Why Millennials Shouldn’t Leave Church

My post today appears on www.charismamag.com. Here’s a preview:

I recently turned 35. I was raised on Saturday morning cartoons (DuckTalesShirt Tales, lots of stuff with tales), cordless phones with extendable four-foot antennae, and Pop Rocks and Coke (they don’t kill you!). While I undoubtedly have a place in Generation X, I often share similar views with the millennials, particularly when it comes to all the church stuff. And it grieves me that so many of us have walked away from church.

Everybody has a different response and reason why our generation and those after us are leaving. They typically point to what’s wrong with the church. It’s not enough Jesus. It’s too much Jesus. It’s not enough holiness. It’s too much holiness. It’s not enough justice. It’s too much justice.

I get the concerns with church in general. But I’d like to offer the flip side of this coin: If the church isn’t what we want it to be, it’s not all the church’s fault. At least part of it is our fault. We can’t talk about the church as if it’s some abstract entity disconnected from us. We are the church…. (to read the rest of the article, click here, or simply head over to charismamag.com).

2 Replies to “Why Millennials Shouldn’t Leave Church”

  1. I am a 76 year old pastor. I have been trying since 1973 to change the church. To get it engaged in the culture. Great change is going on and we are not addressing it. Our nation is in a spiritual war and the church has not shown up for that war. We have way too many church members faithful to a church organization and too few disciples of Christ faithful to Christ and Him alone. These church members will fight you in a heartbeat to keep things the way they are. If you find out how to change things, please let me know. God hasn’t been able to get through to them; how can we? God bless

    • Thanks for responding, Glynn! It sounds like you’ve been through some rough waters, and let me say that as a still (fairly) young minister (I’m 35) I truly appreciate your work, committment, and faithfulness! I certainly understand the struggle and know the fight that it comes with. I don’t see the institutional church changing overnight. I think a task as large as this is going to be a very slow process. It even harkens back to the days of the Reformation. Martin Luther didn’t want to pull out of the Catholic Church, he wanted to stay and try to work from the inside. But others thought differently. I’m feeling much as Luther did. Let’s work through what we have and with what’s established. And trust God to help along the way.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*