My Response to "Why Millenials are Leaving the Church"

If you haven't read this article yet, go check it out here.

     So I've seen this article circulating around Facebook and Twitter and I'd sort of neglected reading it, because sometimes articles like these make me angry, mostly because they tend to lump a bunch of people into one large group. However, when I saw that it was by Rachel Held Evans, an author I saw speak at Peace College in Raleigh once, I decided to give it a read.

      Rachel touched on a subject that has been weighing heavily on my heart for a while now. I attend a traditional Church of Christ, where we sing hymns from 100 years ago, we have communion, take offering, the preacher brings the message then we split, ready for a Sunday lunch of fried chicken, potatoes and green beans.  Now, please, please, please don't take offense to what I'm trying to say here. There's nothing wrong with how we do things, but it's impossible to not notice the decline in the size of our congregation. And yet, as we continue to do the same things every single Sunday that we've been doing for the past 50 years, we still wonder why we aren't growing. I know that many of you (including myself) will have a hard time grasping this concept, but: Change is good. It's good! The only thing that never changes and never will is God, but he's allowed to do that because, well he's the one and only Lord, and in a world that changes every day we need him to be consistent, and he is.

    Like Rachel, I'm not saying that a rocking worship band or coffee stand will do the trick, I mean a deeper, inner change. The answer to the problem of millenials leaving is simple: BE PROACTIVE. It takes such little effort to sit in a pew for 2 hours once a week, yet so many people do that and once the invitation hymn is over, they leave, feeling good about themselves and feeling like they've done their part. But there is so much more to being a Christian than that.

When you have a plant you want to grow, you don't plant it then just hope it sprouts. You water it, you feed it, you make sure it has enough sun, etc. You nurture it. The church, and people, need to be nurtured. Be the sunlight that helps your church grow. "How do we do that?", you ask? I'll tell you....

Right now, Christians don't have the best reputation. We're known for being hypocritical and judgmental. Christians are more known for what we are against, rather than what we stand for. In a time that no longer calls for Hell-fire and Brimstone, we need to show love. Jesus Christ was the ultimate example of love. Think about the prostitute Jesus met at the well. He knew what she was, but instead of telling her how wrong she was, he loved her and he helped her. Have you ever heard the saying, "You'll catch more flies with sugar than vinegar" ? That is the mindset we need. Instead of turning our nose up at someone who is gay, why can't we show them love and show them how amazing Jesus is? I'm not saying accept it or look the other way, but I'm most positive that Jesus would choose to show them love rather than point and stick his tongue out pretending to gag at the thought of homosexuality.

That is how we change the world's perception of Christianity. We show love and we get involved. We volunteer to help with Vacation Bible School even though we really don't like kids. We agree to be chaperons to CCYC even though long car rides make us sick. These little sacrifices shy in comparison to the big sacrifice that Christ made, and it's during these events and every day life that the love we show people draws them to Jesus, not PowerPoints with sound effects.

Let me know what you guys think and if you agree, or disagree, with what Rachel said.