Young Adult Christians Urged to 'Collide' With Pop Culture
Mike and Daniel Blackaby are both young adult Christians who know the influences that pop culture can have on their generation.
Mike, 26, and Daniel, 24, both talk about what it really means to “cave-in,” “cave-dwell,” and “collide” in their new book, When Worlds Collide.
The book is a call-out to the young adult generation who might have “embraced their Christian faith at one time because their parents did,” but once high school graduation arrived, the principles, values and faith gets tossed out because of pop culture influences, which often reveals they couldn’t withstand the collision, Mike said.
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“We wrote this book out of the heart for the main people in our generation who are leaving the church,” he explained.
Mike noted that in no way is it a self-help book, but a “challenge to our generation to step it up.”
The brothers, grandsons of Henry Blackaby (author of Experiencing God), let readers into their own lives, detailing experiences and mistakes that they’ve made. They also share how younger generation Christians tned to respond to pop culture, and some, unfortunately, cave in.
The “cave-ins” are described as “selling out to the world, compromising your values and what you believe in,” Mike said. Most people in that position get out there in the world and throw out their beliefs.
Then there are the “cave-dwellers.” Those are Christians who are afraid of being affected by the world so they hide themselves from anything secular.
“They only ever listen to Christian music, and lock themselves into a cave,” Mike, who currently serves as the college and young adult pastor of First Baptist Church in Jonesboro, Ga., explained. While lots of Christians do this, it isn’t the right kind of response or way of living.
“Both responses don’t impact the world at all, whether you are hiding or compromising.”
The third response young people have toward the influential pop culture is “collision.” The young men define the collider as someone who doesn’t hide from the world but also stands firm on their belief in Christ, and there is no compromising. Those people aren’t destroyed when colliding with movies, TV programs and secular books.
"Colliders simply are people who honor God more than trying to please people," Mike and Daniel write.
The Blackabys stress that it’s OK to know what’s going on in pop culture, but they warn not to take it lightly.
“Pop culture influences the way you think. People turn to pop culture when they don’t want to collide,” Mike said.
However, the brothers want readers to know that you have to be aware of the other cultures and secular worldviews in order to be world changers. When taking part in pop culture, allow your brain to be a filter and don’t turn off your brain, they urge.
In the new book, which is in stores now, Daniel recalls a time when he was attending a secular university and his professor asked the class to take a secular song and dissect it. Daniel picked a Christian song that was a crossover song. The professor was an atheist, but Daniel used his presentation to present the Gospel of Christ to people. That became an example of using pop culture to reach out to his peers, Mike said.
Throughout the book, the young authors share that with other worldviews and pop cultures out there, you will be faced with challenges, and you can’t run from it, but the question they ask is will you be ready so that you can collide?
The main mission for the Blackabys, who have a heart to change the world, is to get young adults to think critically beyond what is presented to them. They share tools to help people get there through Scripture and what has been revealed in their own lives.
While the brothers talk heavily about being world changers, they also remain transparent through it all, revealing to readers the mistakes they’ve made along the way, but showing how Jesus Christ prevailed through it all.
“The ultimate goal is not just to survive, but we were very intentional about putting ourselves out there,” said Mike. “There were times where we’ve done the wrong thing and how we’ve done the right thing. They will get to know the authors and have gone through with us and seen how we’ve come to where we are. There are some things along the way that we’ve learned and I think a lot of people will appreciate that.”
The book can be ordered through Amazon and is in LifeWay Christian stores today.
