Can the outlooks of two generations coexist in one church? James Merritt, 59, serves as senior pastor of Cross Pointe Church in Duluth, Georgia. His son, Jonathan Merritt, 29, joined the church staff in 2008.
In many respects, they couldn’t be more different. James represents the Boomer generation’s approach to faith in Christ. Jonathan’s Christian faith was forged in a postmodern context. When they start talking about theological or political issues, the sparks fly—so much so that James’s wife (Jonathan’s mother) has to leave the room and let them go at it.
But underneath their intense differences, there’s a profound respect for each other. Each has a passionate drive to share the gospel and influence the world for Christ.
Leadership Journal‘s Matt Woodley met them in James’s famous “Georgia Bull ‘Dawgs’ room,” where he asked them about outreach, compassion, justice, and evangelism.
Jonathan, you recently wrote that Fred Rogers is a model Christian communicator for your generation. In your words, Mr. Rogers “was a devout Christian who almost never explicitly talked about his faith on the air, but the way his show infused society with beauty and grace was near biblical.” James, how would you evaluate Mr. Rogers’s ability to reach people for Christ?
James: On the one hand, I love Jonathan’s spirit in that article, and I agree that our world is better because we’ve had positive cultural influences like Mr. Rogers. Television certainly needs more people like Fred Rogers. I also understand that the show wasn’t supposed to be explicitly about Jesus.
On the other hand—and this is just an observation, not a criticism—much of what Mr. Rogers communicated in his program could have been communicated by an unbeliever who wanted to have a positive, moralistic, ethical impact on kids and on society in general.
This isn’t a criticism of Fred Rogers because I have no idea how he talked about his faith in Christ. However, I will say this: every believer and every church has a sphere of influence. It’s incumbent upon us to use whatever platform we have as a God-given opportunity to share Christ with other people.
Jonathan: I think the way we view the gospel will impact the way we see Mr. Rogers’s influence. My generation tends to emphasize that the Bible isn’t just a set of theological propositions. It’s also a larger story about what God is doing in our world to bring the restoration of all things in Christ. Based on that story there’s a cultural mandate to influence the world with a kingdom mindset.
By preventing a generation of children from growing up emotionally numb, Fred Rogers definitely lived out a kingdom mindset. So I would say that Mr. Rogers’s show was a legitimate expression of his faith in Christ.
But I don’t agree with the famous quote that says, “Preach the gospel at all times; if necessary, use words.” You can’t preach the gospel without using words. Some people like my dad are reapers, but people like Mr. Rogers tended the soil. Many people in my generation may have been influenced to accept Christ because their emotional and psychological soil was softened and watered by the ministry of Fred Rogers.
Are you saying that a ministry like Fred Rogers’s (not explicitly evangelistic but focused on restoring God’s goodness in the world) can become part of the wooing process to bring people to Christ?
Jonathan: Yes. Let me explain it this way: I ask a lot of Christians from my generation about when they came to know Christ. Most of them say something like, “I can’t name the day; I just know that for a long time God was pursuing me until I consciously allowed Christ to start transforming my heart.” Don Miller said something to this effect in Blue Like Jazz. For many people in my generation, Miller said that following Jesus is less like making a decision and more like falling in love—it happens to you and then you recognize it. Yet they definitely have a legitimate salvation experience. This seems to be a normal process for my generation.
James: I don’t have a problem with that. C.H. Spurgeon once said, “A man can know he’s alive without knowing his birthday.” I also agree with one of Jonathan’s biggest critiques of my generation’s approach to evangelism: We often focus on “decisionism” (have you decided to accept Jesus) rather than discipleship (becoming more like him).
But Scripture is clear that at some point we have to pass from darkness to light and from death to life. At some point, there has to be a conscious decision to repent of my sin and place my faith in Christ. So I don’t want to get into semantics, but people may fall in love, yet they must decide to actually love.
Jonathan: I’m not sure about that. When I was in college, I remember waking up one day and thinking, I’m in love with this girl. I didn’t decide to be in love with her.
James: All I’m saying is that you can’t get away from the biblical model of deciding and acting on the impulse. You don’t “fall into marriage” or “fall into having children” or “fall into taking up your cross and following Christ.” At some point you have to make a decision—and we have to help bring people to that point of decision.
Jonathan: Maybe we should just leave this point alone.
Actually, there’s an important tension here. You two seem to be talking about a shift in how we introduce people to Christ.
Jonathan: Yes, and church leaders have already acknowledged this shift (even if they don’t recognize it) because we’ve gotten away from altar calls and invitations to accept Christ at the end of each service. To me, that change shows a certain flaw in “decisionism”—namely, that it’s inconsistent with the way most people have experienced Christ’s work in their lives. If that’s the norm, we should be presenting opportunities for a decision continually.
James: Yes, many preachers have gotten away from presenting the gospel of Christ on a regular basis. And that’s a problem. You can listen to some of the most popular preachers in the country for months and never get within a country mile of a gospel invitation.
After a worship service, I always want to ask, “If I were far from God and had no clue how to connect with him, based on what I heard today, would I at least know how to do that?” And if the answer is no, that’s a real problem. Many popular preachers today will preach on a lot of things, but they’ll hardly ever mention Jesus.
Jonathan: That’s an accurate critique of my generation’s approach. We’re often at risk of promoting a Christless Christianity. There’s a lot of talk about loving God and following God, but there isn’t as much talk about Christ. Our generation needs to recover the centrality and supremacy of Christ. That’s the danger of my generation.
I have the opportunity to hang out with a number of young evangelical influencers, and sometimes it’s breathtaking how little we think about, talk about, or seem concerned with personal evangelism.
James: Do you think there’s almost a disdain for evangelism among these younger leaders? I’m talking about legitimate evangelism, not just a negative, judgmental, “turn or burn” message.
Jonathan: I wouldn’t say there’s disdain for evangelism. But among my generation there’s sometimes a disdain for anything that smacks of the previous generation. People in my generation think the church has an image problem. Everybody thinks we are unchristian. The larger culture thinks the church is hypocritical, judgmental, anti-gay, and too political. Believers in my generation react against that. And since my dad’s generation was focused on getting conversions, they react against that too.
James: That’s fair enough. Go ahead and critique my generation’s approach to evangelism. But don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. We definitely had some blind spots, but what you dare not lose is regeneration in Christ.
Jonathan: I write about this in my new book, especially the last chapter, “The Burden of Every Generation.” The book begins with Dad and me sitting down the first time I ever had breakfast with Jerry Falwell. It ends with me and my younger brother standing over the grave of Jerry Falwell pondering his legacy. I note that every generation makes mistakes, every generation has blind spots. I see my dad’s generational blind spots because there’s enough road behind them. But I don’t clearly see the mistakes my generation is making. But the burden of every generation is that those who come after us will criticize my generation just as I’ve criticized my parents’ generation. That’s life.
James: One of my heroes is Dr. W. A. Criswell, and he used to say, “When you eat a fish, eat around the bones.” Okay, criticize my generation but continuously ask, “What can we learn from your generation?
The interplay between evangelism and social justice is a source of debate. How would you define your differences on that interplay?
James: For me, the evangelistic part is always primary. I agree with Jonathan that following Jesus has many political, social, ecological, and economic implications. But for me the primary role of the church is to proclaim that through faith in Christ anybody on this planet can have a relationship with the God who created them.
Jonathan: I agree with most of that—as long as we don’t reduce it to an individualistic, personal salvation message. So I’d say that while evangelism is central to the heartbeat of what the kingdom is, it’s not the only thing. I like how Tim Keller approaches this subject. He says that the more people are justified in Christ, the more they will work for social justice. And the more we work for social justice, and the more people see the fruits of our salvation, the more our witness will become credible to the world.
This is where I’d offer a critique of my dad’s generation. In some ways, social justice was given lip service. Personal evangelism eclipsed all other aspects of God’s mission on earth. As a result, we often had proclamation without transformation. And that contributed to the present credibility problem that many in my generation have with the church.
It’s simply not enough to proclaim the gospel. Our proclamations have to be accompanied by visible expressions of that message’s transformative power.
For example, consider the issue of abortion. My dad and I are both ardently pro-life. But my generation tends to express our pro-life commitment in broader terms. For us, it’s not enough to be anti-abortion or vote for a pro-life president. Proclaiming that message without expressions of that message’s transformative power rings hollow to an already cynical culture. We can’t proclaim the message of Jesus if we don’t live incarnationally to care about vulnerable people.
James: I agree that we need to respond with Christlike, sacrificial, and practical love. We can’t just curse the darkness. But I also want to be clear about one thing: Abortion is murder. It always has been and always will be. I’m not saying that his generation wavers on that, but it’s definitely a danger.
Having said that, I would respond to the bulk of Jonathan’s critique of my generation by saying, “Guilty as charged.” Yes, people need to repent and place their faith in Christ. But then we have and ask: Where does this trail lead? In my generation, we often let it stop at the door of individual salvation. Just get people to receive Christ and then move on to the next person.
This is an area where Jonathan has helped me. Motivated by the gospel, we’re called to speak out against abortion and to advocate for adoptions. We should be indignant about global sex trafficking. We should protect the environment—not in a politically correct way, but in a theologically correct way. Of all the people on the planet, Christians should be the most passionate people for social justice. That’s part of our biblical mandate.
But there’s a danger if social justice becomes the all in all, and the gospel may or may not get presented along the way. To paraphrase Jesus, “What does it profit a person to feed the hungry and clothe the naked if they die and spend an eternity without God?”
So I would say that evangelism and social justice have to co-exist. It’s a both/and relationship, not either/or. Jonathan’s generation has given my generation a needed wakeup call regarding some of these issues.
Can you think of a specific example?
James: Sure, here’s one piece of baggage that my son’s generation doesn’t have to carry—perpetuating the injustice of racism. I never heard the term “social justice” when I was growing up. How can you practice social justice when black people aren’t even allowed in the doors of your church? I grew up in a place and time when the N-word was part of our vernacular. My three sons don’t have that legacy to carry. They grew up in schools and churches that were integrated.
Jonathan: That’s true—racism was a blind spot for my dad’s generation. But at least now they do see it, and people like my dad have confessed it as a sin. I’m not sure my generation even sees our blind spots yet.
For instance, my generation is addicted to our technology, but we don’t have a clue how this is affecting our spiritual lives.
James: But I know there’s one thing we both agree on—the need to present Christ to each generation.
In the spring of 2011 Jonathan and I had the chance to visit Billy Graham at his home. I asked Dr. Graham, “If you could say one and only one thing, what would you say to this generation of leaders?”
Jonathan: Dr. Graham had to catch his breath. He’s 93-years-old and very frail.
James: For about two minutes the old Billy Graham came alive.
Jonathan: A flash came into his eyes.
James: He raised his fist and said, “Preach the Word!”
Jonathan: Yeah, preach the Word!
James: So, if you asked me, James, if you could give the next generation only one piece of advice, what would you say? I’d give the same advice: “Preach the Word! Without fear. Without favor. Let it go wherever it takes you.” I’m not going to debate whether you should preach topically, exegetically, or expositionally. Just preach the Word and keep preaching the Word.
So do you “preach the Word” in your ministries of compassion and social justice? For instance, I know that Cross Pointe Church has an incredible ministry of compassion to refugees and immigrants in your community.
James: Yes, we’ve poured huge amounts of resources—staff time, volunteer time, and money—into our Care Pointe ministries, which include a counseling center, a food pantry, and a clothes store.
Are you also intentional about introducing people to Jesus through these ministries? If so, how do you introduce people to Jesus as you give away food and clothing?
Jonathan: When someone comes we always sit down and talk to them first. We have small cubicles set up so people can receive one-on-one care before they receive food or clothing. We want to know what’s going on in their lives, not just give a hand-out. Through these conversations, we’ve seen people come to know Christ. As they come to Christ, they have started attending our worship services. As a result, we now translate services into Spanish, and we’re working on translating them into Korean.
James: There’s a big difference between a church and a government social ministry. I don’t believe that the church’s ultimate end is to minister to the body. We want to use our compassion ministries to minister to the soul, to bring people to faith in Jesus. So we’re clear about taking a nonthreatening and noninvasive approach to asking people where they are in their relationship with Christ. We start by asking them if they’re interested in talking about spiritual things. We’re upfront about finding out if there’s some spiritual openness. If they aren’t open, we treat them exactly the same as the people who are open to Christ.
Jonathan: We don’t have to share the gospel every time we meet with someone. We never want to imply that someone has to capitulate to our belief system in order to receive help from us. That would undermine the friendship aspect of friendship evangelism. On the other hand, I’d also say that our goal is to love our friends and neighbors, and you can’t do that apart from the gospel. But by ministering to the physical needs of people in our community, the gospel gets embodied as it also gets proclaimed.
James: Not everyone expresses interest in spiritual things, but we treat everyone the same. Jesus said that when we give someone a cup of cold water in his name it won’t go unnoticed by him. Duluth, Georgia, is in the midst of an ethnic melting pot. We also live in an area that has been hit hard by the economic downturn. So we have huge issues with immigration and unemployment—and this has especially impacted children. So we are fulfilling part of our mission by ministering to the whole person.
But we also like to ask, “What does it profit a man or a woman to feed their belly and not feed their soul?” I can’t think of a downside to sharing our faith as we provide food and clothing. Let me put it this way: Assuming that there’s spiritual openness, why wouldn’t a church want to share the message of Christ through their compassion ministries?
What would you say to people who criticize the power imbalance in your approach? In other words, your church has all the resources that these refugees need. So isn’t there pressure for them to please you in order to get help?
James: That’s not the way we look at it. Of course, Christians can be intimidating and threatening, and churches could abuse this opportunity. That’s why we’re diligent about allowing people to decline our invitation to talk about spiritual things.
But I would argue that it’s really a cop-out when we won’t do the hard work of offering food for the body and food for the soul. It’s really not hard work to give out food or clothing. Anybody can do that. But it is really hard work to give food and clothing and then also to open your heart and ask people if they want to hear about Christ. That makes us vulnerable, because we can’t force them to do that. There’s nothing we can do to make that happen.
So regarding evangelism amid compassion ministry, I would simply ask: If not now, when? If not here, where? If not you, who?
If the church doesn’t do the work of evangelism, then who else will? It’s our job to offer people Christ. Personally, when I stand before God, I don’t want the Lord to ask me, “Why were you so busy feeding bodies but you never got around to feeding souls? Why did you give them bread but you never offered them the Bread of Life?”
James Merritt is author of God, I've Got a Question (Harvest House, 2011). Jonathan Merritt is author of A Faith of Our Own (Faith Words, 2012).
Copyright © 2012 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal.Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.
