That U.S. megaphone of amazing grace, Shane Claiborne, was recently moved to tears after witnessing a youth gathering in Australia. As he wrote:

Can you imagine if our North American Christian conferences had a witness on the streets like that [inspiring peaceful public direct action drawing attention to militarism and world poverty]? In the middle of it all, I had one person come up to me and say – “if this is what Christianity is, then sign me up.” In this notoriously non-Christian country, I was proud to be part of a witness that showed folks a Christianity worth believing in, good news they could see and touch and feel.

I wonder if it’s because of our context of witness in a (as brother Shane put it), “notoriously non-Christian country,” that Australian Christians might be better positioned to see the necessity of ‘Jesus and justice kissing.’ This necessity is not simply for the ends of ‘effective evangelism.’ The necessity lies in biblical imperative that evangelism must never be divorced from discipleship. That we share Jesus by inviting others to join a community learning the practicalities of walking in God’s new world. Or as the early Anabaptists put it, “walking in the resurrection.” In this “non-Christian [or post Christendom] country” many of us have become very aware that the means of outreach directly correspond to how young people understand the content of our faith.  Many find themselves asking if ‘Jesus and justice’ aren’t kissing in our ministry, is it the Jesus of the gospels we are preaching? If Jesus and justice aren’t kissing in our ministry, are we (and a generation of young people) missing out on the fullness of the good news of the kingdom breaking in through Jesus?

As Rob Bell and Don Golden write in their book, Jesus Wants to Save Christians:

How do children of the empire understand the Savior who was killed by an empire?

How do kids who are surrounded by more abundance than in any other generation in the history of humanity, take seriously a Messiah who said, ‘I have been anointed to preach good news to the poor’?

How do they fathom that half the world is too poor to feed its kids when their church just spent two years raising money to build an addition to their building?

They gather, they sing, they hear a talk from the pastor, and then they get back in the car with their parent and they go home: the garage door opens up, the car goes in, and the garage door goes down… This is what Jesus had in mind?

The challenge for youth pastors and leaders that Don and Rob are pointing to is how do we create disciples of God’s kingdom when our youth’s imaginations have been colonized by the corporate consumerism of our current empire (that is literally costing us the earth)? In the Australian context we don’t have the luxury of ministry consisting of resuscitating a dormant understanding of Christendom that kids have inherited from previous generations … they often don’t have any understanding of Christianity bringing us back to life.

Yet, what Australian youth have heaps of is “the two great hungers in our world today,” as Jim Wallis has put it: “the hunger for spirituality and social justice.”  Just look at the practical compassion of young Aussies after our worst fires in history. This generation does not need more slick entertainment or clever answers to numb us to what is really happening in our world.  Instead they long for a space where their deepest questions can be explored with people who are authentically living an alternative to empire. E.P.Y.C. (pronounced “epic”) every year runs workshops on “the creative nonviolence of Jesus” with literally thousands of students that have no connection (or interest!) with the Christian faith at all. Yet they have a burning desire to explore with people who are living an alternative to empire how they can be involved in doing something about injustice and our ecological crisis.  And our experience is that young people are amazed and enchanted by the practicalities of Jesus’ transformative nonviolence as a way that they can change our world. As one high school student recently put it,

I thought Christianity was a load of bull*#%. But this Jesus stuff about turning the other cheek is amazing! Why don’t all Christians talk about this?

Ha! What a great question! What might be more amazing for American readers is that government-run high schools ask us(!) to come and run these programs in their schools. (Can you imagine a government high school in American asking Christians to come in and run a program because of the effects it has on its students? And being asked back over again because of E.P.Y.C.’s approach to sharing from a Christian perspective while encouraging students of different faiths to explore Christ-like nonviolence in their own tradition?)

The world waits for Christians who proclaim “Jesus is the Way” with their lips to live the creative nonviolent Way of Jesus with their lives.  Then like the early Christians, people will ask for an explanation of our hope (read 1 Peter 3:15 in the context of the chapter). As our Peace Tree Community has started to experience, instead of Christians going door knocking, people will start to knock on our door and ask “Why?”

Why do you let homeless people and refugees stay with you?

Why do the local kids hang out with wadjalas (white fellas) like you?

Why were you on the news peacefully protesting?

Why do you have time for me when no one else does?

Why do you volunteer in the community permaculture garden when the food often gets taken?

The challenge for youth pastors is the challenge of hearing Jesus say, “Follow me”; to lose our lives in living God’s love. Then, as communities, we become signs of God’s new world in the midst of empire and youth will start to ask us … “Why?” If Passionfest in New Zealand and The Common Root convergence in the U.S. are anything to go by, a generation is starting to do just that. It is my conviction that God longs to breathe the Spirit of Love’s new world into us. But to receive it, we must stop locking lips with empire. Then we will see clearly that Jesus and justice always kiss.

But sometimes they won’t ask why. Like Shane shared, sometimes people will just run up to us and say “if this is what Christianity is, then sign me up.”

Jarrod McKenna is seeking to live God’s love.  As a Vine and Fig Tree Planter, he plants ‘signs’ on military bases that draw the connections between God’s kingdom, militarism, and climate change.  He is a co-founder of the Peace Tree Community, serving with the marginalized in one of the poorest of areas in his city, heads up Together for Humanity in Western Australia (an interfaith youth initiative working for the common good), and is the founder and creative director of Empowering Peacemakers (EPYC), for which he has received an Australian peace award for his work in empowering a generation of (eco)evangelists and peace prophets.