Lost and Found and Threads

Video was really interesting. Glad to see things heading in this direction.

Who is the 12 year old with the squeeky voice that they got to record the voiceover? Oh wait...

I am a college pastor in Winston Salem, NC. Wake Forest University supplies most of the college students who come to my church (Calvary Baptist) during the school year. The research statistics given in the video ring true to my experience with college students. I am grateful that this research is being disseminated because SBC churches on the whole seem to be out of touch culturally with those under 35.
I have one concern with the way this research was given however. The speaker consistently said "They want..." when contrasting what the church has been trying to do to reach that generation. I am afraid that if we adopt the advice given in the video as a response to the research simply because we now have a better handle on what people want, we have not really changed at all in that we are doing nothing more than providing the consumer with his or her desires or wants. To say that this generation is staying away from church not because they have a problem with Jesus but because they have a problem with the Church is simply unbiblical. You cannot love Jesus and hate his church, and every non-Christian has a problem with Jesus. Probably what was meant was that the Church in America has not been faithful to Christ in her methodology, and thus, we have become repugnant as a Church to the world.
The solution however is not to avoid repugnance by becoming what the world wants, but by becoming faithful to God's word. This will lead us to go out into the world as aliens in a foreign land on a mission rather than yelling at the world and telling them all to come to our buildings. This will lead us to forsake increasing advertising and coffee budgets as a means to reaching more people for Christ. But the reason we should not adopt those approaches is not because non-Christians don't want that, but because this methodology does not line up with those given to us in Scripture.
I raise this point because I believe it is dangerous to justify changes in methodology by appealing to what non-Christians want, for if we take that approach, there will come a time when we forsake faithfulness because it is not what people want. We need to engage people's minds, care about people around the world, stop giving pat answers and cliches, and stop disengaging the culture by removing ourselves from the world because God calls us to do so in His word. While I appreciate the findings of the research, there is a sense in which this research doesn't matter. The changes called for in the video need to happen because they are more in line with the biblical teaching on Christ's Church and her gospel mission.
I welcome criticism and response. Am I missing something here? Have I been unfair?

Derek D
Thanks for posting -- and no, you are not being unfair.
Sometimes, it's hard to cram a lot of truth and information into 4 minutes without doing something to circumvent the message.
We may have mistated this message when we said repeatedly "They want."
Maybe we should have said "God has built these desires into his His creation."

The ideas we talk about here -- Community, Biblical Depth, Responsibility and Connection -- are all clearly Biblical mandates of what the church should be.
I think all we're trying to get across here is that some churches' existing programs and methods don't line up with what needs to happen to reach young adults.
I think you're right on target -- it's not about culture or relevancy. It's about what the New Testament Church should be engaged in.
Thanks for the challenge and the kind words alike. We need key leaders like you testing us daily.