Escapism, entitlement and empty existentialism are emotionally and spiritually crippling our culture today. Many are stuck in the individualistic existential experiment and are being consumed by a sense of disorientation, confusion and dread in the face of a seemingly absurd world. In our quest to find ourselves and live authentically more and more people are feeling isolated and disconnected from meaningful community.

We are a culture that regularly is trying to escape the daily responsibilities of a good work ethic and being a good citizen. We have become more consumed with what the government, church and others can do for us than what we can do for others. We are taking “gap year” after “gap year” to find ourselves, but we are not planting ourselves and building anything that lasts.

Sixty five percent of the jobs that current High School students will be offered are not even created yet. Some dangerous trends have been taking place within the marketplace. More and more jobs do not build anything that last and bring more jobs and blessings to our culture. One example of this is the number of financial jobs that take advantage of markets and actually destabilize the economy. An extreme example of this is the current trend of individuals getting paid to post videos on YouTube and Instagram. This trend is all about creating an individualistic income stream without any concern for building something that will last and contribute to a better culture. I am conversing more and more with wanderers who are traveling about in their decked-out adventure vans writing blogs and video blogs, trying to find themselves. They are disconnected from healthy community and are not able to build healthy relationships, community or a lasting heritage. All of these trends are working together to bring about more isolation and erode healthy structures of community and belonging.

Without growing healthy structures of community the futility of an absurd world will continue to consume the emotional and spiritual health of our culture.

So, what is the solution? Where is the hope for our fractured, disoriented and emotionally isolated culture?

Jesus gave His Church the megaphone of hope to shout out the good news in a dark world. The Church family is to be the light and example of a growing healthy community in the midst of the darkness of a relationally fractured culture. Universally we “find ourselves” as we commit to building community with each other, not in taking “walk-abouts” or “gap years.” We grow and experience fulfilling relationships when we build something together that will last and bear fruit.

Many of the healthy foundations that America was built upon are currently being deconstructed. They were built by a healthy integration of pioneering gifts and settling gifts. Jesus built these gifts into His Church to be a catalyst for igniting healthy structures of community. He has called His followers to come “find themselves” in Him and His new community. He has called His followers to be Builders not isolated individuals.

The need of the hour is for His Church again to be the model of healthy community and belonging where people can “find themselves” and be a part of building something that bears eternal fruit. For this to happen, the pioneering and settling gifts must be awakened within the Church. The pioneering gifts are needed to sense the areas of greatest need and step out and launch new ministries and initiatives to address them. The settling gifts are needed to come alongside the pioneering gifts and create healthy relational structures for the building of healthy community. We find ourselves when we are committed to a community that is committed to building healthy relational structures.

Here are a few important questions we should all be asking ourselves and discussing:

1.) What is my motivation for work?

2.) What am I building?

3.) How is what I do enhancing my community?

4.) How am I building healthy relationships?

5.) Do we live with a “just passing thru” mentality or a “planting” mentality?

6.) Are we committed to a community where we are truly known?

7.) Are we leaving behind a heritage of healthy relationships?