June 18th, 2004
 

The last few days have been sobering. First the news that Matt Montzingo was in a serious automobile accident and was on life support, updated yesterday with the news of his death.

Matt understood that to follow Jesus meant to go deeper in faith and deeper in culture. Unlike so many young followers of Jesus, caught in an either/or cultural anorexia or cultural gluttony, Matt knew how to negotiate the relationship between faith and culture and it gave him authenticity in both. I knew him as a kid and saw him grow up to read and then live my book , "Too Christian, Too Pagan."

The next generation’s spiritual appetite is real and they are looking for real answers. Graham Taylor’s Shadowmancer is “hotter than Potter” in Britain, because he takes a generation’s fascination with witchcraft seriously and directs it towards the mystical side of Christian faith.

So much of pop culture’s spirituality is superficial, which is why people view Madonna’s interest in Kabbalah as just another reinvention.

George Michael says, “the medium [of pop music] has just been so trashed by the industry.” Whatever was real about it has been digitized, packaged and cheapened in the process. Yet Michael wants his music to be an outlet for the lessons “God has been teaching him.” Which brings us to the messiness of this generation’s journey. Michael is gay and many Christians cannot countenance a gay man having a deep encounter with God

Jesus taught us by example that following him means being a loving, transforming presence. We are called to genuinely love people in the messiness of their life. This should not be difficult once we take seriously the messiness of our life and God’s love for us through it all.

Look, Matt was not perfect, but he did a few things really well. He went to the outsiders and to people on the margins and announced, “God loves you and so do I.” Then he proved it by hanging with them and including them. He loved them and their music so he built a recording studio where fledgling bands could cut their first CD. He let some seekers do the music mixes for the Friday after-game party at the portable at our church. Some people saw pink hair and nose rings and heard loud rancid-sounding music and boisterous, riotous partying—I was always reassured because I saw Jesus there in Matt and his ragged crew of disciples (including one of my daughters), learning what it means to be real and to go deeper in faith AND deeper in culture.

Many of the next generation are leaving the church. They say they never experience God there, their tribal connections are stronger outside the church than in it, the stuff that matters to them is not being addressed there, and worst of all, they don’t see anything in their parent’s life that makes them want to be Christian.

The stakes are high. Deep needs cannot be meant with superficial Christianity-lite. A generation needs to see a third way between the cultural anorexia or cultural gluttony—it is the way of the culturally savvy Christian.

Yours for the pursuit of God in the company of friends, Dick Staub.

PS. And remember, “these are the best of times and the worst of times, but they are the only times we have.” (For Now).

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