Recently a friend and I visited a truly pomo Java House. A little nervous and somewhat uncertain about our venture we slowly made our way into a quaint little shop with a couch, coffee table and a large window. Directly in front of the couch was a small library with books ranging from the Kings James Bible to a paperback on the dead. After ordering a Ginger tea and coffee we settled into two tall chairs at a table overlooking the bustle of the five-o’clock business district.

In an attempt to acclimate myself to this new environment I quickly scanned the room. Suddenly, I was aware of something unusual. For one of the few times in my life I was a part of the minority. Everyone, with the exception of my friend and I, wore tattoos decoratively mixed with the silver of body piercings. The best decorative I had to offer was a slightly raised mole just below what use to be a hairline.

It soon became obvious that our appearance and age made our pierced friends a little uncomfortable—so much so, that they moved their discussion outside on the steps. Ours continued inside—on their turf. After an hour of good discussion we walked out into the summer night and thanked our new friends for allowing us to share the night with them. I tipped the owner and navigated the steep steps into the parking lot below. I turned and the owner waved goodnight. Suddenly we didn’t feel as if we were immigrants.

Our experience that evening was a microcosm of life in a post-Christian world. It was as if we had stepped into a world as unusual as the digital world of Sims Online. No real hostility toward Christianity but, as the Sims online, the Java House crowd is just “not much like us.

Reaching this emerging generation will require a few bold and fearless leaders to step out of the boat of church life and into the streams of culture in pursuit of something unprecedented; even downright miraculous. It means we replace our preoccupation with church and walk the fringes of the mission field looking for those Jesus misses.

It’s unfortunate that the compartmentalization of life, so common in western society, gave Satan the one tool he needed to connect the Sunday and Wednesday assembly with “the main event” in a disciple’s life. Christianity has been bound, confined, and limited to worship leaders, ministry leaders, pulpits, power-point, classrooms, and buildings. If we can reverse the trend and move outside the theologically confining box called church, it’s there we’ll discover God in active pursuit of His world.

It might take me months, maybe years, to engage my new friends in the Java House but I’m out of the boat swimming where the fish swim. Here I’ve found action and conversation unlike any before…and guess what? I’ve found Jesus here too; working, loving, and reaching out to the people He misses the most.

More about the author at Future Margins.com