We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.

Rachel Held Evans on What Drives Millennials (and Others) Away from Church

motorcycle touring Memorial Day 06 (2)

David Clow via Compfight

Have you been wondering why so many churches are dwindling in numbers? Rachel Held Evans was asked to speak about what drives millennials away from church, but her response has struck a nerve with a whole lot of people who are not millennials. It’s time for the church to take a good hard look at more than “relevance”.

From Rachel’s reflection:

What millennials really want from the church is not a change in style but a change in substance.

We want an end to the culture wars. We want a truce between science and faith. We want to be known for what we stand for, not what we are against.

We want to ask questions that don’t have predetermined answers.

We want churches that emphasize an allegiance to the kingdom of God over an allegiance to a single political party or a single nation.

We want our LGBT friends to feel truly welcome in our faith communities.

We want to be challenged to live lives of holiness, not only when it comes to sex, but also when it comes to living simply, caring for the poor and oppressed, pursuing reconciliation, engaging in creation care and becoming peacemakers.

Yes.

Related Reading

The Purpose of the Church

Concerning the preaching of the Gospel, Paul wrote that God’s intent was that “through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places … in accordance with the eternal purpose that he has carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord”…

Greg Shares His Journey and Some Challenges Ahead

http://youtu.be/YdZKPG20kmQ Last September, Greg was asked to give the opening address at the Missio Alliance event Church & Post-Christian Culture: Christian Witness in the Way of Jesus. You can find more information here. Special thanks to our very own Stephen Konsor for his role in filming and editing this and other sessions. Enjoy!

Giant Jesus

Yesterday’s post featured a video of Greg sharing about the role of the church in manifesting God’s character to the world. Here are some follow-up thoughts on that topic. The NT often uses the metaphor of “the body of Christ” to describe the church. When Jesus walked the earth, he did so in an ordinary…

Topics:

The Case for Women in Ministry

Kathy’s Struggle with Temptation Kathy was one of the brightest students I ever had when I taught Theology at Bethel University. She asked insightful questions and often contributed to lively class discussions. The time and energy she put into her theology classes was motivated by more than just a desire to get a good grade.…

Topics:

Quotes to Chew On: The Church vs. Religion

“It’s time for the Church to free itself from the religious holiness of the Pharisees and begin to manifest the holiness of the Kingdom. It’s time for us to realize that our calling is to serve people sacrificially–including prostitutes, tax collectors, and enemies–rather than judging them. It’s time we ceased getting Life from the rightness…

3 Traits of a Jesus Kind of Church

A Jesus kind of church (See an introductory post on this here) is called to represent God, just as Christ did. The church is Christ continuing to manifest the true God. Bonhoeffer put it this way, “The Church is not a religious community of worshippers of Christ but is Christ Himself who has taken form…

Topics: