As a young adult who calls himself a Christian -- not religious, but Christian (and yes, I do believe there is a difference) -- I can honestly say we are in a new generation of Christianity. A new generation that has become more accepting and more ready for the spreading of ideas a strong concept of change.

In terms of what I have seen, I believe that Christianity in Massachusetts is becoming less judgmental about others and more like Jesus himself. In the Bible it says that Jesus surrounded himself with the broken. He surrounded himself with the prostitutes and with the diseased. Everyone has their problems and struggles and we as a community are realizing that our own struggles are no better off than the person next to us. Even outside Christianity, people have accepted gay marriage. People have accepted transgender. As a country we are starting to care a lot more about what is on the inside of a person than the outside. I see it in my grandfather’s generation that they are quick to judge. In their generation, if someone walked into their church who considered themselves homosexual, that person would have been condemned. Today as a group of young Christians, there is acceptance of anyone person who is willing to come find out what the word of God says, because we all have our problems and none is greater than the other. We may not agree with the way they are living their lives, but we do think that anyone can be changed by the word of God.

I am a member of a young adult Christian church started by one of my good friends, Devon Frye, called the508. We have a late night church on Friday nights, a night that everyone could understandably be at the club. The508 is a subgroup of Connect Community Church in Ashland, MA. This is the place where I am seeing the change, and where I am seeing the movement. In Jonathan D. Fitzgerald’s article in 2013 called, “On a mission to save godless Massachusetts,” Joe Souza, member of the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board, says that five years ago, 87 percent of new churches trying to reach wayward New Englanders failed. Currently, Connect Community Church in Ashland averages 700 people per Sunday, with the highest attendance being Easter Sunday with 1,100 people attending. That is a lot of people for a New England church from a small town in Massachusetts.

Then there is the508 which started on February 27, 2015. It's original attendance was 85 people. The max attendance we have seen in just 6 months is 131 people. Over those 6 months 80+ salvations have been made. A salvation is when someone accepts Jesus into their life. That is amazing stuff. Young adults who could be out on a Friday night, would rather be connecting with a group of people talking about the word of God. There are all walks of life that come to the group as well. We have Americans, Brazilians, African-Americans, Hispanics, athletes, non-athletes, ex-drug addicts, current drug addicts, basically any type of person who could be struggling with any type of sin. This group is unlike others that I have seen. They do not think they are better than others because they are well off with the Lord, because no one is completely well off! We all have problems and the only thing we can do is grab the hand of the person next to us and say let us walk through this together and see what Jesus has to say.

Yes, all of this is great and people are finding an inner peace with God, but like I said, we are all sinners. There is one sin that I have found most prevalent in today’s generation of Christians, and this sin is idolatry. Idolatry is defined as the worship of idols or extreme love for something or someone. More than ever today, the new generation of Christians struggles with this. We grow up to see athletes glorified and treated like no man has the right to be treated. They basically are worshiped. Success is put on a pedestal since the day we are born. We are in an age of comparison, insecurity, and possession. Relationships get ruined because people rely on their partners to dictate their emotions and make them feel complete. They are making their partners their idols. Young athletes are making sports their entire lives, putting every bit of focus towards achieving that one goal of playing college sports, or making it professional. Then they get a career-ending injury and have to go to therapy because their life and happiness was dictated by that one sport. Nothing earthly can return that happiness that we seek, but yet it is so easy to be fooled.

Success gives temporary highs that are like drugs and are so addicting. Once the idol of your life does not give you the happiness it once did, we turn to other things in a distraught state to become fillers for that happiness, making us believe we are still important. Every relationship that I have seen in today’s day and age that is unsuccessful, including my own, have been because of this reason. We make our partner our medicine that we turn to make us feel value. People, I have found that there is only one thing, one person, one entity that can return that happiness and make us feel of value, no matter what earthly things we endure. That one is God, someone who desires to be number one in our lives, and the first person you turn to in happiness, sorrow, or calmness. God wants to share those times with you first.

So to the people of the new generation: we have moved forward and have become more accepting and ready to spread the word of Jesus. Non believers have become more accepting as well, but as a whole community, no matter how bad our heart is hurting, no medicine, no sport, no person, no amount of money, and no object can sustain your happiness and give you inner peace. Jesus can do that.