[Editor's Note: Ken Cureton, the youth ministries director at Windsor Community UMC, wrote in the April church newsletter: "My theme with these young people is that nobody should tell you what to believe: read the Word and decide for yourself." We asked him whether the church is really prepared for many young people to decide that they do not believe in the Word as presented in the Christian Bible. Here is his response.]

By Ken Cureton

Windsor -- July 26, 2006

That statement, standing alone, could certainly be thought of as a radical approach. At the same time reading the Bible and interpreting it for yourself should be almost a requirement if you are going to base your entire belief system around it. Isn’t that what we, as a church (the people being the church and not the institution itself) have been doing from the get go?

Earlier in the same article I wrote, “I reminded these young people that if they are going to be Christians they need to know what it is that they believe.” We begin with the assumption that we are gathering each week to learn what it means to be a Christian, basing it first and foremost on what the Bible says. When I took over this small youth group, I was amazed at the lack of even basic knowledge about the Bible. Certainly we want these young people to “adopt all the beliefs each of us has,” but I want them to know why they believe this. With a strong foundation their faith will not be shaken later in life. Better to have a bit of an independent opinion than to follow someone who proposes to know it all.

My father died when I was two, so I grew up poor with a mother and a sister. My maternal grandfather was a full blooded, fire-and-brimstone Pentecostal minister. He died before I was born, but he influenced me through my mom.

We went to church as often as we could, often seven days a week and, without fail, twice on Sunday. There was always a revival going on or something. Denomination -- be it Baptist, Church of Christ, Assembly of God, Foursquare, etc. (though I don’t think we ever made it to a Methodist church) -- didn’t matter. As long as the Holy Spirit was there, so were we. I heard and saw just about everything from speaking in tongues to dancing and shouting and even many faith healings. We saw Kathryn Kuhlman, Oral Roberts, Billy Graham, you name it.

I have no formal theological training, but I do have a strong “blue collar” background in religion. I have never been a member of a church, but I take all I have seen and heard and meld it into a strong faith. I bloom where God plants me, so to speak. I am not big on organized religion, but I am big on God. That said, I will try to address your questions.

“What is the future of the church if young people should 'decide for [themselves]' that Christian theology is outdated 20 centuries later.”

I worry about the future of “the church.” Young people today have so much to draw their interest, and I wonder whether the church can compete. Yet, what society has to offer is just so much fluff and surface. There is, and I think there will always be, a deep desire for something more substantial than what is on the surface. We all know, and I think youth more than many, that there is something going on deep inside, and we have a desire to pursue that.

We like movies that make us feel emotions, music that touches us in ways we don’t expect. I worry when I see church youth programs trying to compete with secular society by emulating it. We can’t reach them by trying to imitate something we can’t do as well. Bigger is not always better. The church is unique and offers something REAL that may be being allowed to slip away as we try to be something we are not in an effort to compete.

I have read statistics telling us the huge percentage of churchgoers who started out going as youth; they are without a doubt the future of the church. I also see in my own experience a reduced number of youth coming to church, at least on a regular basis and of their choosing to go.

I don’t think Christian theology would be seen as outdated if presented in a way that lets them interact and internalize it. When it is presented half-heartedly, or with all the video and sound bells and whistles, or in a way that tells them “just listen to what I say,” then doubt creeps in. School, science and society often refute what they hear in church, but if allowed to interact, internalize, and really feel and be a part of it, then they can live it every day.

“Does it matter, ultimately, even if the church dies as a consequence? Are institutions meant to live and die according to their need in society? If the church dies, can we expect a resurrection -- that is, a new spirituality?”

We live a time like no other. Rapid change, technologically and socially; locally and globally. The church will have to learn how it must change and where it will fit as a part of what is happening. The church must also be aware of the changes it is undergoing. It is very difficult to see slow change from the inside. I often tell people I see one such shift that has occurred in my own lifetime. When I was a kid, there were all sorts of hard-line ministers, and it was kind of the end of the traditional fire-and-brimstone “repent or you will go straight to hell” era. Maybe it was just the kind of churches we went to, but I don’t think so.

I feel that in the 1960s, with the communes and the hippie movement and all of the love and hugs that were freely given, it was a big draw. Eastern religion and the metaphysical, and parapsychology stuff drew a lot of interest. The church began to lose people. The church had to come around and get a little less tough, and a lot more loving, if they wanted to put butts in the seats. The bottom line is business, and people are needed to keep things going. I don’t think it was a conscious effort, but things changed.

Society will always need spirituality. I have no specific information or quotes, but I have heard that every major religion on earth is based on the same few basic principles. Humans have been seeking relationships with God for as far back as we can tell. I know personally deep inside that someone or something is there, and I think most sane and honest people would have to admit the same thing.

Jesus Christ came with a new message, one that was so radical even those he was supposed be coming for, those waiting for the Messiah, could not accept it and are still waiting. My intention is to teach the Bible in such a way that first we see how things were in the Old Testament, then how Christ changes things. I think often His message gets so convoluted that it is almost lost.

Young people get fed up with hard-line, right-wing religion. They like the peace and love stuff. What I would like to see in the youth of today is an understanding of what the real message Jesus taught was -- not what it is portrayed as in society and the media today. Love, peace, acceptance of others. At the same time accountability. I do not in any way contend that the church has lost the message, but that the perception is that we have. Some of Christianity's biggest supporters and most high-profile characters do little to make me proud. Of course, that is why they get the publicity.