Coal12

God's End Time strategy - Generation X and the Outcasts

	You can find them on the street corners of any major city, they wear black or disheveled clothes, have many parts of their body pierced, their hair is weird, they talk of anarchy and declare that they are Satanists. Who are they? They are Punks and Rockers or, as they have been more recently called, "Generation X" or the Alternative or Underground Sub-culture. At first, most of us thought that this was just another fad and that like the disco, it would just fade away. But if anything, it is growing larger.

Why Generation X is important to the church

	The interesting characteristic of this underground sub-culture is that it is almost worldwide. For instance, if you look alternative, you can go to Europe, South America, Asia, and even some places in Africa and the Middle East and you will immediately be received by the underground there. The thing that connects them up is music. Here we listen to groups from all over the world and they do like-wise.

Why is this significant?

Right now there are many parts of the world that God is moving in but it has very little effect on us because it is a completely different culture. Often if we try to transplant what is happening there, it doesn?t work in our culture, but with the Alternative people they are the outcasts of almost every culture. So if God were to move in the underground, because it is so inter-connected, it would be like wild fire going from country to country and culture to culture. Then from the bottom of each culture the fire would begin to sweep up into each culture.

	This is exactly what happened about 25 years ago; in 1971-72 thousands upon thousands of Hippies got saved from countries all over the world and came into the church as the "Jesus people". Gradually this has changed the whole character of the church. Think about it before this, you had a church that had hymns for worship, a Wed. night Bible study at the church, where the pastor taught and everyone listened and the pastor?s Sun. message was generally Parent to child in tone. 	After the "Jesus people" got added in, choruses and contemporary worship began to be added. First of all, it was just half-and-half mix, but now most churches have all contemporary worship. Next, because the "Jesus people" were activists and radicals, they weren't satisfied with just sitting and being taught. They wanted to be part of the discussion, so the church began to have discussion-type bible studies and it moved out of the church into people homes and on every night of the week. Finally, they didn?t want to be treated like children and have a parental type get up every Sunday and point his finger at them and tell what bad kids they were. So there was gradually a change in preaching style to an adult to adult approach. I believe that God is getting ready to change things all over again with this underground sub-culture.

	The question is, are we ready? What would happen if a bunch of Alternative kids who just got saved came into your church this Sunday? They have all different colors of hair, piercings all over their bodies, they are a little rowdy and because they are just new Christians, their language isn?t cleaned up so, so one of the young guys comes up to the pastor and says, Shit that was a good message!

	Would the older Christians, let their love cover a multitude of sins and not put religious stumbling blocks in front of them? Would they welcome them in with open arms, or would these young people begin to feel the cold shoulder and slowly realize that they just weren?t welcome in the way there were.	I don?t think God is going to release His power in the underground until there are enough churches and ministries ready to protect all the new little lambs He wants to bring into the kingdom. He doesn?t want them slaughtered by the wolves just waiting for an opportunity.

Here are some prophecies by that show the crucial role that the underground will play in the end time.

The Lord has prepared a ministry for this last day, which will be the marvel of the men and the angels. These will not be the self-seeking or the self-promoting, and the most of them will remain unknown to the world and too much of the church. Their works and the preaching will stir nations, but many will fade into the crowds and they disappear before anyone even knows who they are.	These have no desire to build major ministries and will not covet fame and fortune. They are "spiritual celibates"; they will not rape the bride. Just as a natural eunuch is given entirely to preparing the bride for the king, and has no desire for her as he is not even able to, these will be completely given to preparing the church for her King. Their whole purpose is to see the King?s joy because they are truly His friends. These will follow Him wherever He goes. 	While many of their peers have been seeking exposure and promotion for their ministries, these have been quietly preparing themselves just as Jesus did for His thirty years. While others are advancing in ministry many of these have been retreating. While others have been building up, these have been digging down, trying to strengthen their foundations and deepen their roots.

	Not in rebellion, and often grieving over it, these are usually out of harmony with much of the church.	When the battle unfolds, much of the leadership in the church will have gained their positions through self-promotion and political manipulation. Many who are considered "generals" by the people will be privates in God?s eyes. Some in the lower ranks in the people?s eyes will be God?s top generals.

	These will not seek rank or position in the church at this time, but will quietly, mostly incognito, direct the end time strategy of the church. Their authority will be in their wisdom. Like Stephen, who was but a deacon but whose wisdom and power lit a fire that set a new course for Christianity, this new breed, without fame or position, will direct some of the greatest events in history. Through men will never know many of them, the entire host of heaven and hell have known them from the beginning.

	Not since Jesus has the enemy feared anyone like he does these selfless messengers of power. Just as he tried to destroy Moses and Jesus by killing the children, his present onslaught through abortion and drugs is a desperate attempt to destroy these before they can mature. Some of them will have been dragged through the dregs of the human sin, trauma and despair before they are awakened. They will love much because they were forgiven of much and delivered of much. As deep as the enemy has been able to get his roots into them, that is how deep the Lord will fill them after their deliverance

Rick Joiner, from the Harvest. Morningstar Min.

Revival among the Alternative Sub-Culture

A great youth revival is coming in America. Schools will be shaken for the glory of God. Many young people will be drawn to the church as they were during the Jesus Movement. God warned us that we must be ready to receive them or we might miss this move of God. This means that among other things we must prepare our people not to criticize them if their hair is Technicolor and they have body piercing or tattoos. God Himself will change their hearts, but we must not let false legalism drive them away. There is also a new Samuel generation of young children who will prophesy and restore the Word of the Lord to their generation

This prophecy was given by the Prophetic Council lead by Peter Wagner on Nov. 30,1999

How do we reach Generation X?

As Christians, whose task it is to take the gospel to every living creature, how then do we reach these young people? It seems that everything that they stand for is contrary to what we believe.

	Unfortunately, the church is under a misconception, which makes it even more difficult. Generally, the attitude that the church has taken toward this sub-culture is, "these are good kids who have gone bad, so we need to get them out of it and bring them back to the good." This basically says to them, "unless you come back to the middle class you can't have Jesus". We wouldn't say it that way, but isn't that what were are communicating?

	How do you reach people who are so negative?" Is the question I kept asking myself, when God spoke to me about reaching out to this sub-culture? As far as I was concerned, they were mouthy, rebellious, ungrateful, angry, Satanists and anarchists, and try as I might I just couldn't see how God could do anything with this group. Sure, I had seen firsthand, how He had been able to touch the hippie sub-culture to birth the Jesus people movement, but that was different, because there I could see some similarities. They wanted things like peace, love and freedom, but this group seemed completely opposed to everything that I stood for. Fortunately, God sees what we do not and He began to work on my heart over the next 3 years and totally transformed my attitude.

	He began the process during a conversation with two young people in our church; we were talking about secular heavy metal music and the negative effect it has on people. One of them said, "well it's like that line from the group AC/DC's song Hells Bells, "WE ARE TAKING YOUR CHILDREN TO HELL AND NO ONE IS PUTTING UP A FIGHT". I was so startled that I asked him to repeat it, and then asked if he was sure it that actually said that. I couldn't believe the arrogance of the devil. Not only was he now doing it more openly than ever, now he was bragging about it. My second reaction, was in the form of, "them those are fighting words"! I felt that someone had to put up some kind of a fight for these kids.

Heavy Metal Concerts

	I decided that a good place to start, was to take a couple of these young guys and start going out to the Heavy metal concerts that came to town, not to protest, but to witness and pray. I had heard from a friend who worked on the streets, that whenever one of these really bad Satanic bands came into town, suicide and Satanism would increase after they left, like a wave of evil being released each time they played. Therefore, along with the evangelism, we decided to also take seriously the need to bind up the spirits that came with these musicians, in order to stop these releases and the spirits from doing their work.

	As we continued to go out to these concerts over the next couple of years, we saw 3 significant things take place:

	1) At a number of the concerts, the enemy's spiritual power was totally shut down. We were even able to read about the results in the reviews the next day, sometimes they would even comment on the exact things we had prayed for.

	2) As we shared Christ with these young people, we began to find out that they weren't exactly what we expected. We discovered that most of them had come from really hard, abusive backgrounds and that their rough outside was basically a cover up for all the hurt inside.

	3) At some of the concerts the Lord would prompt me to just stand and pray for the people. As I did this, He would point out a person walking by and I would hear Him say, "no one has ever prayed for this person, would you please pray for them". As this happened numerous times a night and continued at each of the concerts, I began to see that this was a forgotten and neglected generation, that very few people have cared about, including the church.

6 Major groups in The Underground

Slowly, it dawned on me that this truly was another culture (or as some have called it "a tribe") and that I was actually being called to a type of cross cultural mission.

	This meant that I needed to learn their language, their values and even their perspective on life. So I began to do some studying on this group and found out, for instance, that there wasn't just one group, but that actually, there were 6 major groupings:

Why the Anarchy

	Even with my studying, though, I still had a hard time dealing with the anarchy and the Satanism, because I just couldn't seem to get a handle on why they were doing it. I brought this dilemma to my friend who worked with street kids downtown and he was able to give me some helpful insight.

	He pointed out that for many of them, their first exposure to authority, was in the home, where they had parents who abused them. This abuse either continued or led to them being put in a foster home. For many of them this didn't help because they were then abused by these new authority figures. Then, when they complained to their social worker (the next authority figure) they were often not believed and were left to continue in the abuse or run away.

	Most of them, also, because of these problems, did poorly in school, which again brought them into negative confrontations with the school's authority figures. This pattern then continues on with the police, government officials, landlords, etc. until from their perspective, "authority is corrupt, so let's get rid of authority and have anarchy instead".

	The way my friend's ministry had learned to respond was, "You are right, authority is corrupt, that is why Jesus is coming back, because only He will rule the world with true justice. In the mean time, instead of being an Anarchist, which leaves you with nothing, why not become a Godarchist, (obeying authority, not because it just, but because God has told us to) and end up with true justice and eternal life.

Are They Really Satanists

	For some of these young people, the Satanism is very real and they have embraced it in rebellion to God, but, for most of them that isn't the case. For them, it is more by default than by actual choice and far more for show, than real belief.

	This second group has a dilemma, however, because they know they are in need, but since they have cut out authority figures and resources from their life, where then do they turn to get help?

	The one place that they should be able to turn to and find help, is the church, but unfortunately, when many of them have they tried to go to church (and we were shocked to find out how many really had tried) instead of acceptance and love, most of them found rejection.

	Therefore, they travel on down the line and end up with Satan, who seems to be the only one who is interested them, but instead of helping them, he destroys them.

	We on the other hand, as the church, need to be there for these needy young people, helping them with an attitude of love and acceptance. As an example, I was talking with one of these young fellows, all dressed in black and a musician in one of the local punk bands. He mentioned to me that when he was younger he had gone to church. So, I encouraged him to try going back, but, he told me they would reject him. I suggested that maybe it was a misconception and he should give it a try anyway. "No", he said "I have tried going back and they did reject me".

	Then, I told him to come to our church, because he would be accepted there. He took a long, careful look in my eyes and said "I believe you, there is something different about you". He asked for my phone number, so he could call me, if he wanted to talk some more. I realized, that the difference he saw, was the love I had for him. I don't know where along this process it happened, but that night I realized that God had actually changed my heart, I really did love him and for him to find a straight person who loved and accepted him, instead of rejecting him, spoke volumes to him.

	Try to see it from their point of view, when they try to go to church they get rejected and then as if to add salt to the wound, church people come down to their streets and yell at them, telling them what horrible sinners they are. This is their picture of the church. For most of them, they have never once experienced a Christian who genuinely showed them love, instead of rejection.

	If this was the extent of your contact with the church and Christianity, how do you think you'd feel about, and how in the world would you ever find God ?

What do they think about Jesus

	They have a hard time seeing that Jesus is really for them. One night, when we were talking to the kids on the street, I gave a young guy a tract that we had made up. When he looked at it, he said, "oh, that's not for me". He said it in such a funny way that I asked him what he meant and he said, "Well I don't have a job and a big car so it's not for me", and he was dead serious.

	I then, understood, how much we in the middle class church had changed Jesus into our own cultural image.

Consider this for a moment,

1) Jesus was only 30 years old

2) He was uneducated

3) Didn't have a place to lay His head

4) Was an international refugee

5) Grew up with the mistaken stigma of being born out of wedlock.

6) He regularly criticized and pointed out the hypocrisy of the senior pastors and denominational leaders of His day

7) Spent most of His time hanging out with longshoreman, prostitutes and punks and rockers.

In your opinion who does he sound more like? A normal church member or one of these street kids?

	Next, consider this, if Jesus came today, how many churches be willing to hire him as a senior pastor? Not many. He was too young, uneducated and far too radical. Yet somehow, we have so changed the image of Jesus, that these kids find it hard to believe that He is the "friend of sinners" (punks & rockers). This has got to be changed. We need to present to them the real Jesus, before they can find the real salvation.

Positive Aspects of the Alternative Sub-culture

	The other thing I began to discover, was that there were actually some positive aspects to the sub-culture. For instance they love creativity, honesty and sincerity and they hate hypocrisy. Also, most of them won't compromise their principals for materialism. I found that as with all cultures, there are some aspects that are contrary to the gospel and some that are more consistent.

	This entirely changed my perspective on the ministry. This is when I began to see that we weren't called to get good kids who have gone bad, to come back to the middle class church. Instead our goal became, to teach them how to walk with Christ in their own sub-culture, or in other words, to be in it and not of it. This way, they become the salt and light, to the next generation so we don't neglect another one.

Reaching out to the Underground

1) The first and most important way in reaching out to these young people is to see past the outward roughness and just love and accept them, period. They need this more, than anything else you could ever give them.

2) Second, whenever you see these young people, please pray for them (remember you may be the first and only person to ever pray for this person)and they really do need it. This is one of the clearest ways to let the enemy know that someone is going to put up a fight for these kids.

3) Third, is through the vehicle of music. "Studies show that teenagers will listen to an estimated 10,500 hours of rock music between the 7th and 12th grades alone" (U.S. News and World Report Oct. 28, 1985). Music does play a major part in their lives (far more than when we were growing up) and therefore it is a very effective vehicle.

	 a) Encourage the young people in your church, who probably know the kind of music that will reach their friends, to start a band, which can be used in reaching out to this new generation. Now if it doesn't quite culturally fit the kind of music you are use to, please be patient and long-suffering with them. As long as it is Christ-centered, encourage them to use it for Him. as an outreach to their generation.

	 b) Another possibility would be to buy some tapes of the number of the good Christian Alternative bands that are available and give them to these kids.

4) Finally, these young people are far more visually oriented than our culture, so a picture is worth 10,000 words. Vivid graphic art is a another very effective tool for reaching them. Instead of thinking, "what can I say to these young people", think, "what picture best communicates the message I want to them to receive". This may even involve, verbal word pictures.

Ministry hints

	Here is something that I have noticed and to me shows why we need each other. Generally, the older the person is who has a ministry, (e.g. zine, band, outreach, ministry center etc.) the more burden and vision they tend to have, but less ability to convey it in a relevant way. This group has been called to be mentor the next generation into it's calling. The younger they are, it seems they are far more relevant, but often seem to have little burden for ministry. This is the next generation Finally, there is a third group that is right in the middle, (late 20's to early 30's) who seem to have both, some burden and some relevance. These are the workers who form a bridge between the other two groups (Remember, this is just generally, because I can think of people who don't fit this).

	This means we need to work together. Not, "those old coots, are on a control trip and keep trying to cram me into their idea of Christianity " or "those young punks are only out to have fun and be cool and don't even care about ministry". (I know the way I wrote this is kind of cheesy, but I didn't know how else to put it. Remember, I'm one of those old hippie types)

	As strange as it may seem, there appears to be a pattern to these groups, all of the mentors that I know were born in 1960, or earlier, and all the workers from 1961 to 1970 and the next gen. are those born after 1970

	With lots of love, acceptance and a miracle from God, we can see this "Lost Generation" get free of the enemy and be found by the Good Shepherd.

The Underground Railroad

At Cornerstone 1996 (which is like a Christian Woodstock 4 hours outside of Chicago). Myself, Steve from (Beauty for Ashes), and Bethany from (Talmidin) sponsored an underground ministries roundtable.

	The goal was to draw together the various different people involved in ministries to the Underground sub-culture from all over the country. There ended up being about 20-25 of us who turn up from all over North America: Florida, Phoenix, Kansas, Louisiana, Ontario, Manitoba, Oregon, British Columbia, Illinois, Tennessee, Kentucky, Wisconsin.

	We started, by sharing who we were and how we were involved in ministry. Then we opened it up for the rest of the time for sharing, encouragement, problems, desires, and our dreams. There was a real sense of camaraderie and that we weren't alone in what we were doing.

	As Steve said, "It seemed that we were all reading from the same page."

	One of the key things to emerge from the roundtable, was a solution to the problem brought up by Cyndi (Dead not Dead). She said, "it is very frustrating to be ministering to someone from the street and then as soon as stuff starts happening in their lives, they pack up and take off to another city." Others agreed this happens in their areas as well.

	The solution we came up with, was to connect up all our ministries into a network. That way there might be one of us, who is in that next city, who could carry on the ministry, with out having to start all over again. We could call each other and find out what things to look for, what areas are already open, what kind of healing and deliverance has already taken place in the person's life, etc.

	Bethany suggested the name "The Underground Railway" and everyone thought it was great, only in this case we would be bringing them to freedom in Christ from their "slavery to sin".

	Cyndi has volunteered to try to put out the Underground Railway list periodically. We already have a number of people writing and e-mailing in that they want to join the UR. So if you aren't already on the list and are willing to be a contact person for your city drop us a line.

	The Roundtable at Cornerstone 97 was outstanding. There were many new ministries represented and it took us 2 hrs. just to go around the circle and give everyone a chance to share.

	A really cool confirmation came during the sharing. One of the women who hadn't been at the first roundtable and heard the name for the first time, said it was really freaky, because 2 years ago she had a dream where God said she was going to be part of the Underground Railroad. Then another women spoke up, she also had a vision 2 years earlier and was told that she would be part of the UR. This blew us away, because we realized that God was prophesying about the Underground Railroad to people, for a year before we even started. Which means that we didn't just come up with it, it came from the heart and mind of God. Trevor Macpherson

Our purpose was never to form an exclusive club that creates an us-verses-them mentality. We simply wanted to bring everyone together for idea exchanges, ministry, fellowship and the formation of new friendships. There is no fence being built to keep people in or out. Alternative people by nature are fiercely independent and need the freedom to be individuals. I view it as similar to someone stringing telephone lines to cities that are not aware of each other. Communication is opened, but each city retains it's particular personality.

	Each of us has certain gifts and abilities. I have noticed a surge of the computer literate U.R. people using their skills for web sites, mailing lists, etc. There was no plan, it just spontaneously happened as the need arose to do it.

	The free flow of ideas was born out of a community spirit. As we grow, the need to stay in touch with each other is vital. We are a group of friends with common interests, not a religious club. Christianity is already watered down by too much structure that closes off the creative contributions. Steve Malakowski