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.
We Need The Church
Vicki & Chuck Rogers via Compfight
Last week we shared a thought-provoking article by Rachel Held Evans on the reasons millennials are leaving the church. This week we want to share a follow-up to that article that appeared on CNN’s Belief blog. Rachel lists the reasons why millennials actually need the church. Her thoughts actually apply to us all. Even in the midst of a deeply flawed collection of people and traditions, there is something basic and necessary about gathering with others to pray and wrestle with our faith. Here is a peek at Rachel’s thoughts on this:
Those who follow Jesus long for the day when their communion with him becomes complete, and Jesus promises this will happen through the church. The apostle Paul compared this union to a marriage. Jesus describes it as a banquet. No matter what the latest stats or studies say, Christians believe the future of the church is secure and not even “the gates of hell” will prevail against it. As much as I may struggle to fit in sometimes, as much as I doubt, question and fight for reforms, I am a part of this church, through good times and bad, for better or worse.
Category: General
Tags: Church, Faithfulness, Rachel Held Evans
Related Reading
Podcast: Overflow Episode 5 — Christ-Centered Leadership, Church Growth, and Training in Wisdom
Dan Kent and Matt Tebbe (of Gravity Leadership) talk about Christ-centered leadership, church growth, and how to grow in wisdom. He can learn more about Gravity Leadership on their website or on their twitter portal. http://traffic.libsyn.com/askgregboyd/Episode_0456.mp3
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…
A Brief History of Political Power and the Church
The history of the church has been largely one of believers refusing to trust the way of the crucified Jesus and instead giving in to the very temptation he resisted. It’s the history of an institution that has frequently traded its holy and distinct mission for what it thought was a good mission. It is…
God’s Church is Not “Pretty”
This week we’ve been looking at various aspects of what it means to be the church. Today, I want to address the paradox of how the church can be both beautiful and ugly at the same time. Jesus came into our fractured world to manifest the beauty of God’s reign and revolt against the evil…
The Gift of Bearing Witness
Eustaquio Santimano via Compfight Our friend, Jonathan Martin, was featured in She Loves Magazine in a piece he wrote called At Least One Person Waiting. It’s an extraordinary reflection on sitting with the ones we love when they are suffering and we are powerless. From Jonathan’s reflection: We all have different skills, different things to…
Jesus & Racial Reconciliation
Lorenia via Compfight If you were to read an account today of a white man offering his front row seat on a public bus to an elderly African American lady, you’d probably think this was a nice gesture, but nothing more. However, if you learned that the event happened in Birmingham Alabama in 1955, you’d…