We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded by your direct support for ReKnew and our vision. Please consider supporting this project.
Rachel Held Evans on What Drives Millennials (and Others) Away from Church
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.
Category: General
Tags: Authenticity, Church, Millennials, Rachel Held Evans
Related Reading
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…
The Dehumanizing Effects of Gender Roles
Daniel DeCristo via Compfight Rachel Held Evans posted this really wonderful blog about the absurd legalism of gender roles. She not only calls out the legalism of these roles, but also the ways that we become less human when we are reduced to a stereotype rather than a human being with specific gifts and passions. You’ll…
Thinking Biblically?
Olga Caprotti via Compfight Micah J. Murray over at Redemption Pictures posted this reflection called Beware of Thinking Biblically. The image of a google search on the topic is worth the price of admission. Christians throw around this phrase in some really damaging ways, as Rachel Held Evans demonstrated in her recent publication of A Year…
ReThink Humanity
D. Sharon Pruitt via Compfight When we wrote the ReKnew Manifesto, one of the issues we were passionate about was helping people rethink gender issues within the church. Part of the Manifesto reads: Against the long-standing patriarchal mindset of the Church tradition, ReKnew is passionate about encouraging husbands and wives to assume an egalitarian mindset…
McChurch
In the West, we tend to think of church as a weekend gathering in a special religious building. As a result, many mistakenly assume that Paul wrote his letters to a single body of people in a specific town who gathered together as a rather large group once a week. In reality, the regional churches…
Podcast: How Should We Handle Disagreements in the Church?
Greg discusses Christian conflict resolution. http://traffic.libsyn.com/askgregboyd/Episode_0206.mp3