[aron]

In Acts 2:32 Peter says, "God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it.".

We may say that Peter witnessed a 'process'. But when I read Peter's story, I see the focus on a person: "this Jesus". The Jesus Peter knew. The person Peter was with, whom Peter loved. This Jesus was still alive and very much with Peter, not through theology but through presence.

The danger on considering the abstract, "God's economy" view is that at some point we lose the presence of person. This is suggested as well by the many young ones who "can't make it", who are told they are now defective. The "subjective Christ" of the ministry zealots doesn't work for them; it just doesn't, sorry. So are they the failures, here? They have just as much right to their own subjective impressions of what the 'processed God' does for them, as what it did for their parents. And these young ones have spoken with their feet, and have left.

To me this is the clearly evident fruit - many cast off, disillusioned, frustrated young people. They got an idea, an ideology, but unless they give themselves to promote the ministry the warm fuzzies die away alarmingly fast. When they were young, 8, 10, 14 years old, they did what they were told. They went to the meetings and went through the motions. But nothing came. Eventually the ministry demands and the perceived pay-offs didn't match, so they left.

At the Lord's Table meeting, they heard, "Ohhh Loooord Jeeeezusss… we just care about youuuuu! We just love youuuuuu!", but when the meeting is over they heard talk about the ministry and "the Lord's move" and "building the Body" (of ministry acolytes) and so forth. The young ones see the disconnect, the hypocrisy 24/7. So they bail. . . all the orthodoxy props don't hold it up. To them, it's an empty lifeless shell.