeastern, Big 10, Big 12, Big East, Atlantic Coast, and Pacific 10) and several other "mid-major" conferences. Each major conference contains 10-12 teams (except the Big East has 16).  Currently at stake, several of the big conferences- namely the Pac-10 and the Big 10- are trying to lure several big schools from some of the other major conferences in order to create a super-conference. Why would they do such a thing?

First, it would expand conference influence into other others of the country. For instance the Pac-10, so named because most of its schools sit in proximity to the Pacific Ocean, is trying to lure Texas to its conference along with several other schools in the Texas area. The Big 10, located exclusively in the American midwest, is also trying to lure Texas. Though the moves make little sense in the geographic distinctions of the conference, they do make sense for the second reason.

Second, all sports fans know that these moves are about money. The bigger the conference gets, the more likely it gets high-dollar television contracts, bowl appearances, and more national exposure. In short, these things equal more revenue. Lots more revenue. And football makes a lot of money because it's awesome. Okay, I realize that last sentence isn't an argument. As a matter of fact, it's total bias on my part. I grew up salivating on the University of Tennesee and its football program. But despite my love of the sport, I must state my opposition to conference expansion. That opposition for conference expansion is rooted in my love of college athletics.

As a matter of fact, I love college football and basketball more than the NFL and the NBA. Professional sports undoubtedly demonstrate a higher degree of skill than do college sports, but I nonetheless love college athletics more. There are several reasons for this view.

First, college athletes aren't paid in the traditional sense. Sure, they recieve scholarships and, sure, there's some dubious recruiting tactics, but by and large the sport is more free of the influence of money on the athlete than is professional sports. There are players who play merely because they love the sport. And it shows in the competitive arena. Players in college give all the energies they can for the good of the team. Their motivations, similar to that of those in the military, is to honor and serve in the best way possible, and to love those they serve with as best as possible. College sports are, to a degree, lesser influenced by selfish ambition. And unselfish attitudes can flourish much more in professional sports.

Second, college athletics unite more types of people than do professional sports. Being from Tennesee, I always have a difficult time explaining my love for southern college football to people here in Colorado. While folks in Denver love the Broncos and the Rockies, their passion for their teams is like a three-year-old's infatuation with a toy. Quite frankly, it doesn't last long and it's rather feeble. Not so with college teams. People in Memphis, removed from the University of Tennessee by 7 hours, are still as rabid as the fans in Knoxville. Louisianians rally around LSU more than the Saints, even though the Saints just won the Super Bowl. Believe me- this is true.

College football gives us some of the best glimpses of community our culture can offer; it gives us unselfish teams and a united and more passionate and larger fan base. Both of those virtues are disrupted by conference expansion, which cares nothing of regional or state allegiances and cares solely about the selfish ambition of money.

I know conference expansion is likely. But I also know that Tennessee will still play Alabama on the third Saturday in October every year. Hope remains.

The World Cup and Transcendence

The world's biggest sport on the world's biggest stage is coming to a television near you. That's right, the World Cup is beginning in 2 weeks. I recognize that soccer is not America's most beloved sport, but it is the world's most beloved sport and we should pay attention to the meaning in that. For instance, I heard this quotation on a sports radio commercial yesterday:

These are the times that try men's souls... Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated.

That's Thomas Paine on the American Revolution in December of 1776. But what on earth was the commercial for? You guessed it. USA opens with England in each team's first match of the World Cup. And that's what I love about sports: it always seems to point to something beyond itself to something more sublime. Sport makes us feel meaning in something larger than ourselves. Allow me to illustrate.

I often get asked why southerners care more about college football than pro football. The refrain often goes, "Why are southerners such brats about the southeastern conference?" I tell them that, historically speaking, the south had no professional sports teams. But since well before World War II, there was always southern college football. And by and large, those teams each had various affiliations with an entire state (Go Vols, by the way). The southeastern conference regularly leads all college football conferences in attendance. And for every person in the seats, there are legions of fans passionately wearing orange 5 states away (me) and yelling at television screens.

Which brings me back to soccer. I love all major sporting events: the Olympics, World Series, NBA playoffs, March Madness, the Masters, the Kentucky Derby, ad infinitum. But the World Cup is different. The whole world cares about this event. Truly, the whole world. It speaks, more than any other sporting event to a universal desire in all humans to be a part of something larger than themselves. The Ghanians didn't win, "we" won. The Americans didn't lose, "we" lost. The stakes aren't for city-wide teams or regional teams but for entire nations. And so go our emotions, our livelihoods, and our common sense. We are lost in the passion.

But ultimately it's an empty pursuit. For every glorious Tennessee Vols victory, they let me down. They do not win every game, and they cannot truly fill the gaping void for meaning that I'm searching for.

Through soccer, the whole world is crying out for meaning and transcendence in a way that soccer can't fulfill. Only a person can meet this need. Only an eternal person who was also God in human form. He goes by the name of Jesus in English.

The Mask of Self-Worship

It is often the man who hates ritual in his religion that is most ritualistic in his daily life. He wears the same clothes everyday, prefers the same food, and has the same morning routine. At its core, he is a person of ritual in the things that do not matter. But for the things that do, he shuns ritual and the wisdom passed down through the ages.

On the contrary, the man who prefers solemnity and seriousness in his religion is often the same man cheers loudly for his sports team on tv or in person. He is the man who jeers in adulation of others. He is the man the celebrates the simple things of life. And yet he has trouble being exuberant for the things most worth celebrating.

What these ironies reveal is not as much a comment on religion, but more a comment on self. We often lift ourselves most highly in our religion. Instead of worshipping the object of religion (in my view, Jesus is the source, means, and end of worship), we worship the trappings of religion. Instead of worshipping the Creator, we worship created things. And we worship the self and its desires most. Those seeds of pride are dangerous to the soul.

The danger to others comes when we make that self-worship mandatory for them. "How dare they celebrate during worship with loud guitars!" OR "They have such a stodgy form of worship that is outdated. I wish they'd get with the picture!" The very seeds of religion become judgmentalism. Religion becomes something ascetic and something we earn, instead of something given, received, celebrated, and appreciated.