It's so easy

to overlook the historical fact that Christianity started out as a youthful

movement. According to available information, the chief executive officer

of the movement was no older than 29 or 30 when he began to recruit. Those

he recruited, in all likelihood, were in their late teens or early twenties.

In fact, Jesus nicknamed two of his followers, James and John, the Sons

of Thunder. I suppose they were full of lightening and thunder that zestful

youthfulness.

But, look at

the church today. Gray hairs. Not that I have anything against gray hairs

because I am acquiring just a few of my own (my sisters think I have been

dying my hair. Not). The question should be raised, however, who should

be in the driver's seat of the church? If we were to learn that 60- and

70-year-old men and women were flying the B-1 bombers over Afghanistan,

how comfortable would we be about that?

Christianity

skyrocketed its first few years on mission. From a small movement with

its base of operation in Jerusalem, it spread to the seat of imperial

Rome within a time frame of 15 to 20 years. That's doing it without television,

telephones, or high-speed Internet connections. In fact, Jack, it was

without the printed page. Go figure. How? Youthful zest and zeal with

a burning passion knowing they possessed the Truth of all truths the very

secret to eternal life.

Today, if President

Bush's response to the Sept. 11 attack depended upon a typical church

decision making process, Congress would still be debating what to do.

We as Americans would not tolerate that in our government. But we tolerate

it, in fact, we protect that same kind of decision-making process in our

churches. It seems truer today than when the book was written with its

title: Seven Last Words of the Church: "We've never done it that

way before."

The word I

hear from the cash-rich late teen generation is that the church is very

un-cool. It's no secret that the church struggles to hold on to its youth

once Mama and Daddy can't force them to come to church with them. Parents

with kids like that were attending the Prodigal Prayer Meeting at New

Hope Baptist Church this past Saturday. They were saying, "Little

Johnny always went to church with us. But in his senior year, he just

refused to go and he hasn't been back since." No telling how many

parents could claim those words as their own. They feel guilty thinking

it was some inadequacy on their parts. More and more, I am convinced not.

I am thinking the shortfall falls at the door of the church.

Go into the

typical church on a typical Sunday and you would think that Queen Victoria

herself would highly approve. We sing old songs to old music tunes. We

move like we have arthritis. We use old words in our sermons. The whole

thing smells "old." And the gray hairs who control the purse

strings of the church like "old." The great cathedrals of Europe

with their bright and bold stained-glass windows knew the church needed

to be brightened up a bit. Today, our church houses are drab, colorless.

Sorta' like an old folks home.

Here's a word

for the church. Call it a forth-telling prophecy: wake up and smell the

coffee. The young folks are going for Starbucks, not Maxwell House.

The Rev. Dr. John Hatcher is pastor

of River's Edge

Community Church in Fayetteville.

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