Faith For Exiles - Breakout with Mark Matlock

Get the book here: Faith For Exiles By David Kinnamen & Mark Matlock

Generations in our lifetime:
The Builders - 1927-1945
The Boomers - 1946- 1964
The Busters (Gen X) - 1965 - 1979
Millennial (Gen Y)- 1980-1995
Digitals (Gen Z) - 1996 - 2009

Digital Babylon looks like being overloaded with choices, weaponizing humor and using Emoji’s and Gifs for every moment. This is similar to God’s people in ancient Babylon where God’s people were in exile, away from home and trying to figure out how to live by God’s law in a foreign land.

Digital Babylon makes all of us exiles.

Young people ages 15-23 spend over 2700 hours behind a screen taking in tons of different types of media.  The average person age 15-29 takes in only 152 of faith based content out of the 2700 hours.

Christian Research of people age 15-29 gave the following results:
X-Christians - 22%
Nomads - do not go to church but identify as Christian - 30%
Habitual Church Goers - theologically don’t have a christian worldview - 38%
Resilient Disciples - 10%

Resilient Disciples -Committed Christ Followers - developing Jesus followers who are resiliently faithful in the face of cultural coercion.  Resilient disciples take in 562 hours of spiritual content online as opposed to those who are considered nomads to take in only 210 hrs of faith based content.

This generation is trying to answer the following questions:
Searching for Identity - Who Am I?
Fighting Anxiety - How should I live in today’s world?
Experiencing Loneliness - Am I loved?
Harnessing Ambition - Whats my purpose?
Feeling Entitled - What am I owed?

Resilient disciples have a few main characteristics:
Experiencing Jesus - clearing religious clutter for closeness with and joy in Christ
Meaningful Relationships - being devoted to fellow believers we to be around and become
Cultural discernment - understanding the culture they live in and how to live purposefully
Vocational discipleship - no matter the career field they are experiencing spiritual growth to influence their workplace for Christ

Mark & Dave define discipleship in three main sections:
Recognizing their identity - are they rooted in their identity in Christ
Aligning our values - do personal values line up with biblical values
Developing skills in the way of Jesus  - are the characteristics the person is developing those that Christ modeled 

Exiles are instrumental to God’s purposes in times of change

There is so much data to go through and learn, the book would be super helpful to continue to find ways to impact this generation help them see a proper reflection of Jesus in person and online.