Reflections on Culture

How do we engage the young culture of Fort Wayne?

More importantly, what is the youth culture of Fort Wayne?

How does the gospel connect to the culture of Fort Wayne?

God is determined to keep me here in Fort Wayne, much to my dismay, and he has some plan for me here. As Hillsong so put it...

"You hold the future in your hands
You know my dreams and you have a plan
And as you light my way, I'll follow you"

Jesus your my saviour and I've given my life to you and all I have is you but I don't know what you want me to do here. I know that you want me to serve and glorify you through preaching, worship, and compassion but I don't know what that looks like so please help me see Fort Wayne through your eyes and your vision and your kingdom and your blood and your life.

From my observations a typical Fort Waynian high schooler has some of this going on...

1. They have had some experience with Christianity but they have been affected negatively for several reasons.

a) Boredom and Irrelevancy
b) Bad Apologetics
c) Bad Doctrine
d) Burnout
e) Boring and lifeless worship

All of these plus the sheer number of churches in the Summit City have created this apathetic nature where churches all over the city are dying quickly and the ones that are growing are for the entertainment of its citizens. In the middle of this the youth are left out and are asking questions which no one has the right answer to and if they do have the right answer it is someplace the teens and college students would look to for answers anyway. They are scared by the church and its citizens.

2. Fort Wayne teenagers and young adults are bored with the city. They feel generally that there is little to do for fun so they turn to parties, sex, drugs, or isolating themselves. In this state we have many diffrent subcultures within the city that are hard to penetrate. Fort Wayne is typically seen as a dump that has nothing redeeming or beautiful about it. there are many good qualities of the city that you will find no where else in the world. Fort Wayne is home to Coney Islands, over 500 churches, St. Francis; one of the greatest graphic arts schools in the country, and a history that no one knows all that well or seems to care about. The younger generation does care about sex, music, and being a change in their world. They care about enjoying life as much as they can with little responsibility and punishment.

There are according to the last census at least 30,000 people between the ages of 16 - 25 in the city of Fort Wayne. These kids have fallen through the cracks. It is time for the churches to reform and resurge to meet the needs of a new generation as they encounter life.

If you read this pray that those in leadership at these churches will see the will of God and change their hearts towards the people of the city.

So how do we not sacrifice the gospel and contexualize at the same time in this burned out, bummed out, apathetic culture that just wants to have fun?

1. We must glorify Christ at all times, with our lives, our thoughts, our actions, our words, our money, our music, our relationships, and everything else.

2. We must live our lives passionatley filled with purpose and our churches must reflect that.

3. We must love them as Christians and love our city and transform it for Jesus.

These aren't ultimatums and they are certainly not perfect but it's a start. Pray for the city. Pray that the city meets Jesus and the congregations of the city are transformed to meet the cities needs instead of their own.