Before we roll our sleeves up and get our hands dirty, let's talk about something we can all agree on — cookies, chocolate chip specifically. According to Business Insider, Americans consume 7 billion chocolate chip cookies every year. This works itself out to about 22 cookies a pop annually, with some of us overachievers picking up the slack for everyone else. But why? What's made this type of cookie a timeless treasure over macadamia, double fudge, and oatmeal raisin?
Well, the dough is where it all starts and it is traditionally broken down into two parts: wet and dry ingredients. First, the butter, vanilla, milk, eggs — champions in their own rights and present in larger quantities, these ingredients together serve as the bulk and foundation of our dough. Next, the dry ingredients — flour, baking soda, salt, and sugar — are seldom found at the forefront alone, but much like the role they serve in our cookies, they are responsible for the cohesiveness of anything they are part of. Finally, the chocolate chips, their influence to the final product is not only important but defining. Unlike the rest of the ingredients, chocolate chips do not mix and become part of the batter, they become an important part while remaining distinguishable from the moment it joins the other ingredients, through the baking process, to the point where it finally finds its way to satisfy a hungry consumer.
That's a tall order for the chips though isn't it? Too bitter or sweet and they ruin the essence of the cookie. Too many of them and they're overwhelming, too little and an absence is felt. Ultimately, the key to a successful cookie seems to lie in balancing the ingredients — finding what quantities produce the best quality.
As a culture, we can learn a lot from the culinary world. Rather than saturating our society with an overwhelming amount of one ingredient, why not find a way to bring out the best of each ingredient to create a final product that tastes good? Even though anyone can recognize that creating something that everyone likes is idealistic, seven billion chocolate chip cookies are consumed every year, they're doing something right.
People of faith, especially young adults, have not only a cultural, but a Biblical responsibility to be America's chocolate chips. Far too many Millennial Christians in this country either keep their faith private or keep themselves isolated from popular culture. Like the chips on the cookie, they have a responsibility to have an integral and favorable presence without becoming indistinguishable from the rest. Millennials — the demographic cohort born between 1981 and 1996 — are slowly, but surely becoming the most secular generation in history.
In a recap of a peer-reviewed study published in the journal PLOS One conducted between 1966 and 2014, over 11 million adolescents were surveyed on their religious orientation. It was reported that while in 1970 only 12% of college-age students had never attended a religious service, that number more than doubled to 27% by the end of the study in 2014. Along the same lines, the percentage of individuals of this same age group to identify as having no religious affiliation grew from 13% to 25% in the same period.
But why? Why are America's young adults turning their backs on organized religion at such higher rates than their predecessors? There are a couple of standing theories out there. Some see the structure of the Christian lifestyle to be oppressive, limiting and archaic, keeping them from the activities, people, and places that they believe will make them happy. For others, their inhibition to religion comes from bad examples of believers in their personal lives or in the media. These bad examples may take the form of rebuking and judgmental church celebrities, local leaders, or families.
While both those points bear weight and validity, that still doesn't answer the question of "Why now?" The youth of every generation has wanted to trail blaze new aspects of society, be a little different from their parents, move society in a slightly different direction. That's why statistically, conservatives are older and progressives are younger, the youth is always hungry for change, but religion has always had its "rules" and there have always been bad role models in every school of thought.
The reason that change in our generation has manifested itself as a decline in organized religion is a two-part answer and both parts are double-sided edges: lack of patience and abundant communication.
Faith is a marathon, not a sprint. Results take time. There's no same-day delivery, no instant streaming, no ordering ahead with the app. We are a culture of instant gratification and faith simply takes time.
Also, there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed (Luke 8:17). In 1970, you had to do something pretty bad for it to get national coverage. Today, everything goes viral and never goes away so if you fail to carry yourself with transparency and honesty, you and whatever you stand for will lose credibility fast. The larger your platform, the greater your fall if you slip-up and there were few establishments with a greater platform than Western Christianity.
To my chocolate chips still reading, God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble (Proverbs 3:34). Humble yourself because we're not the biggest kid on the playground anymore. If we don't start finding the right balance of bitter and sweet and start putting all of our ingredients on the box, we're going to find ourselves as the last generation where our faith is commonplace in our society.
As the originators of the concept of chocolate chip Christianity, the Benham Brothers share the importance of being involved, yet distinguishable and for the right reasons — self-discipline, integrity, and transparency. It is important that as young Christians we find ways to humble and to educate ourselves in order have civil discourse with those that pray differently or don't pray at all. The shift in the outlook of faith and religion that we need does not begin with politics, finger-pointing, or rebuking, but in carrying the Christ-like values of mutual respect, compassion, and understanding. We need to transition from telling people what God is about and we need to begin leading by example. As youth pastor of New Birth "A Place of Hope" John Mejia, 22, put it, "You don't have to show your roots, you just have to show some fruit."
Most importantly, let's become present for the right reasons and start to leave a better taste in people's mouths when they decide to take a bite.
