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omg ipod
Here it is, Podcast #8 – OMG!: How Generation Y is Redefining Faith in the iPod Era. I’ll apologize for the quality on this one – nothing to do with the hardware, all to do with my bronchitus that has kept me home for two days now. So please excuse the occasional cough and wandering while the drugs still work.

The study OMG!: How Generation Y is Redefining Faith in the iPod Era was sponsored by REBOOT, a postmodern Jewish network for innovation. This is a great site to see how other faith traditions are dealing with the challenges of the spiritual journey of postmoderns. Check out the site and look for some more discussion on their findings.

Download the podcast here.

6 Responses to “Wired Jesus Podcast #8 – REBOOT – OMG!: How Generation Y is Redefining Faith in the iPod Era”

  1. Bob Bachand says:

    Tom,

    Thanks for producing a podcast even though your are ill. I’ll remember your in my prayers this weekend.

    This is a very interesting site. Thanks for the review.

    Your friend,
    Bob

  2. I listened to your podcast on how Generation Y is redefining faith. I got the distinct impression we are in a very different place regarding our Christian faith. I have been listening to your podcast looking for ideas on expressing my Christian faith (and to a lower priority my Lutheran heritage) in ways that Gen Y would understand. But you referred to other religions as other paths and talked about pluralism in the church as a good thing.

    You led me to believe that not only Gen Y but you personally viewed Christianity as simply a way, a path among many paths to God.

    If all religions are true, if all are just one path out of many, then I could not be a Christian.

    A God who is loves us so much that he is willing to sacrifice his Son to reconcile to us when there was no other way is a truly benevolent God, a merciful and gracious God. But a God that sacrifices his Son when there are many other ways to him, many other paths. That Go would be a monster.

    If I misconstrued your broadcast please accept my apology. If not, please accept my apologetics.

  3. Tom Lyberg says:

    No apology needed and I am always up for apologetics. I want the blog to be as wide open as possible for everyone, christian or not.

    I am a Christian but I have in recent years changed the language of my own apologetics and confession. Is Jesus the way, the truth, and the light? Yes. Is Jesus my Lord and Savior? Yes. Is Jesus God’s definiative revelation and path to salvation now and eternally? Yes.

    Problem is, that is very modern/evangelical language that is connecting less and less with postmoderns, particularly Gen Y who view the world, including religion, pluralistically. American Christians, in my opinion, have fallen into the conceit that this is/was a Christian country and therefore the only real way to ever talk about God. All other world religions were understood as either benevolently misguided or the work of the devil to be refuted vigorously.

    My contention is that we as Christians need to learn to speak in a pluralistic world rather than one where we think we “own” God and all discussion of the divine. While it might come across as less than orthodox Christian vocabulary, I use it as missionary language. We are back to Paul and Mars Hill and the locals don’t speak our traditional Christian language and aren’t interested in learning. So for me, its either keep quiet, be loud and irrelevant, or learn “Greek.” I choose to live and learn Greek.

    Does that help? This might be a good avenue for another podcast.

  4. PBCliberal says:

    The thing this study seems to say most clearly (at least to me) is that we are moving into a world where an individual’s relationship to a higher power is intensely personal, and very experiential. That means seven people in a room are going to have seven different paths and seven different ways to tread them.

    It has always seemed to me that people secure in their faith should be as supported in their faith by people with markedly different beliefs as much as they are by people with similar ones.

    We’re advanced enough as a people, that we can look across belief systems and see not only their texts and their symbols, but how these systems integrate with their society and culture. Isn’t this knowledge helpful?

    I’m a lot more receptive to the testimony of Tom Lyberg about his personal connection with Jesus Christ and his faith in a path to salvation through him, when its presented in Lyberg’s language than when its presented in Christensen’s.

    Saying that there are multiple paths doesn’t remove the possibility that all these paths may not resonate with everyone.

    To me, somebody who talks a pluralist language and then expresses a deep personal belief in a particular path is somebody who has a deep understanding of their own faith, because they understand it in context. This person probably has something valuable to say.

  5. revden says:

    Tom… you have hit on some interesting themes. For the modern mind these are quite challenging to say the least, as the previous comment indicate. This leads me to author Neale Donald Walsch.. “Conversations with God” books. I am currently reading his latest “Tomorrow’s God.” Walsch talks about alot of what you are talking about. Its more of what he calls a “new sprituality”, which makes most us uncomfortable, but there is truth in some of this. For many in the modern world this is very challenging. Yet… there is something of truth in the words he uses… God uses. There also seems to be a hint of what I would call New Age in his conversations. Needless to say… I think there is something to all this post modern talk. It is not cut and dry like many of us would like… you know God fitting nicely in my box. I think that world is going by the way side, yet it still has quite a grip. My wife and I have been having these types of discussions. She thinks I have lost it and that Satan has grabed hold of me. That I am not preaching the BIBLE. I ask her if she hears the gospel? Well… yes she exclaims…

    I too… am very secure in my faith and in my Jesus, but one has to wonder how all this might influence us all.

  6. Tom, thanks that helps me understand better where you are coming from. I agree that many American Christians think of the US as a Christian country either now or before and hold it up as example that I don’t see (or at least don’t always see) it its history or actions. I also understand the desire to use missionary language.

    It just sounds like we have come down in a different place on which language to use. I tend to be more careful, in any generation and to the best of my ability, to try and change the language while trying to be careful not to change the content of the original gospel message. Because after all, what Chris thinks about God is not that important and what God thinks about God is pretty important. And I want to be careful to express my personal understanding in a language that is consistent with them. I program for a living and I find it make me more precise in my use of language, because the computer does not understand nuance. It is, I suppose an occupational hazard. 🙂

    Thank you again for your patience.

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