The Web site for Ecclesia tells everything you need to know about Andrew Jenkins and his church that caters to the needs of what has become known as Generation X. Jenkins wanted to be a pastor, as the church’s Web site tells it, but knew he didn’t seem to fit the mold of the typical pastor of the typical church. Remember, that’s him talking.
That’s when Jenkins realized something. And it was that knowledge that led Jenkins, 26, to form Ecclesia.
Meeting each Sunday at 5:30 p.m. in a warehouse at 300 24th St. S. in Birmingham, Ecclesia offers contemporary worship, music and fellowship for a generation Jenkins said is different from that of their parents and grandparents.
Generation X depends on who you talk to. “It’s generally the people that are about 18-35,” he said.
“The reason you can just go with that (age group) is because it’s more of a culture than a specific date of birth,” Jenkins said. “It’s actually the first postmodern culture.”
Jenkins said those in that “culture” have “different attitudes, different world views, different ways of interacting — that kind of thing.”
So why is there a need for a church like Ecclesia, anyway?
To hear Jenkins tell it, the church is the result of changes in society that have resulted in different ways of thinking.
Bess Mooneyham, 23, said Ecclesia offers worship that is more relaxed and is conducted among a group to which she can relate. “I’m more with my peers; I’m not with the older generation.”
Jenkins has seen the changes he believes have led to a different way of approaching the world. He said in the past people worked on a basis of “if your mind could grasp it, you could understand it — it was totally logical.”
But Jenkins believes Generation X takes “a more holistic approach” to the world.
“It involves the mind, it involves the emotion, the heart, it involves the spirit,” Jenkins said. “So, it’s a more comprehensive, holistic view of things.”
While other generations approach the world through logical, outlined approaches, he said people his age think differently. “That’s just not Generation X (thinking logically).”
Jenkins uses his grandparents’ generation of how believers thought in the past. He said years ago someone of the Baptist faith would move to a new city and immediately begin looking for a Baptist church nearby.
“They already knew what they thought … they knew what they believed,” Jenkins said. “They weren’t going to give on that — that was nonnegotiable.”
Jump forward to his generation.
“Today, Generation X is just the opposite,” he said. “They don’t know what they think, because it’s a more holistic thing. So they go find people that they get along with, the people that like them and then, as a result, the community becomes first.”
“You get into the community and then the values of the community, the beliefs of the community become the norming values of the individuals,” he said.
But Jenkins said a changing culture doesn’t equate with abandoning the truth of God’s Word.
“We just figured if we could get the argument better that people would be convinced to believe,” Jenkins said.
He said Sunday worship is supplemented by small groups, classes, discussions and other aspects that aid in reaching individuals.
Mooneyham said the church offers something different from what she had experienced.
“The difference in Ecclesia is that it has the traditional teaching, along with contemporary worship,” said Mooneyham, who had been “church hopping” five years before coming to Ecclesia in February.
She adds extreme sports activities are a drawing card in meeting social needs of people her age.
“I think it goes along with our personalities, and that’s involved into the extreme sports,” Mooneyham said. “We’re trying to incorporate that side of us into worship.”
To that end, Jenkins said the church even has someone who coordinates extreme ministries like snowboarding, skydiving, bungee jumping, etc.
“In the old days, you could set up a Ping-Pong tournament, and people would show up and play at church, now they don’t do that,” he said. “Now they go for stuff like mountain biking. … They do stuff that’s a little bit more extreme.”
Ecclesia doesn’t have a building yet. While the idea of meeting in a warehouse seems unconventional, Jenkins said even the location is part of the philosophy behind meeting the needs of his generation.
“Our thinking was, it would be hard to get people, especially from that generation to come to my apartment or to go to someone else’s house,” he said. “But they might come to a public gathering, so that’s what we did.”
The church has grown from “zero people” since it was formed in February to an average attendance of about 100 each week.
For more information on Ecclesia, visit the church’s Web site, www.ecclesiabirmingham.org.
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