Wake Up, Look Up

Hello everyone, and thanks for listening to Wake Up, Look Up, a podcast where we connect events happening in real time to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Zach Weihrauch, and in today's episode, we're asking the question, can you believe teens are doing this? This is prompted by an article I read recently in the New York Times about hacky sack and how it's making a comeback with Gen Z. you remember hacky sack, don't you? A bunch of people standing around in a circle, kicking a sack around. You can't touch it with your hands. You got to keep it up off the ground. It is, it is a fairly innocuous thing to do. And to be honest with you, I've always found it a little boring, which is why I think it's so interesting that it's made its way back and you're seeing it everywhere. Students are forming circles during lunch, after class, before sports practices. turning a simple foot bag game into a social ritual. In fact, recently I went to the Cleveland Museum of Art, and there on the green were three or four circles of young people. Hacky sacking retailers say demand has surged nationwide. Stores are struggling to keep them in stock. TikTok and Instagram are full of video content about this. This, is. And what's interesting is what you're hearing overwhelmingly is what's driving young people to hacky sack is not the game itself, it's the social camaraderie. It's not about winning or losing. It's about being together and participating together in this collective effort to keep the sack off the ground. And I say this because I think it's really instructive for us as churches, as leaders in the church, as parents, as to understand that although this generation is growing up in a technological era, although, they are learning about artificial intelligence, they are very much so online. What they are craving is community. What they're craving is communal enterprise, a shared and collective effort to achieve some result greater than themselves. And that is, by the way, the exact thing, thing that the local church is. That's what we do. That's our market. Acts 2, of course, is the best passage of this talk about the early church and the way it did life. And it says in Acts 2:44, all who believed were together and they had all things in common. This is a huge opportunity for the church. and I'm on record as saying this, I think Gen Z might be the greatest American generation in the church that, that we've ever seen. I think there's a spiritual hunger and revival that is happening. And I think there's an opportunity to reach even more M Gen Z by tapping into their community, by being an oasis for them away from what's online, away from the technological world that they've driven in, giving them a place where they can be seen and known and appreciated and participate in a mission that, that is worth giving their lives towards. And I say this also as a parent of teenagers because I think sometimes I focus on all the wrong things. what college they're going to get into, how their grades are, are they responsible, are they cleaning up after themselves? And those things matter. But at the end of the day, the human longing is for community and healthy people have it, and those who don't have it, want it. And so even as parents, are we considering the social health of our children? Are we pushing them into spaces where they're going to be surrounded by kids who care about them, by people who care about them, and by people who want to share with them the pursuit of the kingdom of Jesus Christ? So listen, if you're listening to this and you are a Gen Z er, you're a young person and you want to see God move in your generation, listen, don't just join the hacky sack circle, although do it. Get to know some people, make some friends, build some relationships, share Jesus. But also ask yourself, how can the church position itself for your generation as the place of community and collective effort to the glory of God, to the good of the world and and to the joy of the people in the circle. Hey, thanks for watching this episode of Wake Up, Look Up. If you enjoyed it, please help us get the word out by sharing it with someone you think might benefit from it. And while you're here, make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to get further content or even download the CCC app where you'll find even more resources to help you grow in your faith and relationship with Jesus Christ.

Have an article you’d like Zach to discuss? Email us at wakeup@ccchapel.com!