Let The Young Man Come To Church With Mixed Motives

Has there ever been a cohort more scrutinised for seeking out the message of the gospel and the refuge of the church than The Young Man cohort at this particular point in history?

Has there ever been a level of scepticism levelled towards seekers than towards this particular type of seeker – The Young Man?

I find it strange. Strange and slightly deflating. After years of wringing our hands about the lack of evangelistic fruit in the West, there’s suddenly an uptick – indeed somewhat of a surge – among a cohort that has been viewed as the Holy Grail by evangelists – The Young Man!

We’ve had great hopes for The Young Man over the years. But seen little fruit. Sure the university educated version of The Young Man has been in our sights, and we have seen some success there. But The Young Man without such qualifications? The non-tertiary educated lower-middle class, or even the working class The Young Man? Few and far between.

Now all of a sudden, thanks to Rogan, Peterson, podcasts, conservative political platforms, a rejection of crazy  gender ideologies, the loneliness epidemic, the porn epidemic, the lowering of living standards, the grind of life, the financial pressure, and the social dislocation, The Young Man is coming to his senses in the pig sty.

But we are suspicious. The Young Man better be coming for the right reason!  The Young Man better not be coming to our churches looking to make him all Christian Nationally or Charlie Kirky or whatever our particular bogeyman is this year.  We have to be careful that The Young Man is not coming to church for the wrong reasons.

I think that this recent The Gospel Coalition article on the return of The Young Man makes some valid points, but the title is surely problematic: Are Young Men Being Drawn to Christ or Christian Culture? 

Of which other cohort in the West would we be so wary of? And of which other cohort in the West do we assume nothing but pure, abstract motive for coming to Christ? Are we running the gloryometer over The Young Man alone, to ensure that he – alone of all cohorts – is coming to Jesus for pure, noble, abstract reasons? I fear we are.

And I fear we are, precisely because we are so far from understanding this particular cohort. Over the decades we have become completely dislocated from how The Young Man thinks and operates.

We have written every book under the sun on how to reach particular people groups in the West (do we need another book on how the church or the gospel has let down gay people?), but done so little work and research on The Young Man.

But that doesn’t mean that other people haven’t done the work or the research. And that doesn’t mean that other people and movements haven’t got an interest in The Young Man, or have never considered how to reach him. In fact, from what I can observe, many of these secular movements, have more regard for The Young Man than we do.

The TGC article speaks of the dangers of “cultural conversion”, warning that just turning up to church in order to find the cultural order and peace, direction, and meaning and purpose that the secular train wreck of a cultural promised but has failed to deliver, is something to be wary of.  I understand that to an extent.

The Young Man needs to be coming to church for Christ and Christ alone. You know, like everyone else does.

See the problem? When the alcoholic turns up at church desperate for something – anything – to fix her, are we saying “Well you need to come to Jesus for more noble reasons than to fix your addiction. We don’t need your mixed motives in here.”

Of course we do not. We point her to Christ as the solution to the underlying conditions that have driven them to chemical dependence for solace.

When the sexually promiscuous gay man who cannot find what he is looking for in any other man, turns up at church because there’s something about what he sees in the Christian men he met that looks more noble, more compassionate, more holy and more loving, do we say “Hang on a minute, bro, you better be coming to church and to Jesus for more abstract reasons than that!”?

Of course we do not. We point him to Christ as the true man who accepts him and brings him satisfaction like no other man can or that sex can, and who offers him a purity of life and a spirit of self-control he can find nowhere else.

There is no abstract, almost Platonic – and therefore more noble – way in which to come to Jesus.  People come for all sorts of mixed motives. And our confidence should be that as they do come with their mixed motives, we will point them to Jesus in such a way that he will reform their desires and motives.

Besides, Jesus is less worried about mixed motives than we are. Is this not the very Jesus who said “Come to me all who are weary and heavy-laden.”? Is this not the very Jesus who said “If you are thirsty, come drink!”?

The burden and the thirst we experience – whatever that burden, whatever that thirst, are excellent ways of pointing out our abject failure, our ongoing addictions, our utter inability to fix ourselves, or for something or someone other to satisfy ourselves.

Maybe it’s a middle-class thing – this pure, noble “Come to Jesus for abstract or intellectual reasons” thing. My experience in less middle-class churches, is that the very obvious failures and sins of those who turn up, are the reasons they turn up!  I’ve tried everything else, maybe church has the answer.

And surely there is precedent for people coming to church because of, well because of church and Christian culture? I mean why are we ashamed of that?

Have we so shrunk back in the face of a hostile, post-Christian onslaught that lampoons the church or reviles it, or teaches our students that it – and it alone – is the root cause of the West’s problems. that we cannot – dare not – push back? And when supposedly Christian liberal arts campuses drink that particular Kool-Aid, it’s time to say enough is enough.

Is not the very point of the church, and the Christian culture that it has spread over the West and indeed the world through 2000 years, our apologetic strength? Indeed doesn’t the New Testament pitch the church as a compelling vision of what the good life looks like?

Part of our concern, I believe, is that having grown up in church and having been buffered from the searing awfulness of non-Christian culture, many church-goers don’t realise how bad it is out there. We’ve turned all our attention on how bad it is in here.

To simply say “They better come to church for Jesus and Jesus only” betrays the luxury beliefs of those who have been buffered from the reality of what is actually going on out there.

We have spent nigh on three decades since the late 90s lamenting the shape of the church.  Three decades wringing our hands about how if we could only get our act together as the church and show ourselves as different to the culture, then maybe we would have a sniff at some evangelistic success.

And suddenly, a small flicker, a quiet revival, a particular cohort – The Young Man – taking some interest. And we go all coy. All noble. We’re still too busy wringing those hands over how bad we have been. And we must have been bad – worse in fact – than the rest of the world. After all, the social media influencers tell us so.

Well maybe we haven’t been all that great. But maybe we don’t have to be all that great, given how peurile, hostile, infantile and imbecile the secular Western culture has become.

Maybe our rather faltering light, with all of its problems and peccadilloes, looks all that much brighter compared with the rank darkness enveloping us. Maybe no one coming to us is under any impression that we’re all that amazing. Maybe they’re just seeking any port in a storm, and our port’s light is the only one visible.

So what if The Young Man is coming to us having watched too many YouTube videos of Doug and Candace and Tucker and Joe? So what!

Are his particular vices any worse than those coming to us having watched too much porn, drunk too much alcohol, worked too many hours, had too many abortions, tried to earn too much money, bought too many white goods, sought too much meaning from their intellect? No they are not.

Let people come for their mixed motives. Let Jesus sort out those mixed motives. And while you are at it, check on your own mixed motives. Ask why you are coming to church each week. Ask what other version of the culture would you prefer than a Christianised one.

Let The Young Man come to church for cultural reasons. And when he turns up, make sure you point him to Jesus.