S P E C I A L I S S U E
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BY
JENNIFER MAE BARIZO Things will not be the same again. Never again will we scrawl 19- on a check. Never again will we live in the twentieth century. We will no longer share the same millennium with Bach or Galileo, or Einstein. We will probably never again need record players or typewriters or slide rules. And we hope we will never again have the chance to celebrate a new millennium on this old scarred earth. God, who is timeless and omnipresent, gave us the concept of time to motivate us and to guide the processes of our lives. As the millennium approaches, a plethora of films that attempt to depict the end of time have surfaced at the top of the charts. Movies portraying the world ending in a giant tidal wave or a massive meteoric explosion or by a killer virus have all contributed to the world's frenzy and apprehension concerning the millennium and the end of the world. Richard Leone, president of the Twentieth Century Fund, wrote: "History records that, as the last turning of the millennium approached, much of Christendom expected nothing less than the end of the world." Perhaps that is why a sense of urgency is in the air. A Wake-up Call "We shouldn't just now start to live as though Christ was coming tomorrow. We should live that way always," Scott says. Michelle Ask, an 18-year-old from Colton, California, expresses fear about the future. "I don't think Jesus will come on January 1, but the whole concept of the new millennium brings me closer to my family and to God. It's as if it's the beginning of the end. We have to make clear-cut decisions. We have to choose sides-we can't sit on the fence any longer." So what about the future? The near future, such as January 2 and 3 and 4? What happens the Sabbath after the new year? What happens at NET '01? What is in the church's future?
"There is an inconsistency in how we teach our children. We want to teach them how to be solid individuals, and how to be steadfast, but we want to let them expand their horizons and fly," says Myjela Dona, from Rockville, Maryland. One youth said that he was given rules about "movies, music, dancing, card playing, coffee drinking, sex, alcohol, Sabbathkeeping, and bowling, but no one explained to me how I should approach ethical dilemmas." This disturbs a great number of youth who think that it is fair to ask questions when they are told that they are "not allowed." Gang says that the church needs to give explanations to youth. "We like to ask questions, and even to question authority." What the overriding sentiment seems to be is that pastors and teachers can talk unceasingly about standards, punishments, and what is right or wrong, but that is not what draws youth nearer to the Lord. Kutasha Bryan, a 19-year-old from Puerto Rico, says that the adult's job is not just to teach and reprimand, but to reach out and feed and mold. "I want to see a glimpse of what Jesus is about," says Bryan. A Turbulent
Story The story of today's youth is a turbulent one, and one that has not reached its climax or its end. Generation X, the label given people born roughly between 1965 and 1985, characterizes a group of people who are a little bit dysfunctional and disorganized. Dwight Nelson, the NET '98 speaker who took a sabbatical to study Generation X, spoke about them in an April 1998 interview printed in the Adventist Review. He said Generation X is "the generation that comes from the most broken homes. The generation that comes with the most latchkey kids. The generation that comes with the most dysfunctional families. The generation that comes with the most economic instability tied in with the social dysfunction. And by the way, because of MTV, the entire planet is into the same mind-set, the brokenness, the same sense of relational longing." The risks are high, and change is often painful It's true. But that does not make them less able to become ambassadors for Jesus Christ. These are the same youth who are venturing far out of their comfort zones as student missionaries for Christ. The same youth who are spreading their talents of music and literature and drama and sports to witness for their faith. The same youth who are, in little ways, saving the world by being environmentally conscious. The same youth who are using technology to make connections with people who have never before had contact with the teachings of Jesus Christ. The New England Youth Ensemble, which has been spreading God's love through music for more than a quarter of a century, is made up of young musicians dedicated to their mission. Director Virginia-Gene Rittenhouse talks of how they have been ambassadors for Christ: "The group has traveled to nearly 40 countries on their mission. In Russia, after the walls of Communism came down, we played for nearly 30,000 people at the evangelistic crusade in the great stadium in St. Petersburg. In South Africa, the orchestra visited areas like Soweto and Guatema [then dangerous areas] and joined with the hundreds of Africans singing their native music. In Israel, we played in Bethlehem, bringing the Israelis and Palestinians together in what was, as one official called it, 'our one hour of peace.'" Karen Studer, 22, who was a student missionary in Belize, is part of a group of young people participating in India 2000, a massive outreach program taking place from December 20 to January 2. The project, sponsored by Maranatha Volunteers International, will consist of building churches and doing medical research in the country. "I think it's up to the youth to take the initiative. Sometimes adults frown on our new ideas, but we can't take no for an answer. We have to be on fire. We can make a difference," Studer says. Using Change
Effectively Times have changed, and we should embark upon this new threshold of the millennium devoted to using change to our advantage. Youth are growing fast-children who once were bouncing in their playpens are now racing through the Internet; information that once was nearly impossible to procure is suddenly at our fingertips. And though our church and its principles should lead us through eternity, we must know that as society, technology, preconceptions, and expectations shift, so too must our methods of harvesting souls for the kingdom. Everybody has their "story of the century" etched deep in their subconscious or lurking on the surface of their everyday lives. Stories that have moved them, or that reflect their faith. Our story, the one of our church, and of the young Ellen Harmon, is far from being finished. God is still working with us, urging us to reexamine our propensities toward narrow ideologies and to observe the outcomes of our actions. The risks are high, and change is often painful, but with our hearts and minds open we can have the opportunity to expose uncharted possibilities that will enable us to spread the boundless love of Christ throughout the world. We are all students, and all young at heart. We must believe without a doubt that one day this extensive experiment will end, when our Instructor will tell us that we can go home. Jennifer Mae Barizo is a graduate student in New York City and a columnist for the Adventist Review. |
knowing and perhaps not
even understanding what the future may hold. This trek into the
unknown is almost like a gutsy, potentially gory experiment. We are
the lab rats, this precarious planet is the lab. But we are also the
scientists, taught how to hypothesize, observe, calculate, and
conclude. Our Manual teaches us how to live; our Instructor has
breathed into us this life. We have all been students at one time in
our lives, and recall those endless
moments before the bell would ring, or those last droning words of the
professor before class finally ended. Or those bittersweet days right
before graduation, when we clung to each moment, knowing that things
would never be the same again.
"We are the
future of the church," Duane Gang, 21, city editor of Rutgers
University's Daily Targum, says with confidence about the youth of the
church. "Times have changed. In some ways the church hasn't
embraced those changes. It often tries to change youth to fit the
perception of how youth should act."
