Every generation needs to fight its own battles and create apologetics, church systems and ways of communicating to their culture that are relevant for its time. Consequently, I spend a lot of my time investing in those who are leaders and mentors, those who disciple and teach today's generation of 20 and 30 year olds. However much I grapple with the way we do church, with making the way we worship and teach a relevant experience for today's generation, there are leaders emerging today who will eventually do it better than I will because they are living and growing to maturity in today's culture. I consider it to be one of the driving forces of my ministry to identify and disciple, to mature and equip the young men and women who will lead today's church into tomorrow's expression of worship, teaching, fellowship and evangelism that will change communities and nations for Jesus Christ.

I spend time every week talking to parents who are examples of my own generation who walked away from church because it was boring and irrelevant and, as they became increasingly affluent and climbed the employment and social ladders, definitely didn't present them with a challenge and cause to live for that made any sort of sense in their lives. Some of their sons and daughters are part of my congregation, and my children are growing up with theirs. I have a desperate longing that these young people can be part of a church to which they can unashamedly invite their friends, and in which their parents will find a challenging presentation of a relevant Christ and an experience and expression of worship that is an exciting place to be.

The other day I chose to watch a Six Nations Rugby match, not with a cosy group of guys from church, but with a group of non-Christian parents among a crowd of several hundred other guys. For me, that was an expression of where today's church is called to be, and I encourage the 20 and 30 year olds of my congregation to get out there among their contemporaries and find relevant ways of relating so that opportunities to talk about Jesus come out of their conversations. A group of them have built an opportunity one night a week to present not a DJ who is to be worshipped as the high-priest of the club scene but Jesus Christ, and to 'walk the talk' as they seek to 'catch fish' in their own way among their own generation in places where they feel at home. It is one of the great privileges of my life to be able to pray for these people, to encourage them, to stimulate their thinking about the radical implications of faith in Jesus Christ and to be alongside them as together, and only in the power of the Holy Spirit, we grow as a church which engages with our society in a way that is attractive and relevant.

For many years, the church in which I grew up gave the impression of being hopelessly behind the times, and often tatty and unpolished. While the major public and national church occasions dripped with glamour and precision, local church literature and communication materials and methods represent a by-gone age which society found sub-standard and irrelevant. Today's generation has been born when even the fax machine was out of date, and when multi-media and well-produced brochures are a way of life, helped by state of the art technology. The Holy Spirit's power is not dependent on presentation, nor do we need every last piece of modern equipment available at every service. But in our presentation of the gospel, in our publicity materials, and statements about ourselves, many today find us dowdy and behind the times and inclined to push us away even before they walk through the door.

I ask myself: Why is it that the same parents I encounter charging up and down the touchline with me yelling encouragement as they watch their sons play rugby, don't expect those they know who go to church to be equally enthusiastic about their faith in Christ ? Also, why is it that the ladies my wife encounters in our congregation and in small groups have non-Christian friends who perfectly understand an enthusiasm for buying clothes but don't expect equal vibrancy in church ? If today's and tomorrow's generation are going to reach their contemporaries for Christ, we have to provide now an enthusiastic and biblical expression of Christian faith and worship which will give them a strong base from which to reach out, a secure environment in which they can be nurtured, and a church where God dwells by His Spirit to which they are not ashamed to bring their friends.

My children are now beginning to enter teenage years, and I am determined that, as they grow in their personal faith, they will never have to look back - as I did - on a church that was so boring and irrelevant that I walked away as fast and as soon as I could. I want them to be excited by experiencing God's presence in worship, to know His word and apply it to their lives, to grow in maturity, and to enthusiastically reach out to their friends with the good news about Jesus. They are tomorrow's generation - I want to so encourage today's generation that they will lead that church into an exciting future.

Mark Bailey leads Trinity Church, a growing church in the centre of Cheltenham, with 1000+ worshippers at weekends. He is also on the leadership team of New Wine.

Mark Bailey
Article by The Church of England Newspaper