SWIMMING AGAINST THE CURRENT
Young Adults and Religious Orthodoxy

Mark R. Wenger

I've seen it in congregations—the ones I’ve pastored and others that are vital and growing. It’s also apparent on many college and university campuses. The phenomenon may seem counterintuitive to some but is unmistakable for anyone willing to take an honest look.

What I’m referring to is the segment of bright and educated young adults excited about the truth claims of Christianity. Amid moral relativism and cultural pluralism, these young adults are opting for answers of faith that give coherence to life.

It will not do to label these young adults as naïve and parochial with their heads in the sand. They arrive at their radical commitments through critical reflection and widely varying experience and education. What sets them apart is their hunger for answers that make sense in today’s postmodern context. They are finding these answers in faith communities—old and new—which are remarkably orthodox in theology and traditional in moral norms.

The person who put a name to what I had been observing anecdotally is Colleen Carroll, an editorial writer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. She did so in a book on The New Faithful: Why Young Adults are Embracing Christian Orthodoxy (Loyola, 2002). She finds something similar unfolding in Roman Catholic, Jewish, Eastern Orthodox, Evangelical, and Mainline Protestant groups. Young adults are often more committed to, and idealistic about, religious truth and practice than their Baby Boomer parents.

Carroll writes: "Why are young adults who have grown up in a society saturated with relativism . . . touting the truth claims of Christianity with such confidence? Why, in a society brimming with competing belief systems and novel spiritual trends, are young adults attracted to the trappings of tradition that so many of their parents and professors have rejected?" She spends the book trying to answer those questions.

This attraction of young adults toward theological orthodoxy is a fascinating trend. But sociologists and church leaders exploring the terrain of postmodernism in North American culture often look right past it. That is easy to do because "the new faithful" are an eclectic group that defies easy definition. Carroll names several salient features:

• They are not perpetual seekers. They commit themselves to a faith tradition desiring to know the underlying reality of that tradition, and using it to transform their lives.

• Unlike their grandparents and parents, they did not inherit a religious tradition that insulated them from the world. They live in the postmodern stream, but swim self-consciously against the flow of pluralism and relativism.

• They seek guidance and formation from legitimate and trusted sources of authority.

• They strive for personal holiness, authenticity, and integration in their spiritual lives. They can’t stand complacency, dissembling, and pandering.

• They yearn for mystery and tend to trust their intuitive sense that what they have found is true, real, and worth living to the extreme.

• They are concerned with engaging and impacting the larger culture for the common good.

Some months ago my wife and I were hosted for several days as "ministers in residence" on the campus of Bluffton College. Bluffton College is a Mennonite school of about 1,100 or more students located in Bluffton, Ohio, an hour or two northwest of Columbus. A significant number of Roman Catholics, Methodists, Lutherans, and nondenominational students attend Bluffton in addition to the 19 percent of the student body that is Mennonite.

During our time on campus—talking to professors, administrators, and students, and visiting classes—we got the impression that the student body was in general more conservative and traditional in religious views than the faculty. In one particular class the students were obviously frustrated and upset by the nontraditional view advanced by the teacher on a select ethical issue.

I found the scene rich with irony! In the 1960s and 1970s, student radicals challenged many of the traditional beliefs and norms of their teachers. Now those one-time radicals are themselves the professors. They find themselves being challenged toward orthodoxy and faith traditions by their own children and grandchildren.

In April 2001, Peter Kreeft, Boston College philosopher, addressed an auditorium full of students during "Jesus Week" at Harvard University. Afterward, speaking to Colleen Carroll, he said, "It’s a massive turning of the tide." Today’s young adults are rejecting "the old, tired, liberal, modern" mind-set in favor of a more orthodox one. "Even though they know less history or literature or logic" than students 20 years ago, "they’re more aware that they’ve been cheated and they need more. They don’t know that what they’re craving is the Holy Spirit."

I am sure that the emergence of the new young adult faithful can be debated 10 different ways. Definitions of this sort are slippery; categories are soft. Some will doubt the very existence of such a trend and point to other evidence.

Nonetheless, I am persuaded that something remarkable is afoot. I see young adults turned-on to the Bible by good teachers. I meet young adults with more conservative views than mine on abortion, homosexuality, and women in ministry. I encounter young adults eager to worship wholeheartedly with music, ritual, and clear theology. I know young adults committed to social action and ministry to the poor in response to Christ’s call.

What implications do "the new faithful" hold for parents, pastors, teachers, and more? First of all, we might squirm. The openness and tolerance we demanded from our parents may be returned to us marked "term expired." It is both invigorating and maddening to see some young adults become more conservative and principled in their religious practice than their parents, pastors, and teachers. They are rebelling against rebellion. They want spiritual substance and become strongly committed to it.

Second, we can celebrate this trend despite its occasional excess. This is the cutting edge of the Christian faith in a postmodern epoch. The current cultural milieu is in many respects similar to the polyreligious soil in which early Christianity took root and thrived. Colleen Carroll quotes Andy Crouch, editor-in-chief of re:generation quarterly, a magazine for young Christians. Crouch observes participation in college campus religious groups rising over the last 15 years, with conservative groups benefiting the most. "Orthodoxy," he explains, "thrives in pluralism."

Third, we can structure our congregations and faith-based colleges and universities to engage these young people who are searching. If spiritual formation in the classical Christian doctrines and disciplines is what helps provide mooring in our global context, congregations and colleges will need to respond in fitting ways.

Carroll writes, "Like leaven in the church, young orthodox Christians are the best hope American Christianity has for renewal. Their enthusiasm, creativity, and commitment to seeking truth make these young believers ideal reformers of mainline and evangelical faith communities that have wandered into worldliness, complacency and insularity." If they do not find places in the church or its institutions to pursue this vision, they will set up alternatives outside the existing structures.

The lead story of the May 2003 issue of Connections, a publication of Virginia Mennonite Conference , featured the exchange, a new ministry based in downtown Winchester, Virginia. At once both a coffeehouse and a church, the exchange is led by young adults Doug Vogt and Heather and Chris Scott. "We are experimenting with what it means to be a Christian community in the twenty-first century," Chris explains. The vision reads: "To experience the first century church in a twenty-first century context."

On Thursday to Saturday evenings, the exchange functions with a coffeehouse atmosphere. It seeks also to have the markers of a church, including communion, prayer, Bible study, and celebrations of marriages. The mission is to bring people into relationship with Christ.

Only time will tell whether the exchange develops into the faith community its founders envision. Only time will tell whether "the new faithful" embracing Christian orthodoxy will become a force for spiritual renewal in our families, churches, colleges, and society.

But the emergence of this alternative movement of young adults committed to historic theology and practice is an intriguing story. It will bear watching.

—Mark R. Wenger, Waynesboro, Virginia, is copastor of Springdale Mennonite Church and Associate Director of the Preaching Institute, Eastern Mennonite Seminary. In May 2000 he completed a Ph.D. in Practical Theology: Preaching and Worship from Union Theological Seminary, Richmond, Virginia.