The Way Forward: Revolutionariness.

I had a conversation about the Internet the other day with my 50-something mother. As a child, she never imagined the possibility of going to one source to check the weather forecast, her bank balance and the final score of the Vikings game- at the same time.

We got our first computer in 1990 and as a four year old I loved playing spelling and matching games. Down the road I learned the timing of the spacebar-up arrow jumping move in Duke Nukem, and I felt more proud than getting an "A" on a spelling test. Then came Oregon Trail, and I was in love.

Well, what I thought was love. I was just a kid.

Then I discovered Google.

Technology brings us incredible advantages in business, science, government, medicine, law, finance- every field has seen an impact.

The Internet has also been greatly impacting the spiritual state of my generation. We've grown up getting any information we want, when we want it. Music, TV, news, video, all at our fingertips. Sounds like small things, but each has huge implications.

Today's 20-somethings have been propelled to a belief that life is about instant gratification, fulfilling our culture-created dreams, establishing our cookie-cutter lives, striving for a better life than the jones' while the whole time we are feeling deeply unsatisfied with what we've constructed and earned for ourselves.

To quote Ron Hutchcraft, "this is the most unreached generation in American history, yet the most reachable generation in American history. The things that have made them lost have also made them ready for Jesus, and they have never been more ready."

We all know the Great Commission. We may even think about it throughout the week, and consider how we're helping to fulfill it in our daily lives. If you just read the few lines of Matthew 28:18-20, you don't really notice the words between the lines. When you consider the Great Commission in light of the rest of the Bible, there's more to the command.

And it is a command. God in the OT and Jesus in the NT both commanded a lot of things. We don't commit adultery because God commands us not to. We love our neighbors because Jesus commands us to do so.

I think the 'more' to the command is this: He calls each of us to be revolutionary.

Dare I say the easiest and most thought of way to do this, to be revolutionary, is to leave your family, friends, comforts of home, cable TV and carmel latte's and go to another country to be a missionary.

When I hear people say You don't have to go to another country or even be in full-time ministry to be revolutionary, I want to hi-five them. I that's one of the biggest misconceptions for my generation. We accept the fact that we aren't "called" to full-time ministry somewhere, and we automatically assume we'll get a job, probably get married, finance a house and buy a dog. Those things are fine, but even those can be done in a revolutionary way.

You may be a lawyer, working crazy hours with limited time outside work. You may be a stay-at-home-mom, spending a large majority of your day with your kids, feeling cut-off from the world around you. You may be a college student, trying to figure out what you want to do with the rest of your life. You may be a barista at the local Starbucks, or a warehouse stockman or a firefighter. I don't know who's reading this. Ok, I can probably guess the 3-4 people that will read this. :)

My point is this: maybe God wants you right where He’s got you, and He wants you do live your whole life for Him in a revolutionary way.

It's probably time to explain what I mean by revolutionary. The dictionary says it's sudden, complete, or marked change; radically new or innovative; outside or beyond established procedure, principles.

I would say full-time ministry is probably revolutionary according to the way the world works. But it's the easy road. I know myself, and I know that God wants me to be in full-time ministry at this point. I do spend time trying to figure out what that looks like, but for the most part I pretty much know what I'm doing.

As someone in full-time ministry, I have the easy job. It's a lot harder for everyone else.

Our culture tells us what we need to do to be popular, successful, happy and powerful. When we compare what the world tells us and what Jesus calls us to, we notice a difference. And if we do it right, then we are revolutionary.

I'll leave you with another quote from Ron Hutchcraft (who isn't the only one I could quote here). "If we just keep doing what we’ve been doing, we will leave most of our generation unreached for Jesus Christ. We, as Christians, have gone as far as we can go safely."