Think about it!

Think about it! People like Peter, Paul, Phillip, John, Timothy, Lydia, Priscilla — these, among many others, were the voice of Christ to the first church — and its amazing how these few people expanded the word of Christ throughout the known world.

Think about it! People like Paul Clark, Barry McGuire, Nancy Honeytree, Larry Norman, Chuck Smith, Randy Stonehill — these, among many others, were the voice of Christ to the ‘60s generation.  Their prophetic word pioneered a movement that captured and defined the heart of a counterculture and changed the face of Christianity in America and around the world. 

Think about it! The millennial generation is poised to become the new pioneers in a new frontier, the marketplace.  Who will be the voice of Christ to them? We as leaders of the Catch Ministry, believe that God is calling us to be that voice. Take a minute and consider the territory covered if each of us spoke the voice of Christ to one Millennial through a one-on-one relationship of mutual interest?  

Think about it! The Millennials and the Boomers are far more alike than they  are different.  The non-churched Christians and non Christian Millennials between the age of 24-39 are currently undergoing the same social and religious upheavals the Boomers did during the ‘60s and ‘70s. And get this — they love the Jesus people’s early prophetic music and its transparency, honesty, and spiritual passion.

Think about it! The results from the “Your Participation Matters!” questionnaire confirmed the Catch Ministry’s desire to be voice of Christ to the Millennials is in alignment with the Catch Ministry’s Purpose and Vision. Incorporated in 2012 as a cyber church that meets all of the Internal Revenue Service’s recognized attributes of a church, the Catch Ministry is not in any way similar to a local community church that seeks to bring people into its building. Rather, the Purpose of the Catch  Ministry is to develop disciples to go out into all nations and fulfill the Ministry’s Vision, which is to introduce the Gospel of Welcome — Grace Turned Outward — to everyone, everywhere. 

As the voice of Christ to the Millennials, our Purpose is not to bring the Millennials in to some place that does not exist within the Catch Ministry, but to ask all of our Catch Citizens to go out and introduce the Gospel of Welcome — Grace Turned Outward — to Millennials everywhere — as the voice of Christ.

As the  builder of diverse communities for discipleship, the Minister for Discipleship and Community, Pastor John Shirk’s comments represent the majority of respondents to “Your Participation Matters!” when he said, 

“The Great Commission was not for the church to create a place where people could come learn about Jesus. The Great Commission was to go into the world with the message of Jesus.” 

Think about it! Unlike so many ministries, the Catch Ministry is not going upward in age and inward in focus.  Rather, we are intentionally going downward in age and outward in focus.  When comparing many ministries, one Millennial participant from our “Your Participation Matters!” questionnaire said this:

“I know there are older people who might like me, and me them, but generally speaking, it appears older people naturally go up in age and inward in focus.  I do not think there is an intent in them to go downward in age and outward in focus.”

We are going to prove to the younger generations that the Catch Ministry Boomers are committed to go downward in age and outward in focus — as in Grace Turned Outward. 

Think about it! We have seen through this study that Millennials are no longer just a younger generation with their heads in their cellphones and tablets, but they are a formidable and present force, actively shaping the future of our industries, politics, arts, neighborhoods and, yes, some churches. But they are scared and alone. Their relationships for a large part are virtual, and they feel isolated. Many struggle silently with mental illness. It is not uncommon for them to be taking part in counseling. They face an unstable world plagued by climate change, global warming, terrorism, failed leadership and a crisis of who to believe. Most of all, they feel unnoticed and unloved. It’s almost as if they feel like they have been abandoned. 

Think about it! We’ve found that Boomers are not as technologically challenged as they once seemed, but they are not engaged. They see the same unstable world that the Millennials see, but they yield to the fact that they are either retired or soon will be and therefore they feel justified in not really caring much about the world since they will be leaving soon. They have a diminishing sense of responsibility for the world they leave behind. Christian Boomers may have vast biblical knowledge but it is largely unapplied head knowledge, and they play with theology as if it were a Scrabble game. 

Think about it! But Boomers do not have to think very long to remember the political and social upheaval of the ‘60s and ‘70s. Many of the same questions the Millennials are asking today were a part of their vocabulary then. For that reason, the searching and protest common to the Boomers’ explosion of creativity in early rock music is cut from the same cloth as much of Millennial expression today. So there are connections, but Boomers will have to come out of their own disengagement to take advantage of whatever these two generations may have in common. 

Think about it? 

Who gave Christ a Voice for you?

Who do the Millennials have?  

We believe the Catch Ministry is the voice of Christ for the Millennials.  

Think about it! This new partnership — these new relationships — will provide the platform to offer a Christianity yet to see the light of twenty-first century day.