By Aileen Lawrimore I have a lot of Millennials in my life: my own children and their friends, nieces and nephews, youth from churches where I’ve served, plus college students I’ve met through ministry. I Snapchat and text, Facebook and…
Missing Church: Why I’m not a “Done” (Even If I Want to Be)
A couple of months ago, I posted about the experience of taking a break from attending church. It somehow garnered a lot more attention than I expected, enough that it prompted a follow-up question: Why go back? It’s a question that…
christian cruise directing.
When I was 15 years old, I went on a Carnival cruise with my family to the Caribbean. “All good stories begin with a boat.” -Science There are few things that more aptly embody the zeitgeist of the modern American…
An open letter to all the people writing open letters about what’s wrong with the church
I’ve read them. I feel like I’ve read them all-the letters from well-meaning, well-written peers of mine. Posts penned by young (well, relatively young) people unhappy with and enlightened by the woes of the Church.
Make room for young people
Like any committed churchgoer these days, I’ve long known that the church is graying fast. But even so, I was taken aback recently when a friend said to me, “You and my grandmother are the only people I know who…
How your bulletin makes me feel like I do (or don’t) belong
In my search for a church home during graduate school, I attended over ten churches in two years, each with their own different style of communication. Some handed out a tan, tri-fold piece of paper by which I could follow…
Dear church, here’s why people are really leaving you
By John Pavlovitz Being on the other side of the Exodus sucks, don’t it? I see the panic on your face, Church. I know the internal terror as you see the statistics and hear the stories and scan the exit…
Why people are NOT leaving your church
The Internet is full of articles about why people are leaving church—or never attending church in the first place. Some are called “nones” and recently many people are using the term “dones” for those who are finished with church—at least…
Millennials and Why I Am Reading More in the Gospel of Mark
A Travel Free Learning Article By George Bullard When you are looking for a story or saying in the four gospels about the life and ministry of Jesus, which gospel do you go to first? I go to the gospel…
on mega-churches, millennials and modernism.
In my hometown there is a church. This church has a sanctuary. A steeple. A large staff of religious professionals. A jet. A hashtag campaign for each sermon series. A fleet of boats. A “membership” of over 8,000. And at…
Church attracts Millennials, in part, by hiring them
By Jeff Brumley When the blog site MillennialEvangelical published “5 Reasons Why There Are No Millennials in Your Church,” Bob Ballance couldn’t resist sharing it with his friends on Facebook. Not because there are no Millennials in the American Baptist…
Does anybody really know what tithing is? Does anybody really care?
Has a more general, difficult to measure, New Testament-oriented concept called generosity snuffed out the clear, easy to measure, Old Testament concept of tithing? Let me try that again. Has a left-brained legalism about tithing interpreted as 10 percent of…