Leadership Journal

Each Sunday a mob of young people clad in an array of GenX urban-wear (oversized, retro, torn, tight, pierced) as well as an array of urban-attitude (ambivalent, cynical, self-absorbed and generally bored) crowd the front pews of our church to worship God. However, their slouching during the sermon and swaying during the singing spurs askance glances from the more traditional set. An older woman confronts me afterwards: "When are you going to teach these kids how to act in church? Their behavior is outright profane."

Au contraire, argues Tom Beaudoin in Virtual Faith: The Irreverent Spiritual Quest of Generation X (Jossey-Bass, 1998; to order, call 415/433-1767). Using irony as your magic decoder ring, what appears profane is in fact profound. GenX expressions of "religiosity" have simply moved from the arenas of conventional religion onto a stage more parallel to popular culture.

A layered effort (that reads like a master's thesis), Beaudoin makes deep forays beyond the apparent irreverence of music, television, fashion, and cyberspace to conclude that religion still matters but in ways you may not naturally decipher. He does get a little carried away (Pierced navels as a form of stigmata and tight jeans as surrogate parents? Please.) Nevertheless, he renders a creative (if not totally convincing) case for shifting religious categories to accommodate faith that arises from pop culture.

Employing a theo-cultural methodology (eerily reminiscent of the hermeneutical circles of liberation theology), Beaudoin unveils four primary theological themes characteristic of GenX religiosity, each of which carries implications for pastoral ministry.

Disenchantment with acquiescent institutions easily translates into cynicism and a quick jettison of institutional commitments for virtual (and, ironically, sometimes more authentic) faith commitments in cyberspace. Keeping Xers in church (or getting them there in the first place) means closing the distance between shepherds and sheep. Xers want to see their pastors as sinners saved not sanctified celebrities.

Something has to happen for religion to be valid. Faith must work. He asserts that GenX preference is not for the overt and entertaining, but for the grounded and mystical. Cut through the manufactured performance fluff and get to the gospel—radical and untamed. Jesus didn't water it down; we shouldn't either.

Generally understood in terms of societal failure (divorced parents, national debt, environmental meltdown, temporary jobs, etc.), this suffering must not be minimized or domesticated but construed as liberating and redemptive. The key is not to fix it but to acknowledge it as significant.

Simple answers to complex questions are no answers at all. Beaudoin writes, "The holy and unholy are removed from black-and-white categories and take on hues of grey." This leaves little room for the common tendency ...