It’s the simple things in life that bring us the most joy. You may not have a lot of resources, but if you have family, you’re blessed. If you have your health, you’re blessed. If you can look up at the stars at night, you’re blessed.

— Joel Osteen (@JoelOsteen) June 27, 2024

It’s not an uncommon sentiment to hear from a pastor, but many online users pointed out that Osteen might not be the best spokesperson for that message. After all, Osteen’s estimated net worth is at least $50 million, and his two homes in Texas have a combined value of $13.4 million.

X users were quick to start their unofficial Osteen Roast, letting the megachurch pastor know he might need to think before he tweets.

If you can look up at those stars from the balcony of your mansion, you’re Joel Osteen. https://t.co/QOjUVqHq39

— Jessica Huseman (@JessicaHuseman) June 27, 2024

You donating your salary then ?

— Federico Chispas (@dfchispas) June 27, 2024

Yeah, Joel, your multimillion dollar mansions and $350,000 Maserati are the “simple things in life.”
Why don’t you try living like you preach as Jesus would have you do? Move into an average home, drive a Chevy, get your own clothes and groceries, cook, clean.
6 months. Deal?

— Farmers for Democracy (@FarmerinVA) June 27, 2024

Joel Osteen, worth $100 million, living in multiple mansions, and owning multiple yachts wants you to know that money won’t bring you joy — but he still wants you to send him all of the money you can. https://t.co/kPaf0uLlhV

— Melanie D’Arrigo (@DarrigoMelanie) June 27, 2024

Joel Osteen: “It’s the simple things in life”

Also Joel Osteen: pic.twitter.com/qBvAluTiyA

— ScottW (@jswtreeman) June 27, 2024

Saw Joel Osteen trending and thought he had locked his church doors during a hurricane again
pic.twitter.com/QI4arlm1zX

— P. Against The World (@chillin662) June 27, 2024

Joel Osteen coming in to tell you how much of a struggle life is on his $54,000,000 yearly salary. pic.twitter.com/8AVHXhda7V

— Meme Kingdom (@MemeKINGD0M) June 27, 2024

“I’m angry & disgusted to hear of Robert Morris’ sexual abuse of a child & heartbroken for Cindy Clemishire,” Warren on X. “To sexually use a 12 yr old child, then continue it for yrs, is not merely an ‘inappropriate relationship.’ It’s a crime. Sexual child abuse is an evil punishable by law. One can’t just confess when caught & move on with no consequences.

“For the integrity of Christ’s Body, God insists ‘expel the wicked person out of your church!’” Warren continued. “Perpetrators are to be publicly fired, not allowed to resign. Child abuse STILL enrages Jesus… Until the Church realizes the soul-destroying trauma of sexual abuse, the pattern will continue.”

I’m angry & disgusted to hear of Robert Morris’ sexual abuse of a child & heartbroken for Cindy Clemishire. To sexually use a 12 yr old child, then continue it for yrs, is not merely an “inappropriate relationship.” It’s a crime. Sexual child abuse is an evil punishable by law.… pic.twitter.com/1WetIdYyRy

— Rick Warren (@RickWarren) June 21, 2024

Warren’s response comes after the Gateway Board of Elders announced they had accepted Morris’ resignation last week. In their statement, the board expressed regret over the newly revealed details, claiming they were previously unaware of the victim’s age and the extent of the multi-year abuse.

“The elders’ prior understanding was that Morris’s extramarital relationship, which he had discussed many times throughout his ministry, was with ‘a young lady’ and not the abuse of a 12-year-old child,” the statement read. “Even though it occurred many years before Gateway was established, as leaders of the church, we regret that we did not have the information that we now have.”

The board also announced they were working with a third-party firm to conduct a thorough investigation into the entirety of the abuse.

Lentz answers that question head-on in the latest episode of The RELEVANT Podcast.

“I did ministry most of my adult life,” Lentz said. “I don’t miss doing church. I can’t imagine us doing a church at all.”

Lentz was fired from his position at Hillsong NYC in November 2020, citing “leadership issues and breaches of trust, plus a recent revelation of moral failures” as reasons for his termination.

“I ran a church and it went bad at the last chapter,” Lentz admitted. “The whole picture of Hillsong, New York City [was] amazing. I’m proud of it. But I’m also really aware that there’s a part in there that’s painful that had to do with my leadership. I don’t take that lightly.

“I’m not going to rush some of the repair jobs that I need to take,” he continued. “I didn’t get there overnight, so it’s not going to get healed overnight. But I’m not starting any church.

“If God shows up and an angel drops on my doorstep and knocks with blueprints, I’m still going to say, bring another angel.”

Over the last four years, Lentz has stayed away from the pulpit — working regular desk jobs and consulting public speakers — jobs he said he’s really enjoyed.

“I don’t miss the ministry headaches at all,” he said. “My real answer to that question [if he’s eventually starting a church] is it’s not even in the conversation. And I know people are skeptical of that — cool. I don’t expect you to come back around. But I can tell you right now, if people are waiting for me to come back and do a church, you’re going to be waiting a long time.”

You can hear our full, hour-long conversation with Lentz — which covers everything from what led to his downfall, to his approach to healing over the last four years, to his family and more — on the latest episode of The RELEVANT Podcast.

Episode 1174: Carl Lentz

“We are deeply grieved and saddened by the recent and very serious allegations against Pastor Robert Morris involving the sexual abuse of a 12-year-old minor,” the network wrote on X. “In light of these events and a recently released statement by Gateway’s Elders, Daystar’s leadership has made the decision to remove all of Pastor Robert Morris’ programming from our broadcasting schedule. Daystar unequivocally condemns the actions described in these allegations and remains committed to upholding biblical values as outlined in the Word of God. As we navigate through this challenging situation, we extend our heartfelt support and prayers to all those impacted.”

The decision comes less than a week after Cindy Clemishire, now 54, publicly accused Morris of sexually abusing her over a span of four years, starting when she was a child. On the Wartburg Watch blog, Clemishire detailed the abuse she endured starting on December 25, 1982, when she was just 12 years old and Morris was 21. She said the abuse continued for four-and-a-half years while Morris lived with her family.

On Friday, Gateway’s elders sent a statement to staff, stating Morris admitted that “in my early twenties, I was involved in inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady in a home where I was staying.”

“It was kissing and petting and not intercourse, but it was wrong,” Morris, 62, said in a statement to local Dallas news station WFAA-TV on Sunday. “This behavior happened on several occasions over the next few years … Since that time, I have walked in purity and accountability in this area.”

Clemishire, however, told The Roys Report that Morris’ version of events was not the full story.

“He says there was no sexual intercourse, but he did touch every part of my body and inserted his fingers into me, which I understand now is considered a form of rape by instrumentation,” she said. “I was an innocent 12-year-old little girl who knew nothing about sexual behavior.”

On Tuesday, Gateway’s Board of Elders announced that Morris was resigning from his position at the 100,000-member church. The board expressed regret over the newly revealed details, claiming they were previously unaware of the victim’s age and the extent of the abuse.

“The elders’ prior understanding was that Morris’s extramarital relationship, which he had discussed many times throughout his ministry, was with ‘a young lady’ and not the abuse of a 12-year-old child,” the statement read. “Even though it occurred many years before Gateway was established, as leaders of the church, we regret that we did not have the information that we now have.”

However, Clemishire shared that in 2005, she had confronted Morris about the abuse via email, with former Gateway elder Tom Lane responding and acknowledging the incidents.

“The leadership at Gateway received actual notice of this crime in 2005 when I sent an email directly to Robert Morris’ Gateway email address,” Clemishire said in a statement released Tuesday night by her attorney Boz Tchividjian. “Former Gateway elder, Tom Lane, received and responded to my email, acknowledging that the sexual abuse began on December 25, 1982, when I was 12 years old.

“Again in 2007, my then attorney Gentner Drummond (the current Attorney General of Oklahoma) sent a letter to Robert Morris with the hope that he would help reimburse me for the thousands of dollars I had expended in counseling as a result of this abuse,” she continued. “His attorney acknowledged the dates as well and then attempted to blame me for the abuse. At the very least, both the Gateway pastor and at least one elder had specific notice that I was sexually abused beginning when I was 12 years old. Gateway had the information but intentionally decided to embrace the false narrative Robert Morris wanted to believe.”

1. I thought I was a Christian, but….

2. God did [blank] in my life…

3. …And now I’m at this amazing place and I’m not struggling anymore at all!

Evangelical Christians have developed a rather confusing habit when it comes to sharing testimonies. We have a tendency to prefer telling dramatic stories about dark, reckless pasts turned around at a sudden moment to grab the attention of the crowd and stir their emotions rather than describe the ebb and flow of real-life faith stories. The more dramatic the conversion story, the better.

There seems to be an obsession with sensational testimonies and tangible moments of catharsis—you know, those brilliant “this-changes-everything” moments that make every story better.

But the problem is, often, the walk into faith is gradual. And the reality is that struggles are constantly coming and going. How does that work its way into our stories?

The Ups And The Downs

Many Christians discredit their actual earliest memories of conversion, highlighting later turning points as the moment when they truly “got it.” Especially in the case of prodigals, any falling out with God gets relabeled as a pre-conversion experience. This practice can seemingly justify delinquent behavior that occurs after the conversion experience, and eliminates the Christian sin factor.

Obviously, that’s problematic.

Christians are forever working to regain acceptance in a secular society after acquiring unfortunate labels like “hypocritical” and “close-minded.” Bending the truth about faith journeys only makes that worse.

The reality is that many normal Christians walk away from their faith for periods of time, for whatever reason. Challenges and temptation spin people around and bring them to their knees. Especially where hurt, shame, doubt, or lack of support is involved, it’s easy to walk or run away from the faith-based life.

When people come back, though, how should they treat those seasons? There are endless complicated theological arguments over whether once-saved-always-saved is a reality, but individuals know deep down if they were living in faith or not before their falling away periods.

The same goes for Christians who struggle with some kind of ongoing sin. While Hebrews 10:26 explains the tough truth about habitual sin and the lack of grace for it (“For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains sacrifice for sins”), habitual sin is a part of tons of Christians’ lives.

That’s the problem with the sensationalized, past tense testimony. There is no room for everything that isn’t OK now. There isn’t room for real failures. It’s hard to talk about our past brokenness. It’s nearly impossible to talk about current brokenness, especially because of the undeniable pressure to fit the mold in contemporary churches.

It’s Time to Get Real

The way we do testimonies needs to change. If we are still trying to make church, faith, and Christian living real, testimonies need to get real, too. We can’t act like our struggles magically disappeared when we accepted Christ.

Anything but the truth does a disservice to ourselves, to truth, and to each other.

How many times have you heard people question whether or not they are saved? One of the biggest reasons people question that is because they feel like they’re not allowed to struggle.

Struggle is a reality. Temptation is a reality. Failure is a reality. Yes, even for those who are actively walking with Christ.

We can and should work to change Christian culture so that struggle doesn’t have to be so embarrassing. The reality of Christ is that shame isn’t ours to bear (Isaiah 61:7). The reality of living in faith is that Christians need to support each other (Ephesians 4, 5).

Telling real testimonies is key for that.

Spurts and lulls are normal.

Maybe this obsession with dramatic testimonies full of drastic changes has gotten out of hand. They’re exciting and all, but, by acting as if early faith lives were not faith lives at all, an unrealistic precedent is being set for new Christians, especially.

That, and we are doing a harming to our representation of Christianity if we discount struggles, sins and lulls as non-faith periods—because we present the idea that real faith is without temptation, failure or dry spells.

It can be scary to get vulnerable, but when everyone gets vulnerable together, there are so many more opportunities to receive help and healing.

Real faith lives aren’t just rainbows and sunshine. Let’s stop acting as if they are.

Historically, differences on teaching have caused major divisions within the Church. Few things annoyed Jesus or the apostles more than incorrect teaching. Martin Luther even started the Protestant Reformation because of his annoyance with the Church’s incorrect doctrine.

But before you go and nail a list of complaints to the door of your pastor’s office, take the time to ask yourself these three questions:

1. What Does the Bible Say About it?

Christianity is unique among religions in that its adherents are encouraged to test the teaching they receive and not accept it just because it comes from a preacher or person in authority. John encourages us in 1 John 4 to “test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.”

So take the teachings from your church, community or pastor and test them against what Scripture states. Can you find that they are consistent? Or do these teachings in your church disagree with what the Bible actually says?

This will help you discern whether you have biblical grounds to confront your teachers. If you do end up confronting the pastor or teacher, you will want to bring more of an argument than, “Your teaching annoys me.” You would be well served to have biblical grounds to challenge their (or anyone’s) teaching.

2. Is it Me?

Of course, you may find that your pastor or teacher lines up with Scripture. If so, then you probably need to search yourself and ask why you’re feeling annoyed.

Many times, we may walk away from a church not feeling right about what we heard taught. But this doesn’t necessarily mean the teaching was unbiblical or incorrect. Sometimes that feeling we feel is the Spirit of God using His Word to convict us of sin or in our own lives or errors in our thinking. Perhaps we feel annoyed because we didn’t get enough sleep the night before, or perhaps we failed to approach our time of worship in prayer and humility.

It’s wise, before you jump the gun and confront others, first to pray like the Psalmist, “Search me O God and know my heart, test me and see if there be any grievous way in me.” This kind of submission requires humility. So remember, be humble and ask, “Is there anything in my life that could be contributing to the discord I feel in my faith community?” “Am I annoyed because the teaching is unbiblical or am I annoyed because the teaching is striking too close to home?”

Often, I find the latter to be true.

3. Can I Confront False Teaching in a Spirit of Love and Peace?

Unity and peace within the Church are the foremost characteristics of a Spirit-filled community. We never want to do anything actively to bring discord to what God has joined together. Our motivation should always be love and never pride. Remember that love bears all things, endures all things and never fails (1 Corinthians 13).

However, if some teaching in your church runs contrary to the Scriptures or to the Gospel, then you should bring your concern to the authorities in your church.

But remember, Jesus-like confrontation is for the benefit of the Church, not your own reputation. So confront in the name of truth, but speak the truth in love. If you find can’t do this without getting angry, or if you’re just looking to prove you’re right, then take a step back and pray for wisdom as to how to proceed. Your victory will be hollow if you succeed in correcting your pastors’ or teachers’ doctrine, but fail to display the love and humility that doctrine teaches.

There’s been a lot of buzz surrounding women lately. From Hollywood and #MeToo to Christians and #ChurchToo, women are demanding their voices be heard … and many are listening. Women everywhere are echoing Oprah’s famous line—“A new day is on the horizon!”—from her empowerment speech during Golden Globes.

But naturally, just like everything else in culture, not everyone agrees—particularly when it comes to women’s role in the Church. After John Piper came out with a response stating women should not pastor (or teach), Twitter users took it as an opportunity to promote, encourage and affirm the women who have impacted them in their faith and in their theology. Names of women rolled in for hours and with reason. Historically, women have been crucial aspects of the Church’s growth and spiritual formation. It’s apparent women belong in leadership.

Here are five reasons why:

1) Women were foundational to the spreading of Jesus’ message.

Not only was “the woman at the well” the first evangelist to Samaria, and the women at the tomb the first witnesses and proclaimers of Jesus’s resurrection, but Mary of Bethany was affirmed by Jesus as “doing the right thing” in “sitting at Jesus’ feet.” In antiquity, “sitting at the feet” literally meant “being a disciple.” Even Paul, during his ministry made mention of several leading women in his salutation to the Roman Church (Romans 16). Among these were Junia the apostle and Phoebe, Paul’s emissary and the translator of the letter. We also know of several house-church leaders like Chloe and Nympha (1 Corinthians 1:11, Colossians 4:15), and Priscilla, who also taught Apollos “the more accurate way” about Jesus.

If women were crucial in leading Jesus’s movement in the very beginning, why wouldn’t they be as crucial in doing so now?

2) Women are gifted for ministry in the Church.

Nowhere in the New Testament are the Spirit’s gifts gender-specific. In fact, Joel the Prophet spoke concerning Pentecost, “In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy … Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.” Since we are living post-Pentecost, we can be sure God has poured out His Spirit on all flesh—both men and women. This also includes young, old and people in every ethnic group. The Holy Spirit has gifted the Church with the ministries and offices that it needs for its mission, as well as for the purpose of building one another up.

In 1 Corinthians, Paul addresses both “brothers and sisters” when speaking of the gifts, claiming some will perform miracles, some will prophesy, some will be teachers, others evangelists and even others pastors. These are gifts distributed by the Spirit to both men and women, as God sees fit.

Shouldn’t women use the gifts given to them by God to lead the Church, for its uplifting and edification?

3) Women bear God’s image, too.

In the creation narrative, men and women were both given an equal responsibility to bear God’s image, have dominion/”rule” over creation, and be fruitful. In both genders being “made in the image of God,” we understand that the fullness of God’s personhood is expressed in not only in masculinity, but also in femininity. We were created to be reflections of God—to speak and act for Him in our distinctions.

God affirms this when He uses female-specific imagery when relating to His people—like a bear to her cubs (Hosea 13:8), an eagle hovering over her young (Deuteronomy 32:11), a mother comforting and weaning her child (Isaiah 66:13, Psalm 131:2), a nursing woman (Isaiah 49:15) and a woman in labor (Psalm 131:2). Even Jesus compares Himself to a mother hen (Matthew 23:37).

If God is reflected in both masculine and feminine terms when nurturing His people, shouldn’t both genders be reflected in leadership—when nurturing members of the Church?  

This leads to the next point:

4) Women need women advocates.

It’s no surprise that men and women are different—each having different experiences and different needs. Because of this, we need a diversity of voices in leadership who can guide and pastor men and women and speak to their particular situations. Diversity in leadership is tantamount to authentic discipleship and foundational for healthy relationships and growth within a community of people.

When making important decisions in the Church, female perspectives are necessary to speak into issues that men cannot relate to and don’t have firsthand experience in. No one knows the needs of women better than women. Shouldn’t leadership in the Church reflect the diversity of its members?

Particularly in our current culture, with sexual abuse stories being exposed within the Church, it’s more important than ever for women to be represented when it comes to making decisions in leadership on behalf of the community.

5) When women are empowered, society as a whole flourishes.

We know that on a global scale, women are among the most oppressed people. In certain countries, many women have no rights in society, are sold like cattle for a bride price, forced into sex slavery and in some places, not even allowed to show their face in public. However, organizations like UN Women and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), among others, have reported on studies that show how much of a vital contribution—and even complete shift in society—women make when they are educated and empowered.

UN Women found that increased educational attainment for women and girls accounts for about 50 percent of the economic growth in OECD countries over the past 50 years. Over half of this is due to girls having had access to higher levels of education and achieving greater equality in the number of years spent in education between men and women.

Similarly, a study using data from 219 countries found that, for every additional year of education for women, the child mortality rate decreased by 9.5 percent.

These are only a couple statistics among hundreds that prove that women’s equality is necessary for human flourishing. When women are empowered, everyone wins.

If this is true on a grand and global scale, wouldn’t it be true for the overall health and growth of the Church? If women are celebrated, empowered and given freedom to exercise their gifts in leadership as God intends, imagine what it could do for the global Church—God’s kingdom on Earth as He intended—a glorious, united and beautifully vibrant people.

Sadly, there’s no shortage of documentaries about the Church. Many highlight absurd instances, but there are a few that represent the truth of the modern church in a difficult light. It can be easy to ignore these documentaries, but it might actually be important for believers to engage with these documentaries to understand what those outside of the Church think of God’s kingdom.

Here are six documentaries that will leave you frustrated, upset, maybe even angry — but they’re all still worth the watch.

Dancing With the Devil

What it’s about: Netflix’s latest documentary, Dancing For the Devil: The 7M TikTok Cult, is a three-part docuseries examining Los Angeles-based Shekinah Church and the charismatic pastor that many say abused his spiritual authority and led it like a religious cult. At the center of the story is a group of very influential TikTok dancers that joined the church and ultimately signed with the pastor’s talent management company, 7M, which ultimately was used to control every aspect of their lives.

Why you should watch it: As former members point out, the Shekinah Church of today is not what it’s always been. Many spoke of how it was a place for community, for refuge, for growth. But along the way, spiritual manipulation from its leader Robert Shinn twisted the church up and lead it down a different path. It’s not a completely uncommon story, and it’s one that believers everywhere should be on the look out for in their own leaders.

God Forbid

What it’s about: This Hulu documentary is not just a salacious story about a sex scandal. It is also a film about the power of religion and the dangers of hypocrisy. The film shows how Jerry Falwell Jr. used his position as a religious leader to justify his own behavior, and how his actions lead to major consequences for Liberty University. It also shows how the Falwell family’s fall from grace had a ripple effect on the evangelical community.

Why you should watch it: The Falwell family has had a massive impact on modern evangelicalism, and to a larger extent on American politics. The documentary explores how things came to be, and how it all imploded with Falwell’s scandal.

The Way Down

What it’s about: The HBO Max documentary looks into Remnant Fellowship Church, a Tennessee-based church led by charismatic leader Gwen  . In the 90s, Shamblin gained popularity for her diet lifestyle book, The Weigh Down. Her success “naturally” led her to starting her own church where she preached “the gospel” of self-control and losing weight. The documentary dives into the consequences of the false gospel, how well-intentioned believers can be misled by a false teachers, the secrets and abuse hidden in a church and so much more.

Why you should watch it: Many former members of the church share their experience with Shamblin and Remnant Fellowship. Through their stories, they warn others how staying connected to The Truth is the best way to steer clear of lies.

The Secrets of Hillsong

What it’s about: This Hulu documentary explores the rise and fall of Hillsong Church, one of the most popular and influential churches in the world. Over four episodes, the story chronicles the church’s meteoric growth, its celebrity following and its hidden secrets, including allegations of sexual abuse and leadership abuse. The documentary also examines the role of Hillsong founder Brian Houston, who has been accused of covering up his father’s sexual abuse.

Why you should watch it: Hillsong Church has been one of the most influential churches of the 21st century. From worship to preaching, their leaders have impacted the global church in more ways than one. If you want to understand how and why things are the way they are today, you need to check out this doc.

Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God

What it’s about: The Catholic Church sexual abuse is, at this point, a well-documented story. There have been numerous documentaries and films about the abuse, but one of the most important is Mea Maxima Culpa, which translates to “my great fault.” This documentary explores the abuse of power in the Catholic Church through the story of four courageous deaf men, who in the first known case of public protest, set out to expose the priest who abused them.

Why it’s important: The story of uncovering Catholic Church abuse is one of the most difficult ones for the Church to face. But it’s an important part of Church history that cannot be overlooked. Additionally, this HBO documentary challenges Christians to be on the look out for those with disabilities in the Church, ensuring they are being cared for just as much as anyone else.

Keep Sweet, Pray and Obey

What it’s about: This gripping Netflix documentary delves into the world of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS). Through firsthand accounts and unseen footage, it exposes the chilling control and abuse wielded by its leaders, particularly Warren Jeffs. This eye-opening series unravels the deep-seated corruption within the FLDS, shedding light on the resilience of those who escaped.

Why you should watch it: At the crux of this docuseries is a profound understanding of the dangers of unchecked power and the impact of religious extremism. The documentary offers compelling, firsthand testimonies that highlight the resilience and courage of those who escaped. Additionally, it serves as a critical reminder of the importance of vigilance and advocacy for human rights and justice.

Shiny Happy People

What it’s about: Amazon Prime’s limited docuseries explores the hidden truths beneath the wholesome Americana surface of the reality TV mega-family and the organization they’re members of: The Institute in Basic Life Principles. Through the lives of TLC’s 19 Kids and Counting family, the Duggars, secrets begin to unravel about the family America watched and the religious organization they helped grow.

Why you should watch it: The bombshell documentary unveiled that the persona held by the Duggars on screen did not match up to the children’s actually lives. Several daughters spoke candidly about their upbringing, alongside formed IBLP members who expressed the harm they received at the hands of the organization’s leaders.

The Eyes of Tammy Faye

What it’s about: Long before Jessica Chastain put on the hair and makeup, the story of real-life televangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker was told in this bombshell 2000 documentary. The film follows the “Queen of the Eyelashes” journey from her love-at-first-sight encounter with Jim, through the glory days of PTL, to the scandal that brought both their empire and their family tumbling down.

Zoe Church Pastor Chad Veach knows that struggle well. In order to pastor his church in L.A., be present for his wife and child, run from meeting to meeting each day and host a weekly podcast, Veach has had to learn how to stay focused on the things that truly matter without getting overwhelmed.

To find out how to live a less distracted life, we sat down with Veach to get some practical tips on focused living and hear more about why Christians should fight to be present.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Why do you think Christians need to recent their attention on God these days?

I was just reading Matthew 6 this morning. We had a prayer meeting today, and someone had transcribed it, written it out for me, and taped it into my Bible so I could read it on the opening night of the Zoe Conference. And I saw that again today. I love the thought in Matthew 6. We’ve always grown up with the NIV or the New King James Version translation, but in the Message translation of Matthew 6, towards the end, Jesus says to “give your full attention to what I’m doing right now.”

When I read it in the Message, it really jumped out at me. We always hear, “Seek first the kingdom of God; tomorrow will take care of itself.” But I like that new iteration of it: give your full attention. I felt that for us as a city, as a church, and just for people in general, it’s so easy to look at the glory days of the past, what God did back then, before COVID, and so on.

It’s about the contrast and the decision you have to make to go from the glory of the rearview mirror to the windshield of faith, looking forward.

Many of us think we have to get back to how things were before COVID. And I always laugh at that, because we could also enter into a new season and do that. We don’t have to go back. My whole joke is, I remember who you used to be. You were just as upset, just as frustrated, just as lonely. It’s like the fish gets bigger every year. It was so great. No, no, we were there. You were not that happy. It’s a trick in life. The tension is not to romanticize the past and not to villainize it. It wasn’t the worst. They weren’t the worst. I hated being there. Gosh, it was just so hard. I don’t think I was around you when you were that mad. We had a couple of bad days. We need to stay in a good tension there.

Do you have any tips on how we can hold that tension well?

Well, I think the verse is the key. The verse is the answer. And what is the antidote in culture? People want to say you need to be present in the moment. The gift of being present. I think Jesus is alluding to that, right? Pay attention to right now. If I can’t do that, I’m going to walk by Zacchaeus in a tree and I won’t even be able to help him because I’m in the past or I’m so fixated on the future. Someone’s got to pull my jacket because they need healing, and I won’t stop to realize virtue went out of me. I won’t be able to do it because my mind is somewhere else. I think the key to life is being present. Today I am receiving forgiveness and have the strength to give forgiveness. That’s the challenge of today.

One of my favorite preachers, Jensen Franklin, was at our conference. He calls them weapons of mass distraction. That’s the bottom line: we’re so distracted with so many other things than the present and what’s in front of us today.

What do you do personally to keep your focus on God?

Yeah, I mean, I’m probably the most boring person. I have to apologize. My wife gets so mad at me. She’s like, you want to eat at the same place, the same meal, at the same time, every single day. I just kind of live a little bit robotic, probably. Some of that’s really healthy. It allows me to get up every morning, make my coffee, sit down and read my Bible. I did it this morning. I did it the day before. I did it the day before and I’ll do it again tomorrow. And that allows me to set my intention for the day, dedicate my day and start off with gratitude, start off with awareness.

I always say, “Okay, God, today is your day. I’m very thankful. If you would like to put me into a divine appointment moment, I’m going to have eyes and ears to see that. Whatever you want to do.” I think it starts with that. It starts with the intentionality of setting that in life. I think you’re going to get whatever you go for. I just believe that. So setting that intention to be used by God and I think the rest starts to take care of itself.

It really is something as simple as being intentional. It doesn’t have to be hard, and I think that most of us just forget that so quickly. If I don’t do that, I can forget my commitments, my convictions. I could start to erode and leave who I really want to be. So I need some things in my life that keep those guardrails there.

Other theologians and historians would call this “spiritual disciplines.” I call it boring stuff.

What does it do to us spiritually when we remain present?

The greatest ability is availability. And so I think it’s always about trying to get your ego out of the way, get your pride, your disappointment, your rejection, all the issues you’re dealing with, to wash that, heal that, cleanse that, to allow the love of Jesus to be poured into us. Because if it’s poured in, it will naturally flow out.

So I think it becomes very important. Paul goes to Timothy, hey, there’s a lot of vessels in a house. Only a few are really useful. And see, you’ll set yourself apart to be useful for the master. So what good am I if I’m distracted, discouraged, defeated, disobedient, all those things that could so easily entangle? The sin that so easily entangles, I can get caught up in that fast. So I’ve got to spend these times dying to myself. God, please today, you increase and let this joker decrease. Because if I increase, I’m going to steer us into a bad path probably. But I trust you to lead me and to guide my life. And so I call you my Lord, you are in control.

I think that stuff like that is very important. I think that’s where these daily confessions, these daily affirmations are important. I think we can never underestimate the power of identity, knowing who you are, knowing what you’re about, your vision, values, and standards, the mission of your life. Jesus is sneaking away, slipping away to the wilderness to pray. He comes back with purpose.

And you see him model that for us. I heard someone say a long time ago, don’t give the best part of your day to people. Give the best part of your day to yourself and to God, and that time that’s so valuable, so overlooked. It is not rocket science. And Jesus says to us in Revelation, hey guys, I wish you were either hot or cold. That would be even easier to work with. But you get stuck in this lukewarm, I’m kind of in, I’m kind of out, I’m wishy-washy, I wanna, and it’s like, he’s like, I spew you out of my mouth. So if he wants me to be hot or cold, I’m definitely not gonna live my life cold. I’m gonna do my best to live hot. So how do I throw logs on the fire? What are the things that keep me on fire, motivated, inspired, and excited? Convicted, well, all of that comes from God’s presence. So I better get there.

But—like in all relationships—our encounters with God are meant to be progressive, not repetitive. That’s why I think I was so excited about the movement of a fresh approach to worship that was coming out of people like Martin Smith and Matt Redman in England in the early ’90s and things like the Passion Movement here in the U.S. It wasn’t simply a stylistic change. It was something fresh in the expectation of the movement of God.

But now, 15 years and thousands of songs later, there seems to be a new homogeny throughout our churches and our worship gatherings. We’ve gotten to the point where we have made what was fresh into a formula once again.

A familiar formula

Tell me if this sounds familiar for a worship song as played by the band at your church:

Loud intro

Come down for verse one

Hit it hard for the chorus

Keep it going hard up til the bridge

Drop out for the bridge

Build back into a loud bridge section

Come down for an ending chorus

Vamp low on the end (with some occasional builds)

This type of song formula takes people dynamically up for two minutes, down for one minute, back up, back down. It’s a constant roller coaster for the duration of the set.

There’s nothing wrong with this song structure, but it might point to a greater issue: Perhaps we’re relying on musical dynamics to elicit an emotional response more than we are pleading for the Holy Spirit to engage us in the spiritual realm.

Obviously, the solution to what seems to be our new habitual formula is not another formula. But we should be aware of how songs really do affect us emotionally and how we can engage with God in different ways through a range of dynamics. It might help to think through what we think of as a time of “worship.” Are there times of celebration with the Lord as well as times of rest? Do we dwell on the joy of celebration and the peace of rest, or are those moments fleeting?

Who is worship for?

Ultimately, worship leaders are there to help foster moments where individuals can connect with God. And our goal as worshipers is to use that time to connect with God.

Sometimes, I think we get into the mindset that the worship is for the band—that we are present to allow the band to do what it wants or to help us hit an emotional high. There’s a time for high notes and guitar prowess, but it’s a matter of the chicken and the egg. Because those moments aren’t all the time. It’s a continual balance of asking, “What is this moment calling for, and what will take us deeper?”

Music seems to be this strange thing that serves as a bridge between the natural and the supernatural. Because of that, our conversations about how to do what we do best involves both the earthly and the spiritual. It means not getting stale in what we think of as “worship.” But it also means fighting the temptation to judge whether or not the worship was “good” by criteria like, “They sang well” or, “That band was awesome.”

But the most important thing about worship is that it allows us to engage with God. It matters a lot less if everyone hits the right note, or if the band hits the right solo at exactly the right time or even if the particular song is the one you want to sing. What matters is if worship is providing you a space to connect with God—it’s not a formula or a series of easy answers. It’s letting God work through each of us to connect with Him both as individuals and as the Church.

Cole NeSmith is the pastor and creative director of City Beautiful Church in Orlando, Florida. This article is adapted from an article that originally appeared on his blog.

The Church of the Holy Spirit, a historic church located in Heimlichm, Germany, recently hosted a worship service that focused on Taylor Swift’s music. According to Deutsche Welle, an estimated 1,200 people — mostly young women (duh) — crammed into the historic church on Sunday, May 10, for the service, titled “Anti-Hero,” a reference to one of Swift’s songs.

“The Church of the Holy Spirit has always been a place of encounter and exchange,” Pastor Christof Ellsiepen told the outlet. “That’s why a pop-music religious service fits so perfectly. With it, we are giving space to the questions and issues that occupy the younger generation.”

According to parish pastor Vincenzo Petracca, the service focused on the strong Christian themes in Swift’s music that address topics such as women’s rights, racism and gender equality.

“Theologically speaking, she points to the justness of God,” Petracca said. “For her, faith and action are inseparable.”

Petracca acknowledged that Swift has taken flak from some Christian leaders for her recent album, especially in the United States. But he made it clear that the sermon highlighted that Swift’s “faith knows doubt and inner conflict.”

During the service, the congregation sang along to live performances of six Swift songs, led by Tine Weichmann, a singer from Hamburg and professor of popular church music in Heidelberg.

Petracca recalled to DW that one of the most emotionally stirring moments occurred when Weichmann and her band performed “Soon You’ll Get Better,” a song Swift wrote for her mother, who had been diagnosed with cancer. In the song, Swift sings of the healing powers of medicine and prayer: “Holy orange bottles, each night I pray to you / Desperate people find faith, so now I pray to Jesus, too.”

During the performance, Petracca was moved by what he saw from the congregation.

“I stared into beaming faces — and during the song that Taylor wrote for her cancer-stricken mother, many had tears in their eyes,” he said.

The church said they plan to continue the “City Church Rock ‘n’ Pop” series with Billie Eilish and Beyoncé-themed services later this year.

While we can all think of some ridiculous things our own youth pastors did over the years, we combed the Internet to find some of the wildest, most cringe stories. You’re welcome/we’re sorry in advance of what you’re about to read:

15.

Dress up as Marty McFly (wig included) for a special "Illustrated Sermon" based on Back to the Future. We even had a Delorean in the parking lot which was actually pretty cool!

— Jeremy Macias (@jermacias) October 18, 2022

Can’t think of a single Bible story that requires a Delorean for a prop.

14.

You just have to cancel the whole trip at that point.

13.

On a mission trip to Mexico we were in a mall when Bon Jovis 'Living on a Prayer' came on. He jumped up on a table in the food court and started singing along at the top of his lungs until one of the other adults yelled at him to quit.

— Tim is top of the table (@abyssalmirror) October 19, 2022

He was a man on a mission!

12.

"Kidnapped" a replica of the Energizer Bunny from his (paying) job, and used a couple of us youth to help create a ransome video as an ongoing prank on his coworker. (We actually 'murdered' the fake bunny!)
It was awesome!

— Jewel Weissmann (@Jeweliebird) October 19, 2022

M-murder?

11.

Death by Tootsie Roll during a youth group game seems like a horrible way to go.

10.

Take kids across the country in a van for two weeks and wouldn’t tell anyone even the parents where they were going

— Ike Gordon (@thecinco_5) October 18, 2022

Youth pastors, let’s maybe not commit federal crimes? Can we make that a new goal?

9.

We are once again asking youth groups to stop making food challenges. 

8.

2/2 He never did get the girls to come back with us. That's about as exciting as rural Vermont gets. Also, he genuinely believed that Paul McCartney was dead & replaced by a lookalike, and that Christian rock was satanic.

— John B. (@hopchic) October 18, 2022

Hate to say it but your youth pastor sounds pretty hardcore.

7.

Well, at least their hearts were in the right place…

6.

Pretended to shoot a girl (he didn’t know) with a BB gun at summer camp, then actually did, then they had to call my dad (the pastor) to tell him they were sending him home.

He also painted the floor of the gym and painted himself into a corner.

— Becky Bergh (@LuckyUglyDucky) October 19, 2022

Seems like this youth pastor isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed.

5.

One night during s’mores and a campfire, one of the youth pastors told the kids the story of “old man Lochridge.” The next night, he dressed up as a monster (AKA old man Lochridge) and emerged from the lake into our group after a holy God-time outside, and chased us around.

— Andrew Eiler (@Andrew_Eiler) October 19, 2022

He’s committed to the bit, we’ll give him that!

4.

We need to speak to this youth pastor immediately to understand exactly what the vision was here.

3.

I don't advocate using scripture as punishment but they still remember it 10 years later .

— Stuck in the middle (@jmgreenhill) October 18, 2022

Don’t think that how God intended for His Word to be used…

2.

I was in college helping at a 5th-6th grade week of church camp in KY. The youth pastor threw a fake rapture & told us volunteers to play along. At 12a, power turned off, we corralled kids outside, & a cosplay Gabriel read off the names of the campers who were “already saved.”

— Sam Waldron (@SamWaldron22) October 18, 2022

Hope every person involved in this story is in deep, deep therapy.

1.

We did a youth event that was zombie themed! We choreographed the Thriller dance during a dinner. Some parents took their kids and left. We grew up in Church of Christ. Dancing in church was definitely not allowed

— Casey McMillon (@MrMcCasey15) October 19, 2022

Bold move bringing Michael Jackson moves into a Church of Christ.

This isn’t necessarily a new idea — Christians are humans, which means many public mistakes have been made for thousands of years — but with the age of social media and rapidly spreading news, the public scandals of Christian leaders have the ability to make the front page news. This is tough news for the Church, as 58 percent of nonreligious Americans say that “misconduct by Christian leaders” is the reason why Christianity’s influence is declining in the country.

But it’s not just powerful Christian leaders giving faith a bad name. In many ways, any Christian can slip into a bad habit of twisting Christianity for our personal benefit. Fortunately, there’s still time to this all around. The first step is identifying and owning up to the times we are misusing Christianity in order to get back to the truth of the Gospel.

Here are a few ways people misuse Christianity:

1. As a Form of Escapism

Some see Christianity as a way to escape from reality, to hide from their problems, ignore conflict and flee from the harsh realities of the world around them. But Christianity was never meant to be a carefree way to avoid stress, pain and suffering. Instead, it’s about embracing truth—no matter how ugly it may be.

Christianity isn’t a make-believe fantasy land full of perpetual happiness, tranquility and joy. Sure, those things do exist, but in the end, Christians are called to fight injustice, poverty, inequality and to help the weak and poor—this demands embracing reality instead of pretending everything is OK.

2. To Get Money

Christianity is filled with opportunities to tithe, donate, fundraise, support missionaries and give to various causes and ministries. Unfortunately, instead of feeding the poor, sheltering the homeless and helping those less fortunate, many take advantage of these platforms in order to increase their own personal wealth—selfishly getting rich off of the generosity of others.

3. To Gain Popularity

Contrary to promoting the Gospel, some use Christianity to promote themselves. It’s easy to use the venues of teaching, preaching and leading to create a culture of celebrity instead of one of humble servanthood.

In a society obsessed with fame, celebrity and viral sensations, Christians sometimes idolize these same distractions—often at the expense of glorifying God.

4. To Avoid Risk and Sacrifice

It’s easy for Christians to be constantly active—but what are we actually doing?

A litany of services, classes, sermons, retreats, bible studies, prayer groups and conferences provide a comfortable way to feel productive and meaningful—even if we’re not. Many use Christianity to rationalize that they’re making a difference in the world when in reality they’re just safely—and comfortably—immersing themselves within their own religious activities without taking any real risks or making any real sacrifices.

Christianity is wonderful, but it’s also demanding, counter-cultural, dangerous and scary. It requires real sacrifice and risk. It’s not for the faint of heart.

5. To Control Others

Some use Christianity as a tool for manipulation, using fear, shame and guilt to control and influence others. Whether it’s to promote a political agenda, rally around a particular cause, support a certain belief or to simply gain power—it’s a tempting trap. But Christianity is about freedom, redemption, grace and empowerment instead of domineering fear.

Instead of domineering over others and seeking worldly power, Jesus humbly and selflessly served, resulting in His own death—if only we could do the same.

6. As a Promotional Tool

Rather than seeing Jesus as a God, many view Him as a promotional gimmick—a sales opportunity. Whether it’s to endorse a political campaign, a particular law change, an organization, institution or form of entertainment, many exploit Christianity as a lucrative way to gain support for their own causes.

Instead of a spiritual journey, Christianity is regarded as a lucrative business opportunity. When this happens, our faith devolves into a business, where believers are seeing as customers, and Jesus is marketed as a product instead of worshipped as divine.

7. To Rationalize Bad Behavior

Christianity has often been used as an excuse to do many horrific things. It’s used to rationalize religious violence, abuse, corruption, ignorance, bigotry, racism, injustice, inequality, sexism, hypocrisy and a litany of other evils—all under the guise of “God told me to do this” or “The Bible says this.”

8. To Explain the Unexplainable, or to Reject “Secular” Truth

Christianity isn’t about having all the answers—it’s about a relationship with Jesus. But Christianity can be turned into a list of right and wrongs and “facts,” and it can mistakenly become a zealous attempt to answer all of the world’s questions—even when it can’t.

When we limit our knowledge strictly to the Bible and refuse to listen to—or dialogue with—others, we’re rejecting the truth of science, logic, experience and the wonderful wisdom of others. All truth is God’s truth, and Christians shouldn’t be afraid to engage with thoughts, ideas and resources beyond just the Bible.

9. To Judge Others

Jesus repeatedly warned against judging others—and yet Christians continue to be known for their accusatory behavior instead of their grace and forgiveness.

We shouldn’t turn Christianity into a religion of hatred, where the worth of others is categorized based on their sins and failures. Additionally, Christians shouldn’t consider themselves morally superior, self-righteous and worth more than others—this is sinful.

Christianity is about loving God and loving others—above all else, try to simply follow Jesus’s example.

10. To Change Cultures

Christianity isn’t meant to erase or change a cultural identity. Christianity is amazingly complex and diverse, and it was never intended to be a uniform religion of ethnocentric beliefs.

Many mistakenly perceive that a “correct” Christianity will exactly mirror all their own traditions, beliefs and lifestyles. Thus, instead of introducing people to Jesus, they attempt to change and conform people to their own cultural preferences. When people inevitably don’t conform, they’re often unfairly accused of being sinners—condemned to hell.

To be a Christian is to be transparent and truthful and vulnerable and brutally honest—it’s not pretending to be someone you aren’t.

Overall, there are many ways we can mistreat Christianity and commit horrible acts in the name of God. It’s easy to manipulate our faith in order to satisfy our own agendas.

But we also need to remember that throughout our faith journey we’ll make mistakes and our experiences will be filled with both highs and lows. Through it all, we need to rely on the grace and forgiveness of God—and hopefully, of each other.

Perhaps our familiarity with it is due to the fact many of us insist on judging others. We are willing to entertain conversation about most anyone who makes a mistake or does something wrong, even when it has nothing to do with us. Something in us likes to see people pay for their misdeeds. So we attack.

Our attacks come in the form of opinions, jokes, Facebook banter and conversations. We call names, label others, race to characterize and make sure others know our thoughts. It’s a kind of public punishment that we get to enforce. We launch toxic, crippling words as a way of inflicting harm on those we believe should know better. But it gets worse.

Conversations abound of how people in the Church cast judgment on others. Yes, we are to discern good from evil, but we insist on judgment as a form of condemnation. In fact, from the people I have met, it may very be the single greatest reason men and women choose to leave the Church altogether.

Just last week, I spoke with a young woman who had not been to Church in over 10 years. Her reason was simple: she felt condemned. When she was younger, she made a mistake. The attitude and words of those in her Church told her she was not welcome. So she left. To this day she carries the wounds given to her by others.

We fail to see our form of judgment and punishment only creates a divide and forces others out. Yet, no matter how often we hear Jesus’ words, we just can’t seem to stop.

Maybe we cannot stop judging and punishing others because something about it feeds us, and our appetite is insatiable. When we stand as judge, jury and executioner over another, it gives us the feeling of being superior and righteous. And, let’s be honest, the alternative just does not give us the same feeling.

The alternative is, of course, seeking to reconcile, restore and renew. This does nothing to feed us. Rather, it asks us to feed others—even those who should know better and those have wronged us. The alternative demands we stand under the other and recognize we are all in need of reconciliation.

And the people of God are called to be ministers of reconciliation.

We cannot take a step toward that call until we first love. Some, no doubt, hear this and think this kind of love is weak. This kind of love gives everyone a pass, tells everyone they are OK or it’s cool to be messed up. If any of us think that is what love is, we are mistaken, because none of those things are love.

To be clear, love is violent. However, the violence of love is far different than the violence we dole out to one another every day. The violence of love is what we see on the cross.

The cross was the single greatest act of love in human history, and it was, at the same time, extremely violent. The difference is Jesus took the violence on Himself. He did not strike out at those who mocked Him or fight against those who nailed Him in place; He forgave them. In the midst of punishment at the hands of humans, Jesus loved and loved violently.

The violence of love asks each of us to take the violence on ourselves. This kind of love does not give others a pass or pretend everyone is OK. Rather, it recognizes the brokenness, fear, anger, shame, sin and hate in others and agrees to take all of that on itself. In this, love causes the spiral of violence to cease.

If we are willing to imitate this kind of love, we will find it’s quite hard to spend our time judging others. Because if we love others enough to serve them, to not return an insult and let their pain be ours, we will find judgment and punishment no longer fit. Too often, we miss this first step and fail to love.

My conversation last week with that young woman concluded with her telling me why she came back to Church after a decade. She met someone who loved her. When she told her story, she was met with tears, not punishment. When she spoke of her wounds, she saw an agonized face looking back at her. When she encountered love, it met her in a place far deeper than her wounds could ever go, and because of that she is on a path of reconciliation.

We must see our appetite for judgment has caused us to be overstuffed and unconcerned for the hearts of others. Many of us have abandoned our call to be ministers of reconciliation. Rather than renew, redeem and restore, we tear down and create mounds of ruin. We have a bloodlust, forgetting all the while that the blood spilled on the cross was enough for all of us—and no more blood needs to be spilled.

The invitation for each of us is to abandon judgment, to abstain from condemnation, to forego punishment and pursue the violence of love. It demands that we feed others rather than feed ourselves. Perhaps if we, through the power of the Spirit, can do this, we just might find less judgment. More than that, we will find more reconciliation.

It was a magical time to be alive.

You know who you are, ’90s youth group kid. Here’s a look back 13 things you most definitely owned.

A Shirt Bearing the Name of Your Youth Group

Official T-Shirt of the Summer ’97 Youth Retreat

Some Old ‘McGee and Me’ VHS Tapes

Because you’re never too old for some comical, biblically sound coming-of-age lessons.

Purity-Themed Books

This is was an extremely popular topic among Christian adolescents, necessitating entire lines of books, Bibles and apparel about true love waiting, kissing dating goodbye and every young man’s battle. The theme can also be found in some truly unforgettable Christian pop-songs solely devoted to convincing young listeners not to have sex.

A Collection of Christian Punk Rock and Ska Albums

If you were a youth group kid in the ’90s, bands like MXPX, The Supertones, Five Iron Frenzy and Ghoti Hook will always hold a special place in your heart.

A Secret Stash of ‘Secular’ Music

Enough time has passed that you can now admit to your parents about that shoebox under the bed with all of your Green Day and Pearl Jam tapes.

A T-Shirt with an Appropriated Logo

Abreadcrumb & Fish. A Coca-Cola logo turned into a Jesus Christ signature. A Starbucks emblem featuring the mermaid morphed into God. There is almost no logo that creative T-shirt sellers couldn’t transform into a proclamation of religious devotion and total disregard for trademark infringement law.

A T-Shirt Bearing the Name of Your Mission Team

How else will people know who the missionaries are?

Some Exotic Artifact Purchased on the Mission Field

Every member of a “short-term mission team” had to return with some unique item from their travels to the far ends of the earth, like refrigerator magnet or a snowglobe.

A Collection of Christian End-Times Fiction

The Left Behind series sold 65 million copies. By our estimation, at least 54 million of those were to youth group kids in the ’90s.

A Black T-Shirt for ‘Human Video’ Routines

If you were ever involved in any sort of youth ministry, than these mimed, evangelistic performances set to some CCM song were just a normal part of adolescent life.

An Acoustic Guitar

It was a common practice for many youth groups to hand out chord charts to “In the Secret” to all new members.

Sun In’d Hair

Like frosted tips, “Sun In” bleached hair was pervasive throughout ’90s teen culture, but was tragically especially prevalent in youth groups across the country.

Some ‘Adventures in Odyssey’ Audio Tapes from Simpler Times

Even as a cool ska-listening teen, it was hard to part with your collection of life-lesson audio adventures.

In many ways, Gen Z is bringing a fresh wave of enthusiasm and engagement to the Church. That’s what Jennie Allen sees. Allen is an author and speaker who has spent the last few years investing in the next generation, seeing their strengths and encouraging them in their weaknesses.

We sat down with Allen to talk about the future of the Church and how Christians can encourage Gen Z to take charge.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. 

You’ve spent a lot of time at conferences and events speaking with and to Gen Z. It seems like they’ve got an exciting energy about the Church. Do you see it from that perspective?

Yeah, I do. You know, a lot of times, a lot of people have compared this generation to what happened in the 70s, and the movie that was just made about the Jesus movement, specifically called “Jesus Revolution,” was the name of the movie. But the Jesus movement was famous, and is famous. I mean, I grew up hearing about it. My parents were a part of it and a product of it. In fact, I found out the other day that my home church’s pastor had traveled to a conference in California and had specifically been there, so I’m a direct result of that.

They were all in college when it happened. So they were, they were in the seventies. They were young adults, and they wanted God. And one reason they wanted God then is because of the chaos of war, the chaos of giving their lives to sex and drugs. I mean, that was happening on a scale that had not happened in the sixties and the fifties and prior to that. And so I think, to some degree, I remember hearing someone say once, it is a mercy of God to get everything that the world says will make you happy and to realize it doesn’t. That’s a mercy of God. Because you actually understand, yes, there are consequences in that, but to get to your desperate place of, “Oh my gosh, I just got the whole package.”

I just got everything that I thought would make me happy and it didn’t. And what else is there? That’s a gift because then you want God in a different way. And so I really believe, to some degree, they are that generation, right? They’ve gotten everything the world has to offer through the little screens that they’ve held since they were born, you know, and the way the world works, whether it’s sexual gratification through pornography, whether it’s drugs, alcohol, I mean, the things that my aged kid’s friends are into and what they’re able to get is just so different than the way I grew up. So what that means is they have tasted it all and they realize that it’s hopeless and they want something to mean more than the world that they’re being offered. And, and so when you say, “Hey, this is God’s way, this is God’s love. This is the hope that you can have,” they’re craving it and they’re ready. I mean, at Jaywalker’s Conference in 2023 — really, any event because I could tell a dozen stories — but Jaywalkers specifically, they all came forward because I did an altar call while my eyes were closed.

I opened my eyes and there were hundreds of them in the front on their knees. And then I thought, “Okay, well, gosh, that was very quick.” And so many of them came. I didn’t even see them come because I was praying. And so I did a prayer and I heard their voices out loud repeating back to me the simple prayer I was giving them to say. It was so sincere. It was so simple. It was so pure. They just want God. And I think it’s because they’ve tasted the world and it has not met their needs.

What can we do to encourage Gen Z and keep lifting them up?

I think two things. I think one, to believe in them. I think to follow suit of believing that they really want to be successful and have meaningful lives. They’re not shallow, they’re not completely checked out. Look in their eyes and go, “You know, they’re pretty smart.” You know, I think of technology like this: old money and new money. People from old money, they’re kind of settled with it. They’ll say, “Yeah, I don’t need the newest car. I don’t need the fancy everything.” People with new money, they really get into it and they show it off.

I think it’s the same with technology. I think they’re old technology. They’ve seen it. My kids look on their phones — they don’t have social apps on their phones. They take breaks from them. Not that they never get on Instagram, but they will take it off and then add it back. They are measured and they aren’t sitting there obsessed with technology. They actually have seen the damage it’s caused in their lives and other people’s lives. I think we are putting our view and our struggles on them rather than saying, “I actually see that they have matured with this.”

They want lives that are present. You see it because so many young people are moving to the country, so many young people are moving to small towns, young people are going to small churches. They really are looking for and hungry for community and authenticity and something to be real for them. And I don’t just mean honest, although that’s a part of it. I mean something that feels like dinner and looking at eyeballs across the table. I’m not saying they’ve arrived there and that they’re all good at it. I’m saying they’re craving it — and to see that potential in them and encourage it and to help it and to model it, right? Because some of us got the phones and we remember life before it and we haven’t been the best with it either. So let’s not shame them about it. Instead, let’s raise them and help them to see the hunger inside of them even if they can’t articulate it yet, even if they can’t tell you “I want God.”

Give room for that, and space for them to wrestle and to process. I remember my daughter in middle school, she walked through a pretty severe season of doubt where she was like, “Mom, I don’t think it’s true. I don’t believe in God.” And rather than freak out, I sat with her in that and I said, “I want to be here with you. I think this is good. I think it’s good for you to wrestle with this.”

I think that’s the role we can play, is to just be beside them as they come into their own and as they embrace and find their way to God. Because I can promise you this, it’s not up and to the right. It’s not. Now what I’m talking about are moments of harvest that are beautiful and powerful, and God says those things are gonna happen. But the process to get there, the tilling of the soil and the cultivating of the soil, all that takes a little while. We’ve got to do a really good job of that above them and as local churches.

What is a message that you think Gen Z needs to hear right now?

I’m actually going to say the gospel to be preached. I say that because I think we’ve preached a lot of things. I think we’re very loud about a lot of things. And I have tried to make it my pursuit to till the soil with conversations around important topics like community, like emotions, like our thought lives, and to address the felt need.

Every time I’m doing that, it is so that they want God, so that the reader or the person that I’m speaking to wants God. So yeah, we can talk around subjects, but we better have an end goal, and the end goal is to introduce them into a relationship with Jesus, because that is how lives are changed and formed until they are connected in relationship with Jesus.

Not in indoctrination into a religion, but a personal relationship with Jesus. When that happens, lives change and everything about your identity shifts. And the way you think and the way you feel and the way you work and the way you live and the way you parent, all of that changes.

We need to be winsome and I would dare say relevant in the sense of knowing the needs of the day and being able to speak to the needs of the day for the purpose of an encounter, a personal encounter with Jesus. And the gospel, that’s what they’re responding to. I mean, in every situation that like whether it’s a public confession of sin that I’ve seen, the altar call at Jay Walker’s, the, you know, what happened at Asbury. All of it is in response to the gospel that Jesus died for their sins, my sins, and is their hope, and that He is extending a relationship with them forever.

We searched the internet looking for the funniest or craziest things people have witnessed at church. We covered a few on the latest episode of The RELEVANT Podcast, but here are a few more we wanted to share:

20.

The part-time pastor, part-time wrestling show worker is not a typical combination you see these days.

19.

This is actually a cautionary tale of playing with fire.

18.

Sure, that’s what he said he was doing…

17.

Well, did you pray for him?!

16.

That’s one way to get the church on their feet!

15.

Uh, so what did she call the judge?

14.

Well, that’s one way to do it!

13.

Kids really do say the darndest things.

12.

Your baby cousin has impeccable timing.

11.

Ah, so your brother was trying to still his brother’s blessing. Where have we heard this story before…?

10.

Did you still tell her “bless you” after this? Because it sounds like she needed it.

9.

This pastor sounds like he’s trying on a career as a comedian.

8.

If my nickname was the “toothless preacher” I would simply move states and change my name (or at least change my dentist).

7.

When Paul wrote “pray about everything,” we aren’t sure this is what he had in mind.

6.

Simple, but effective.

5.

And we’re sure this story was used as a sermon illustration for years to come.

4.

This is downright diabolical. Hilarious, but diabolical.

3.

What were strikes one and two?

2.

We bet God got a good chuckle out that, too.

1.

“Feet” and “bread” do not belong in the same sentence.

They’re “church hoppers.” They irritate church pastors, and they’re often dubbed shallow spiritual consumers.

But are they?

These individuals defy the church-traditions of many eras before us by attending different services week-by-week. They often fly below the radar and experience the Church in their own way. As I journeyed into it personally, and talked with other church-hoppers, I discovered some important things.

1. Church Is About Relationships

Contrary to the semantics of American Christian culture, “church” is people. It’s the people of God in all their glorious mess and beauty. This church is not the event or service we normally refer to, but instead it’s the people these services hunger to bring together in relationships.

And whether your church service experience is liturgical, charismatic, traditional, contemporary, church-planty or a house church, you will find true Church—these people—in every single one.

And if all of this is true, then we have to think about church in the context of relationships, not buildings and styles.

Simply hopping from service to service without connection does a true disservice to all that a church offers. There is freedom, depth and life to be experienced when you throw yourself into a trusted, safe community.

So, the true question may not be whether or not church hopping is right or wrong, but instead, if you have a community that sees you, knows you, loves you and challenges you consistently, regardless of where you attend on Sunday.

2. It Will Be Exactly What You Make It

Church hopping can be done with or without intention. And quite frankly, the process will usually give you exactly what you ask for.

For example, if you’re church hopping with the intention of experiencing diversity, chances are you’ll experience it if you’re intentional about it.

However, if you are looking to just consume, or remain unattached relationally for whatever reason, it’s safe to say that you’ll probably succeed if you can avoid the greeters at the welcome door. Our motives and values often drive us in every decision we make; don’t let church-hopping slip through the cracks without really understanding why you do it.

3. Beware of the Pendulum Swing

Balance is something we all tirelessly strive for, and our experience with church culture is no different. Believers tend to grow attached to a very particular way of “doing church”—whether that’s a particular methodology, theology or structure.

They attach to this until they get burned, and often the reflex response is the proverbial pendulum swing to the exact opposite.

Do you blame them?

We’ve all been hurt and wounded, and it sometimes just feels safe to run as far away from the hurt as possible. Sometimes, this is why people church hop. The thought of committing to another church body sounds risky, so they pendulum swing and neglect commitment altogether.

On the other end, some hop churches in order to find balance.

They enjoy the worship at this mega-church, while they’re better able to connect relationally at a smaller, more intimate community. Balance is good, but our tendency to pendulum swing is strong, so again: Understand why you church hop.

4. Church Doesn’t Make Us More Holy

We throw church hoppers under the bus, because they’re defying a lot of the traditions we’ve always known. But realistically, there are many who actually attend one church on Sundays, even at a membership level and yet still practice the pendulum swing, unintentionality and relational avoidance.

I think a proper response as the people of God is to love, regardless of where or how often someone may attend a given church.

We tend to judge when our feathers are ruffled, as if it’s personal and we need to seek justice for the greater body of Christ; but realistically, our church practices are not what make us holy.

As the people of God, we have already been made holy and righteous through Jesus. When this reality really hits you at a faith level, we can begin to love each other well and have healthy conversations about a healthy church life.

Instead of fighting one another about the rights and wrongs, let’s follow in the footsteps of Jesus and love each other into a real relationship—on Sundays, and every other day of the week, too.

Think about this for a moment. If 90 percent of pastors announced from the pulpit that murder (or stealing, or adultery) is OK, don’t you think it might raise a few eyebrows in the pews, let alone the press?

It’s true: Jesus freed us from temple and ritual laws, but nowhere does He say we get a pass on moral laws. Of all the moral laws, Christ is especially clear that we must honor the Top Ten.

In fact, he ups the ante: if the law says don’t commit murder, Jesus says don’t get mad at the person who just sent you a snarky text. If the law says don’t commit adultery, Jesus says don’t even surf the Internet looking for racy pictures.

The Ten Commandments are engraved twice in the walls of the Supreme Court building. Why? Even for people who don’t believe in God, they serve as the bedrock of morality. The Ten Commandments help keep civilization civilized.

For those of us who believe in the Creator, the Ten Commandments are gifts from the very hand of God. The first three commandments are about our relationship with the Lord. The fourth commandment is a bridge: it connects heaven and earth, God and people. The last six are about our relationship with humanity.

Once a week, God walks out on the Sabbath bridge to meet us. But most of us are no-shows; we unapologetically stand up the Creator of the universe, week after week.

Time Debt

Our generation is the first in 2,000 years of church history that is on the go 24/7. But this experiment in Sabbath-less living is taking a huge toll. It’s called time debt. We overcommit. We multi-task. We stay so busy we don’t have enough time for relationships with family and friends, let alone God.

The result? Nonstop stress. When I asked my husband Matthew, a physician, about the physical consequences of stress, he gave me a mini-lesson on the endocrine system. If your body never knows when the next Stop Day is coming, it sends out stress hormones. These hormones are commonly known as the fight or flight response. If you’ve ever had a severe allergic reaction, a shot of adrenaline can save your life. A few hours later, however, you will feel utterly exhausted, like you’ve been run over by a truck.

Matthew went on to explain that when we are under stress long term, our bodies produce another stress hormone called cortisol. Cortisol production contributes to a host of medical conditions, including diabetes, heart disease, weight gain, acne, depression, anxiety, sleep disruption, digestive problems, and memory and concentration impairment. The bottom line: constant stress doesn’t just make us tired and grumpy; it makes us ill.

So if you’re ready to start attempting to keep a Sabbath, here are a few ways you can start:

Block off Sabbath Time on Your Calendar.

Here’s a simple truth: It won’t happen unless you schedule it. For most people, Sabbath is celebrated on Sunday. For church leaders, hospital workers and people who provide emergency services, Sabbath might have to be moved to another day of the week.

Because our ministry requires frequent travel, I use Google calendar to schedule our Sabbaths at least four months in advance. This lets our staff know when we will be offline and allows them to plan accordingly.

Prepare Joyfully.

In today’s 24/7 world, Sabbath-keeping is countercultural; it doesn’t just happen by default. If you long to lay down your heavy burdens, you’ll need to be more intentional about your time the other six days of the week.

On Sabbath eve, I clean out my email inbox, finish chores and run errands with an almost giddy joy. I also plan ahead for holy fun, seeking out new places for a hike or picking out a book to read aloud with my husband.

Figure Out What “Work” is for You.

Scholars have argued for centuries about how to define rest. Here’s a simple definition: decide what work is for you and don’t do it on your Sabbath.

For people engaged in sedentary work during the week, puttering around in the garden on the Sabbath might be restful. For people who do manual labor, holy rest might mean taking a nap.

Pray and Play.

Eugene Peterson, one of my theological heroes and author of The Message, once said that there are only two rules for Sabbath: play and pray. Now in his eighth decade of life, Peterson also believes Sabbath-keeping is the best thing he ever did for his marriage, his children and his ministry.

Videos went viral of Driscoll being cut off for saying a “Jezebel spirit” had kicked off the Stronger Men’s Conference in Springfield, Missouri. The conference, hosted by James River Church, invited former Britain’s Got Talent contestant Alex Magala to open the weekend with a sword-swallowing act. Driscoll was uncomfortable with the act, saying from the stage that it reminded him of a scene from a strip club. John Lindell, the lead pastor of James River Church, cut Driscoll off, explaining to the audience that Driscoll had not addressed the issue with him privately and he was “out of line” for bringing it up on stage.

In a new video that has surfaced from the conference, Driscoll appeared back on stage alongside Lindell, apologizing for the way he addressed his concerns.

She has very a clear picture of what a church is and isn’t, but she’s not alone. We all have different ideas of what a church should look like. Today’s church culture is as diverse as ever, offering formats to suit practically anyone. On the surface, this is a great thing. People are finding safe places where they can worship and find community with like-minded believers.

But with so many options and so many different styles, it can be easy to bounce from church to church, never really finding what you’re looking for. There is no such thing as a perfect church—each one has its positive and negative aspects. And just because a church has a few things that rub you the wrong way doesn’t mean you should pack up.

The decision to commit to a church may have many different factors—and ultimately requires a lot of prayer, but here are a few questions to ask as you work through the decision:

1. Is This Church Fostering True Spiritual Growth?

Whatever it may be—worship, community, mission opportunities, etc. Are you getting the things that are going to help you grow in your relationship with God?

This may look different for different people. While it seems like all Christians would grow in the same things, that isn’t always true. This is where we have to decide the things that are most important to us in a church, and the only person that can tell us that is ourselves.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re in the wrong church if the worship set or the sermon doesn’t blow your mind every week, but it does mean you should search for a church that regularly and clearly preaches the Gospel and God’s Word—that challenges you to grow and helps provide some resources to do so.

2. Are There Opportunities to Serve and Use My God-Given Abilities?

God calls us to serve Him with the special gifts and talents He has given us. Some people are natural-born leaders and teachers, which are vital to any church. However, not every church needs sound engineers and videographers. Finding a place where your spiritual gifts are needed and valued in the operation of the church means that you truly become a part of the body.

However, this doesn’t mean a guitar player should automatically cross First Baptist Church of [Insert Name of Small Southern Town Here] off the list of churches to visit and consider joining. Maybe the general Sunday morning congregation doesn’t care for anything that isn’t an organ, but the youth group might need someone to help lead more contemporary worship on Wednesday nights. Perhaps the church is open to new kinds of worship but there isn’t anyone that can actually lead it. Finding opportunities to initiate new opportunities and growth in a church can be just as important.

3. Does This Church Value Community?

After growing up in a traditional church where we sang out of a hymnal and had intense (and many times ridiculous) business meetings, I was craving something different when I went off to college.

Soon after I moved, I found a less traditional church. The music was awesome, the pastor was challenging, and nobody was complaining about how much the church was spending on toilet paper. It was a welcome change.

However, as time went on, I realized that the church that I thought would give me exactly what I wanted didn’t give me what I had taken for granted before: a close-knit community. I can’t say that I missed the politics or the traditional worship style, but I missed being surrounded by people who encouraged me and genuinely cared for me throughout the week—not just on Sunday. I eventually decided that it was worth more than the contemporary music and casual atmosphere.

A church is supposed to be a body, and community is the place where real growth, change and reaching the world truly take place.

The Larger Body

Along with the individual bodies of believers in different churches, we also need to remember that every church is part of the Body of Christ spread across the globe.

Of course we’re going to disagree on some doctrine and worship style and methods of evangelism and whatever else, but writing off other churches as “old, closed-minded people that can’t handle change” or “meddlin’ kids that just want to go to a concert every Sunday,” is ignoring the larger picture.

We so often let the way other people like to worship dictate our opinions about them and their faith, and it is a two-sided coin. Shouldn’t we respect that our parents and grandparents grew up doing things a certain way that they like? Shouldn’t we be glad that young people are hearing the Gospel and worshipping God, even if that involves lights and electric guitars? More importantly, shouldn’t we love and respect each other simply because we are brothers and sisters in Christ?

While you’re seeking a church that works for you, remember that being a part of the body of Christ means that we are all on the same team. Loving one another, praying for each other and listening to each other shouldn’t depend on what kind of church service we like to attend. As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 12:12, “The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ.”

The 2024 Stronger Men’s Conference at James River Church in Springfield, Missouri, led by John Lindell, invited Alex Magala to perform as the conference opener. Magala is a former stripper and pole dancer who was featured on Britain’s Got Talent for a dangerous sword-swallowing routine. During the performance, Maglea tore off his shirt, swallowed a sword and climbed up a pole with the sword still in his mouth. The performance, as seen below, was met with roaring applause.

Megachurch has strip-show-like performance at men’s conference. Guest speaker Mark Driscoll spoke out against it and was kicked off stage.

Unbelievable that any church would allow this. Reason #538 not to attend a megachurch.#ChristIsKing @pearlythingz @sovereignbrah @scrowder… pic.twitter.com/Fl2Vd3DDhn

— Caeden (@thecfrazier) April 14, 2024

However, when Driscoll — who has spoken at the conference previously — got up on stage, he condemned the act, calling out the conference leaders for letting in a “Jezebel spirit.” Here’s what he had to say:

“Let me do this: I’ve been up since one o’clock in the morning. The reason I’m hoarse is I have been praying for you and my heart is very burdened for you. And I want to be very careful with this and it’s not what I want to say, but the Jezebel spirit has already been here. The Jezebel spirit opened our event. This is a rebuke and a correction of no one. This is an observation. Before the Word of God was opened, there was a platform. It was a high place. On it was a pole of Asherah. The same thing that’s used in a strip club for women who have the Jezebel spirit to seduce men. In front of that was a man who ripped his shirt off like a woman does in front of a pole at a strip club. That man then ascended. See, our God is not arrogant. He doesn’t ascend. Our God is humble, he descends. And then-“

Driscoll was then cut off by Lindell, who yelled out, “Wrong time Mark!” and walked on stage to kick off Driscoll. As he was leaving the stage, the crowd began to boo, although it’s unclear if it was aimed at Driscoll or Lindell.

Lindell then took over and shared his shock at Driscoll’s statements and called Driscoll out for being “out of line.”

“If Mark wanted to say that, he should have said it to me first, but he didn’t,” Lindell said. “Matthew 18: ‘If your brother offends you, go to him privately.’ I talked to Mark for a half hour. There was not one word of that. He’s out of line. If you want to say it, he can say it to me. You may not agree with me. You may not agree with him. But we are brothers in Christ and there’s a right way to handle this.

“I’m telling you, I’m not going to sit back and watch someone do publicly what they should have done privately,” Lindell continued. “As a pastor and a man of God, I’ll call another man of God out. I love Mark, but he was out of line. I have a responsibility spiritually for this event. We saw 530 people come to Christ. We’re going to conduct ourselves in a Christian manner and we’re going to go according to the Bible, and the Bible tells us how that should have been resolved, and it wasn’t.”

NEW: Pastor Mark Driscoll gets kicked off stage at a men’s conference after he calls out pastor John Lindell for allowing a demonstration from a male stripper.

The incident happened at the Stronger Men’s Conference in Springfield, MO.

After Vegas stripper and ‘sword swallower’… pic.twitter.com/hlDHqHHriY

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) April 14, 2024

This isn’t the first time the Stronger Men’s Conference has received backlash for their theatrical performances. In 2022, the conference went viral for featuring flaming monster truck stunts.

Even before I was old enough to do much besides doodle during sermons, church was a fixture in my life. I was sometimes bored and sometimes enjoyed myself, but going to church wasn’t a choice—it was just what everyone did.

As I got a bit older, I realized that not everyone went to church, but I gathered that being someone who did was a moral imperative. It meant I was taking my faith seriously, being a good person and making God happy (or avoiding God’s anger). By the time I was old enough to join the youth group, other factors reinforced my involvement: church was where my friends were, where the cute boys were and where much of my social life took place.

Heading off to college meant that my parents no longer took me to church, and my social life was no longer headquartered there, but I still saw my attendance as a basic requirement of following Jesus. Where else could I grow in my faith and find spiritual community?

Over the next few years, however, something strange happened. I followed Jesus right out of church and into the streets, communing with homeless people over slices of pizza and hearing sermons in the words of the people who lived in the shelter on skid row where I served breakfast on Sunday mornings. Jesus showed up in all sorts of unlikely, unofficial places.

I continued to journey alongside other Christians, but I no longer understood the importance of attending church. It occurred to me that perhaps what was more important than how often I showed up for a Sunday service was how often I showed up for people who were in need: quietly listening, crying with them, sharing my food and time and space and joining my voice with theirs to demand justice.

The more I learned about poverty and systemic injustice, the more frustrated I became with churches whose weekly programming is disconnected from the world beyond their sanctuaries. I was tired of prayer without action; simplistic spiritual formulas without any mention of the Gospel Jesus preached: good news for the poor, freedom for the captives, sight for the blind. I lost hope that most of the Church would ever get its act together enough to closely resemble Jesus.

But then another strange thing happened. I kept following Jesus, and eventually, He led me right back into church. I was surprised. There were plenty of people there working toward justice, but I realized that church was not a place to go because everyone had their act together and was doing things right.

It was more like a refuge where all sorts of people could gather to remind each other of the story we were all in—the one about how God loves us, and is renewing our world and our souls in spite of all the damage that’s been done. It was more like a school for conversion where we were all stumbling through basic lessons on how to love.

We sang about this love and this mission to be part of it; we sang about our brokenness and our hope. We looked each other in the eye. We confessed our sins. We shared bread and juice and remembered that we are all tied together in this dysfunctional family that God has cobbled together.

It wasn’t perfect—sometimes I felt frustrated, bored or hurt—but it was good, and God was in it. Yes, church people could be apathetic, judgmental and selfish, but so could I. And just like everyone else, I needed to be welcomed and loved anyway.

Then one day, an older church lady put my husband and me in charge of finding people to serve communion each week. We were still “the new couple,” so I’m pretty sure she was just trying to rope us into consistent, punctual attendance—and her plan has absolutely worked.

Now that we’ve shouldered even just this tiny bit of responsibility, we recognize how many people have to show up consistently to create the prayerful, welcoming, worshipful space we experience each week. If everyone involved in leading music, running sound, teaching kids’ classes and preaching sermons only showed up on the days when they didn’t feel stressed, busy, tired, bored, sad, frustrated or enticed outside by beach weather, we wouldn’t have much of a church at all.

So I’ve slowly learned that going to church can be about something other than moral requirement, fear of punishment, social connection, getting spiritually fed, or even looking for likeminded people with whom to pursue justice in the world. Going to church can be about holding this space in which to experience the grace of God together, learn together, fail and forgive and stumble forward together.

I’ve benefitted from the sacrificial commitment and consistency of countless people who have welcomed me into community over the years, and now I recognize the invitation for me to do the same thing for others: to hold that space even on days when I don’t seem to personally benefit from it. When the songs don’t do anything for me, when I don’t want to talk with people about the difficult week I’ve had, or when I’d rather sleep in instead—it is then that I am invited to go to church anyway.

Not because God or anyone else is judging me by my attendance, but because it is a chance for me to be church to the people who are sharing this journey with me. It is an opportunity to hold space for others to encounter God, and to open space in myself to encounter, even when I least expect it, God in the midst of the people who are my church.

A version of this article appeared in September 2015.

Part of me felt right at home in that kind of ecstatic celebration. And yet there is part of me that never felt at home there. While everyone else was cutting loose, I’d find myself standing down near the front with my eyes clenched shut, sometimes my fists clenched, too. I would go down wanting to “seek God,” and yet somehow I didn’t know exactly what to do, what to say, what “seeking God” really meant. Instead of being liberated by the activity around me, I was almost paralyzed by it. 

Now that I’m a pastor, I’m the one who gives invitations for people to seek God, even if I do it a lot differently than what I experienced back then. And yet, when someone wants to know how to know God, there are moments when, for a moment at least, I feel like that kid clenching his fists. There is something in me that feels paralyzed all over again. I sense that same familiar panic. “What will I say? What will I do? And what do I know about any of this to begin with?”

Like most pastors, I would rather talk about processes and procedures related to knowing God than talk about the God I know. I’d rather talk about spiritual formation, or about the disciplines—prayer, worship, Bible reading, fasting, giving.

And yet there is a peculiar heartache when I sense myself going down that familiar path. I feel the sting of something like betrayal. A fleeting impression floating in the back of my head, which may well be the Spirit, saying, “You love to tell them how to have a relationship with me, but you don’t tell them about me.” 

Don’t get me wrong: The Church needs people to help guide us through the concrete processes of spiritual formation. But so often, it seems we use these things as a diversionary tactic. In some ways, many of us are still strangely guarded about our own experience with God on His terms—the actual God as opposed to our set of ideas about Him. We would much rather talk about spiritual practices relating to God than to talk about the enigmatic character of God Himself, the shadowy force of wisdom and delight who haunts us as a lover. 

One can be an expert in the disciplines of spiritual formation. But there are no experts on God. 

Hiding Behind Our “Expertise”

No wonder preachers come up with inane things to talk about like “Bible codes” or charts and graphs speculating about the end of the world. We are looking for something to master rather than have a head-on collision with the mystery that cannot be mastered. 

We live in a world where it feels like everybody speaks with an air of assumed authority. We also live in a volatile, rapidly changing time where there seem to be a lot of reasons to be afraid. The appeal of certainty in an uncertain world is perfectly understandable. Sometimes we admire the confidence we hear underneath these authoritarian voices. We long for their simplicity and conviction, those who have the world so easily figured out. At times, we have been those people ourselves. Yet, deep down, many of us harbor a deep suspicion that the experts are not as bright as they think they are; that the world is perhaps not as ordered as they would have us believe. 

If we live long enough and develop a little healthy insulation from the prophets of certitude, we find out that beholding God is, in fact, a complicated thing. It starts when our own lives begin to get complex. But the world didn’t get complicated when life got complicated for us. We just hadn’t lived long enough, seen enough, heard enough or experienced enough to know better just yet. 

Encountering the Whirlwind

The classic riff in evangelical culture is “It’s not a religion, it’s a relationship.” And that’s true to a point. But the misleading thing about such an assertion is the subtext that religion is the man-made complication and that having a relationship with God is the easy thing. A relationship is something natural, something anybody with common sense can do as easily as breathing. The undertone is always that we could happily get on with the simplicity of such a relationship if there weren’t all these humans interfering between us and God.

But let’s not be quite so naive. If some forms of religion feel like a racket to us, let’s not pretend we are innocent, as if it’s not a scheme of our own making. When the mystery of God first struck the ground, crackling with the electricity of a storm on Mount Sinai, it was the people who said, “Don’t let Him speak to us directly or we will die.” There is no conspiracy to keep obstacles between us and God. We are often the ones inserting ourselves in that space.  

We fill the space between us with everything we can get our hands on because, deep down, we know there is something terrible about staring into the mystery for ourselves and finding ourselves fully seen and fully known in return. Even if we find a gaze of love staring back at us, we are uncomfortable with the wildness in that gaze. To encounter God is to encounter lack of control, to come to terms with our own ultimate powerlessness. To encounter God is to discover both how small we are and how beloved we are, and we are not prepared either to be so insignificant or so desperately loved. Both revelations are unnerving. 

There is no amount of spiritual knowledge, practice or experience that gives us any sort of claim on God directly. God is impossible to cage. “The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” It is no wonder that life with God is always described in elemental terms—those who are born of the Spirit move with the unpredictability of the wind, because the Spirit itself is unpredictable. 

Job has been one of my favorite guides in Scripture for my own relationship with God, precisely because it captures the elusive nature of life with God so perfectly. After all of Job’s friends get done blustering and Job gets done responding, God Himself finally responds. And Job 38:1 sets the parameters of a relationship with God quite well: “Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind.” 

God does not answer out of the calm, gentle breeze—though he does that in other parts of the Bible. In this case, the Lord answers out of the violence of the storm. Having a relationship with God is like having a relationship to electricity or having a relationship to a tornado. That is not to say there is not comfort in it, but it is the peculiar comfort of a storm. It’s precisely why our spiritual practices can capture something useful of how we relate to God, but our relationship to God is hardly the sum of them.

The Playful, Tender Other

Since this relationship is something intrinsically violent, unpredictable and uncontrollable, the next thing Job helps us learn about a relationship with God might seem almost contradictory—but deeply true. There is something tender about the presence of God and the voice of God, a tenderness that never fails to break our hearts. 

The the heartbreak of a relationship with God is not sentimental in the least—it is the sheer goodness of God, the tenderness of His heart that relentlessly shatters our own. We have been presumptuous to think we know what God might be saying or what He wants in a given situation, smug in our judgments. And then comes the real voice of God, which always turns out to be more tender, more gentle, more loving than what we could have imagined. That unfathomable mercy that, more than any of the extraordinary things we might say about God, ultimately makes Him the most unlike us.

There is something dangerous, something tender, something playful about that God all at once. The One who will not be confused by us, tricked by us, impressed by our capacity for good or evil. There is a certain divine mischief about the One who looks at us, always knowing both the things we know but can’t afford to say, as well as the things we do not know at all. He does not lord this knowledge over us or leverage it for harm. In fact, you might say He almost affectionately teases us with it.

Job is the sort of person God likes because he didn’t attempt to hide the truth of his heart from Him, the sort of person that talked to Him in shockingly familial ways. Because Job is so brazen with God, He brings out the playful tenderness of this God, who comes out of the whirlwind but is not all whirlwind Himself. When God finally responds to Job, He starts by chiding Him: “Who is this that darkens my counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up your loins like a man, I will question you, and you shall declare to me.”

The first few times I read that text, I responded with a kind of terror at the words “Gird up your loins.” But the more I have reread Job, the more I have detected something different in God’s speech. Keep in mind, the construct of the whole story is that God likes Job—it is God who directly rescues Job in the end. Job’s relationship with God is so familiar that his friends find his protests to be blasphemous. Yet, it seems God likes Job not despite the candid way he talks to Him, but because of it. And when God responds, we detect something in the tone of these speeches different than incredulity and rage; we can hear a kind of playfulness.  

While there is a kind of violence to God’s appearance, there is also the familial tone of a father wrestling with his son—a kind of playful taunting. “Who is this little man who thinks he knows how the world works? Since you are the expert, why don’t you tell me—where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? And my favorite line, “Surely you know, for you were born then, and the number of your days is great!” 

The language of God may seem fearsome, but there is also a winsome quality to it—this is the playfulness of a father to a son he knows well. It is hard to explain how a relationship with God can have the unpredictability and occasionally primal force of the whirlwind, and yet have such shocking intimacy and playfulness at the same time. But this is what it is to know God.

The Figure Standing in the Whirlwind

However broken we might feel or be, it takes a certain courage to stare into the whirlwind—to fix our gaze into the storm that knows us—without flinching, without covering ourselves, without looking away. And when we stay there long enough, a figure emerges from the storm. Like the Israelites when God appeared on Sinai, we are tempted to cower in terror, to find someone to stand between us and Him. And then comes the voice: “It is I, do not be afraid.” We stare into the storm long enough until we find that the God behind it is Jesus, that this God has always been Jesus. He is the one who has always seen and known us. 

From out of the whirlwind, from out of the storm, Jesus comes walking. In Matthew 17, Jesus is drenched in the same terrible glory of Sinai, His face shining like the sun, His garments blindingly white. And again comes the voice, as familiar on this new mountain as it was in the midst of the storm—except this time not just a voice, but a hand that reaches out to touch us. “Get up, and do not be afraid.” The same terror, the same glory, but with a tender touch and a voice that has always been familiar—telling us we have no reason to fear. 

We have come all of this way without giving proper steps to have a relationship with God, no experiments to try, no spiritual practices. For once, I’ve talked about the God I know instead of trying to tell you how you should know God, and tried to tell you what that God is like. I’ve tried to warn you of the terror and comfort you with the comfort I’ve seen and felt behind the cloud.

Now I can only tell you to go chase the storm. Behold the elements of mercy and tenderness and playful, mischievous love, and keep looking into it until you see that God turns out to be Jesus. 

The percentage of American adults who regularly attend services for nearly every major religion in the U.S. is steadily decreasing. A new poll from Gallup has found that three in 10 Americans attend religious services every week (21%) or almost every week (9%). An additional 11% attend about once a month, but overall the majority seldom (25%) or never (31%) attend services.

There’s been a fairly consistent decrease in service attendance over the last 20 years across all religions in the U.S. Two decades ago, roughly 42% of U.S. adults attended religious services every week or nearly every week. A decade ago, that number dropped to 38%. Today, it is currently at 30%.

Experts argue that the decline is largely driven by the rise of “nones” — Americans with no religious affiliation — which has risen from 9% in 2000 to 28% as of this year. This is especially prevalent in young adults ages 18 to 29, who are already the least likely demographic to attend services regularly. According to Gallup, 35% of young adults say they have no religious preference, higher than the national average.

Experts also predict that this trend will continue and more and more Americans become nones. Nearly all major religious groups (with Judaism being the only exception) are experiencing a decline, and only one group — Mormons — have more than half their members still attending services regularly at 67%. Christians come in second, with 44% attending services regularly, followed by Muslims (38%) and Catholics (33%).

Nicki Shearer, Elevation Church’s digital content director, recently spoke with Pro Church Tools about the way that the church uses social media to draw and engage with new and familiar audiences. During part of the interview, Shearer explained that the church avoids using language that “immediately makes someone feel like an outsider,” particularly for an event like Easter Sunday.

“When I think about how I’m going to talk about Easter, I’m thinking about how I’m going to talk to people far from God because that’s the thing that matters most to us,” Shearer said. “For us, the most important thing on Easter is inviting people to church. This means reaching people far from God. So we’re not going to use the words ‘calvary,’ ‘resurrection’ or the phrase ‘the blood of Jesus.’ We won’t use language that will immediately make someone feel like an outsider.”

Shearer’s comments went viral, with many users across X, Instagram and TikTok calling out the church for “watering down” Christianity.

“There ain’t no Jesus without the resurrection and his blood he shed on cavalry,” wrote one Instagram user. “Such blasphemy!!!! Watering down the Word for non-believers does nothing for anyone!!! Makes them lukewarm! Repent!!!!”

Another user wrote, “If it’s true that your church is taking away life-changing scriptures then who are you people? How is there a church without these important scriptures? This is a pretty Antichrist move, can’t wait to hear y’all explain!”

Elevation has not responded to the controversy, although Pro Church Tools has attempted to come to the church’s defense in a blog post, clarifying that Elevation doesn’t use this language in invitations only.

“Importantly, Elevation absolutely emphasizes the resurrection of Christ in an Easter service (and uses that word),” Pro Church Tools stated. “Yet, you won’t find it on an Easter invitation of theirs.”

However, users have pointed out that not wanting to use theological language for fear of ostracizing someone is still misleading, at best, and blasphemous, at worst.

“Some want God as the Father but they are not willing to accept Jesus as his savior,” one user commented. “Easter is all about Jesus, he came with a sword to make sin uncomfortable so the argument you use about ‘do not make anyone feel an outsider’ is totally invalid, please don’t pretend to follow Jesus if you can’t even stand with what he did on the cross.”

You can watch the full interview here:

As I experienced the vast array of incredibly beautiful Judeo-Christian prayer traditions, I discovered one powerful thing that unites the Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox worlds:

Beards.

On my trek, I had the opportunity to visit Mount Athos, an all-male (animals included) “holy mountain” in Greece. I was surrounded by Gandalfs and Dumbledores, each with an average beard length of about 8 inches. One particularly godly monk on Athos had a knee-brusher so long that he supposedly stopped wearing clothes.

The Way of the Beard

Consider this fact: Men have been growing facial foliage since the beginning of time. While it’s not officially mentioned in Genesis, I’m pretty sure that in the beginning, God created the heavens and the beards.

Facial hair has played an important role in history. Otto the Great swore great oaths by his beard. In the Middle Ages, touching a dude’s beard was grounds for a duel. Don’t quote me on this, but I’m also fairly certain Vikings were born with beards.

Beards are also a staple in Bible stories: The patriarch Abraham had a beard.

So did his son, Isaac. Though not as hairy as his caveman brother Esau, Jacob is often depicted with a manly mane.

King David wore a beard, as did his wise-guy son, Solomon. Moses wore a beard, obviously, and Aaron’s beard is specifically mentioned in Psalm 133. Joseph also had a crumb-catcher until the Pharaoh turned him into a sassy Egyptian.

Noah/Russel Crowe had a beard.

Job, Elijah, Jeremiah, Ezra and the Apostle Paul were all bearded. I couldn’t find any women in the Bible who had a beard, but there’s no version that says that they didn’t have beards, so that’s something.

Do you know who else had a beard?

If we believe the (bearded) Michelangelo

and his Sistine Chapel, then we know that God Himself proudly displays Santa-like plumage.

Great Beards of the Early Church

Throughout history, Christian men have gloried in male pattern magnificence. Saint Benedict of Nursia wore an superb double forker.

Euthymius wouldn’t allow cleanshaven monks to enter his Judean Desert monastery.

St. Francis of Assisi had a beard, and now there’s a pope named after him.

This article isn’t the first piece that’s been written in defense of beards, of course.

According to Ted Olson, Abbot Burchard of Bellavaux wrote Apologia de Barbis in 1160, as “a treatise on the biblical, theological, moral, social, and allegorical implications of beards.”

In 1531, Piero Valeriano Bolzani wrote Pro Sacerdotum Barbis, after the (beardless) Pope Clement VII thought about forcing priests to manscape their faces. Little did he know that a beard covers a multitude of chins.

Of all the great Christian men who wore beards, none stands so highly as the martyr Sir Thomas More. On the day of his beheading, the tufted knight supposedly positioned his beard away from his soon-to-be-severed neck, saying “My beard has not been guilty of treason, and it would be an injustice to punish it.”

John Knox and Menno Simons founded entire denominations, most likely on the strength of their beards. Hasidic Jews, Quakers, Greek Orthodox, hipster pastors and worship leaders—all bearded.

Speaking of bearded worship leaders, consider Keith Green.

Just look at the history of Beard-ianity: St. John Chrysostom, Lactantius, James the Greater, Saint Nicholas, Saint Patrick, Gregory of Nyssa, Charles Finney. Beards, beards, beardy beards.

Shaves of Gray

Why do godly men choose to grow their own neck scarves?

Because it’s awesome.

Yet, despite a clear Biblical and historical bias towards beardliness, a number of Christian institutions and Bible colleges have, throughout the years, created policies that expressly forbade the cultivation of facial manliness. Historical anti-beard institutions include Bob Jones University, Moody Bible Institute, The Salvation Army, and Pensacola Christian College. Liberty University’s dress code stills insists that “facial hair should be neatly trimmed.” So much for liberty.

Hear these words, baby-faced college deans: Dihydrotestosterone, the chemical that promotes beard growth (and sadly, balding) is God’s gift to man-folk.

But don’t take my word for it. We beardies stand on the shoulders of elegantly bearded giants…

“Growing a beard is a habit most natural, Scriptural, manly and beneficial.”  — C.H. Spurgeon

“The beard must not be plucked. ‘You will not deface the figure of your beard.’”  —St. Cyprian

“The nature of the beard contributes in an incredible degree to distinguish the maturity of bodies … to contribute to the beauty of manliness and strength.” —Lactantius

“The beard signifies the courageous … the earnest, the active, the vigorous. So that when we describe such, we say, he is a bearded man.” —St. Augustine

“[God] adorned man like the lions, with a beard, and endowed him as an attribute of manhood … a sign of strength and rule.” —Clement of Alexandria.

You need Scriptural proof, you say? I’ll give you three, but be forewarned: if we hear the Word of God, yet fail to do what it says …

You shall not round off the hair on your temples or mar the edges of your beard. —Leviticus 19:27

The men were greatly ashamed. And King David said, “Remain at Jericho until your beards have grown and then return.” —2 Samuel 10:5

If I am shaved, then my strength will leave me and I will become weak and be like any other man.” —Judges 16:17

There you have it. Shave at your own peril henceforth.

Grow your beards!

Now, none of this is bad. In fact, a lot of it is really good. Churches can accomplish a lot using tried-and- true models, and utilizing tested programming isn’t necessarily laziness—it might be called smart.

So where are the churches truly doing something different? We wanted to highlight some trailblazing faith communities rethinking what church can look like in a modern context, whether in terms of how they engage their members, how they reach out to their communities or how they champion justice. Some of them are big and well-funded, some of them are small and struggling, but all of them are setting a new bar for what church can be.

1. Connecting Immigrant Families
Naco Christian Church / Iglesia Cristiana de Naco: Naco, AZ

Naco Christian Church is one church with one pastor in two different locations—with a large, taxpayer-funded fence between them. The church is just a few blocks from the Mexican border and offers services on both sides of it. There’s an early-morning service in Naco, Arizona, followed by one just across the border in Naco, Mexico, later in the day.

The church is pastored by Jesse Wood, while his wife Jessica works as the church’s children’s coordinator. They’re a binational couple, making them uniquely fit to lead a church that serves two different cultures. And the church is no gimmick. By operating close to the border, Naco Christian Church is a lifeline between children and their parents who’ve been deported back to Mexico.

2. Creating a Community Hub
Impact Church: Atlanta, GA

Impact Church’s slogan is “Doing Church Differently,” and they’ve worked hard to earn it by creating a church that puts more focus on the other six days of the week than they do on Sunday mornings. With Pastor Paul Thibodeaux at the helm, Impact has become one of the fastest-growing churches in the United States, and they’ve done it all while maintaining a commitment to improving the lives of their congregants inside and outside their walls.

In addition to offering Bible studies, Impact fosters communities to teach things like financial responsibility, dating advice and even estate planning.

The next stage in their journey is refurbishing a warehouse into an eco-friendly space that will serve not just as a church, but also a sort of community center. The new space will feature hygiene centers for Atlanta’s homeless population, after-school programs for area youth, office space to serve as incubators for startup businesses, a community garden and creative programming and coding classes.

3. Leaving the Building
We are Church: San Francisco, CA

In 2013, famed author Francis Chan stepped away from his huge church platform to try something very different: a church planting network with no building, no overhead and minimal structure. It’s called We Are Church, and it’s made up entirely of small communities that meet in homes. The rules are straightforward: Each home has two unpaid pastors and members are placed within a church in their local communities.

With no building costs and no paid staff, the entirety of church tithes and donations can be spent on charitable work, missions, relief aid and other causes the various house churches find meaningful. There’s also less fear of trying something new or different, since there’s so little overhead and, therefore, virtually zero financial risk.

4. Championing Nonprofits
Crossover Bible Church: Tulsa, OK

Crossover Bible Church isn’t just a church; it’s a nonprofit organization. Actually, it’s four nonprofit organizations, a dream brought to reality by two men in two different fields who found their visions overlapped. The Rev. Philip Abode was a pastor who wanted to plant a church in North Tulsa that would have a real impact on the impoverished area. He met up with Justin Pickard, a Harvard graduate who had a vision of a housing and economic revival in North Tulsa. The two realized they could do more together than separate, and out of that partnership Crossover Bible Church and its affiliate Crossover Community Impact was born.

Crossover Community Impact operates four different LLCs (limited liability companies). There’s Crossover Sports Association, which runs after-school sports programs. There’s a family medical clinic called Crossover Health Services. There’s a housing development nonprofit called Crossover Development Company, and Crossover Preparatory Academy, a private, tuition-free all-boys school. By minimizing the scope of their reach (if you’re going to work for the church, you have to live in the neighborhood—no exceptions), Crossover has deepened the extent of their impact.

5. Taking Aim at Racism
Quest Church: Seattle, WA

Eugene Cho was already a rising pastor, author and speaker when the aging, mostly white congregation of Interbay Covenant Church agreed to merge with the young, mostly Asian-American congregation of Quest Church, gifting them a large, upscale debt-free building in the process. The church had the usual generational bickering at first—arguments over the volume of the music and the type of food served at potlucks—but what’s emerged is a new vision for a multi-ethnic church in the United States, one that transcends nominal lip service to “diversity” to offer a truly radical integrated community of people who depict something that more closely approximates what the actual body of Christ might look like rather than the usual homogeneous lineup.

The church has doubled down on its focus on combating racism since the events in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014. Cho was deeply moved by the death of Mike Brown and what he perceived as the Christian Church’s lack of compassion about the realities of systemic racial injustice in modern America. In 2018, Cho stepped down to focus on other ministries but the Church continues to grow in Seattle under the leadership of pastor Gail Song Bantum.

6. Housing Dallas’ Homeless
Church of the Incarnation: Dallas, TX

This Anglican church has been around for a long time, but its approach to ministering to one of Texas’ larger cities has remained cutting edge for every one of its more than 100 years. Under the leadership of the Rev. Anthony J. Burton, the church has set the bar for what it looks like for a church to take Jesus’ concern for the homeless to heart.

Whether it’s volunteering at a nearby home for the low-income elderly or cooking hot meals for a nearby shelter, there are few ways the Church of the Incarnation isn’t involved in local homeless work. Maybe most notable is their Incarnation House, an area for homeless teens and teens in unstable housing situations. Incarnation House provides a real, concrete place for teenagers without anywhere else to go, and provides them with physical, educational and spiritual resources to take the next step.

The DOJ has determined that no SBC leaders will be charged with criminal offenses. The decision has been met with surprise by many and disappointment from abuse survivors and their allies who were hopeful that the DOJ would be able to hold leaders from the nation’s largest Christian denomination accountable.

“On February 29, 2024, counsel for the SBC Executive Committee was informed that the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York concluded its investigation into the EC (executive committee) with no further action to be taken,” said SBC Executive Committee interim president/CEO Jonathan Howe. “While we are grateful for closure on this particular matter, we recognize that sexual abuse reform efforts must continue to be implemented across the Convention. We remain steadfast in our commitment to assist churches in preventing and responding well to sexual abuse in the SBC.”

Tribbett gave a passionate talk about how he feels like “the institution of the Church is whack.” He went on to explain that he is frustrated by how the Church has gotten things backward.

“The Church should be about the people, but the Church makes the people about the Church,” Tribbett said. “They’re not serving and loving the people.”

Tribbett’s comments have been receiving both praise and backlash online. What do you think?

 

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Check out Tribbett’s full conversation on The Breakfast Club on YouTube:

The Greek word for saints is hagios which means “consecrated to God, holy, sacred, pious.” It is almost always used in the plural — “saints.” This reflects not just the individual but the connection to a group of people set apart for the Lord and His Kingdom.

Beginning with Adam’s first task of naming the animals, throughout human history and even today, the creation of a new name or title is significant. A name is embedded with deep meaning drawn from experiences that help define reality in language we can understand.

The early church was called “Christians” by the powers-that-be for the first time in Antioch (Acts 11:26). It wasn’t a name Jesus’ disciples gave themselves — it was a name given to them by the society in Antioch. But why a new name for this group of Christ-followers? Why, from the perspective of outsiders, weren’t they simply lumped in with all the other variants of the Jewish faith?

Some cultural context might help. Antioch was referred to as “all the world in one city,” where you could see all the world’s richness and diversity in one place. And the marketplace was its hub. Antioch was designed like most cities of that day: A circular wall on the outside, a marketplace in the center, with the interior of the city walled in way that divided different people groups from one another. That always bring to my mind this map of Chicago divided by race.

Enter Christ-followers. Enter the Gospel. The Church came to Antioch and began breaking down the dividing barriers in a way that upset the society’s existing categories. People from all parts of the city — Jews and Gentiles alike — were suddenly coming together. This group of people was redefining community in a radical and unprecedented way, so much so, that a new word was needed to categorize what in the world was happening.

What’s interesting here is that there were so many off-shooting sects within Judaism that Antiochians never bothered to learn or categorize differently. But in Christians, they saw something different. The term “Christian” comes from the world’s realization that something new and unheard of was happening.

It is often assumed that the name “Christian” was given somewhat flippantly or even derogatively by these powers-that-be—a sort of dismissive wave of the hand to those “little Christs.” Technically, the ending “-ian” means “belonging to the party of,” so “Christians” meant those of Jesus’ party.

After Acts 11:26 the word “Christians” is used only two other times in the New Testament: in Acts 26:28 (by Agrippa, an unbelieving King that applied the name he knew as an outsider) and 1 Peter 4:16 (in the context of being oppressed in wider society under that given name). In each reference, the emphasis, inherent in the original Greek, is on the fact that people from outside the faith recognized Christians as a distinct group.

In Galatians 2:11-17 we can see just how central the diversity of the Antioch situation was to the definition of what it meant to be a Christ follower.

Peter, who had been living side-by-side with Jews and Gentiles, broke the unity of the community when he chose to withdraw from the Gentiles in a kowtow to a group of conservative Jews who had come to town. Peter was “afraid” (vs. 12) of what this group would think or do. This led other Jewish believers to do the same and withdraw from their non-Jewish brethren. Peter has a record of struggling to get his heart to change in line with what he knew to be true. This case was no different.

Paul confronts Peter on this and admonishes him publicly in order to set the record straight (vs. 14), calling his behavior hypocrisy. Calling Peter out in public was harsh, but the future of Gentile Christians was at stake. The Gentiles from whom Peter withdrew got the message loud and clear that they were somehow second-class — which is clearly out of line with the Gospel.

Where there is division, the Gospel brings unity, where there is brokenness, healing. The racist split Peter caused among the people suggested that the church wasn’t really any different from the rest of the world after all — giving others a reason to say, “So what?” to just another belief system. Division along racial lines is not just wrong; it is an affront to the Gospel itself and betrays its definitive distinctiveness in the world.

In response, Paul reaffirmed the unity of the body, the centrality and sufficiency of Christ, and the unique inclusivity of the new community of those called Christians. He took the social divisions of the world seriously — and so should we. Are we living up to our given name? Do our cities look like Antioch? Do our churches? Do our hearts?

Do we defy the world’s categories? Are we able to show the world a vision of community in which there is no social, economic, racial, or gender division (Galatians 3:28, Colossians 3:10-11)? Or are we actually serving as instigators of division?

Perhaps this is why you hear some Christians turning from that name, giving rise to phrases like “I’m a Christ-follower, not a Christian,” because they no longer like what it means to be Christian from the world’s perspective.

Ancient Antiochians may have given us that name because of early Christians’ radical inclusivity, but today, it’s up to us to keep that reputation alive. Because the “Christian” label is ever-redefining based on the reputation we give it.

According to John 13:35, Jesus says the world get’s a vote as to how they will know we are His: “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

And today, it’s up to us to recover that distinction — to defy the world’s categories once again.

I can’t stand my church because sometimes I just don’t like the songs we sing. I want a worship experience that draws me into realizing God’s presence in amazing ways. I want that every week and some weeks it just doesn’t happen. I can’t stand my church because sometimes what is offered isn’t as great as the announcements promise them to be. Often the timing of events are super inconvenient for my family and me. I can’t stand my church because they talk about money and serving way too often, always asking me to be more involved. I can’t stand my church because it has a lot of hypocrites and people have deeply hurt me. I can’t stand my church because, as nice as people are, it’s still hard to deeply connect with people. I try to greet everyone, every week, but building strong, intentional friendship is hard. I can’t stand my church because, frankly, there is a lot that can get better, and I know other churches in the area that do “this or that” a lot better.

Now, you may read this and think that I’m saying all this in sarcasm to make a point, and while I am going to make a point, none of these “issues” are sarcastic, I genuinely exist in these tensions. What IS sarcastic is the statement “I can’t stand my church,” and it’s sarcastic in two distinct ways.

First, “I can’t stand,” is there to stir up some type of reaction to my statements that may reveal where you can fall prey to similar feelings. In other words, I used that statement to empathize with some emotions that you may be feeling toward your church. The reason for this is; until you recognize that you have these destructive thoughts you’ll continue to grow in frustration and anger to the church, not realizing that your heart may be hardening to God’s community. So, as you read my reasons for frustration, what stirred in your heart? What came to your mind about your church? What things are eating you? Identify them, then evaluate them in light of the second part of the sentence “my church.”

The second sarcastic part is the statement “my church.” Let me remind you of what Jesus says to Peter. “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build MY church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18- emphasis added by me). Did you catch that? Jesus makes a “my” statement that should have us cautious to hijack the term. The church belongs to Jesus, not you, not me. This is not MY church, this Jesus’ church. This is not YOUR church, it’s Jesus’. Now, you may say, “that’s just a semantic issue. I just use it because that’s how we communicate about where we worship.” While I understand that, I believe that it’s easy to use the possessive “my” to begin to feel like the church is here for you; like it’s a great church if it checks all your boxes and ultimately serves your needs. Yes, we are to love, challenge, encourage, share with one another and build each other up … BUT the church is not “my” church, it is God’s, and because of that, the central focus and role of the church is to bring GOD glory, not to perfectly program things for ME or YOU. This reality has HUGE implications on how to view and interact with the church.

HOW THIS PLAYS OUT

There are a lot of critiques that can be given to any church. If you’re anything like me, sometimes the conversations about “church” on Sunday afternoons revolves more around what I did or didn’t like or what could have been done better. These discussions arise from a “my church” mindset that has me evaluating the church experience based on everything I did or did not like. With a “this is Jesus’ church” mindset the evaluation of a good Sunday, or a good church moves from “my likes and wants” to “God’s likes and wants.” Simply put, if our focus is properly on bringing God glory and serving Him, then our post-church evaluative question changes from “Did I like that?” to “Was Jesus honored and glorified by that… by me?” 

THIS IS A BIG DEAL

A difference in how we enter, participate and evaluate church is a big deal. Throughout the Bible there are times when God outright rejects people’s offerings and praises because their hearts are wrongly motivated, and their actions are duplicitous:

Amos 5:23: Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen.

Isaiah 1:15: When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood.

Matthew 15:8: ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

By making ourselves, and our likes, the central motivation of church we act in a way that does not honor God. Are there things that the church can get better at? Yes. Should we strive to be excellent in all we do and does that take a critical eye? Absolutely. But our evaluation of church should center on honoring and glorifying God and our critique should follow suit. Any element of improvement should be evaluated with a desire to bring God more glory and to build His Kingdom. Here is a quick way to help you see if your approach may need correcting:

A “Do I like it?” mindset

            -Does this place “speak to me?”

            -Is this place interesting enough?

            -How do others interact with me?

            – Does it make me happy?

            -If I’m offended, I leave.

Asking “do I like it” engages a critical mindset that usually has the “goodness of a church” based on your emotions: Hearing a worship song that really excites you or listening to a message that stirred something in you means that “it was a good Sunday.” The “do I like it” questions is really a two-fold trap. 

First, your emotions can betray you. There may be something in a “boring talk” or worship experience that God is using to try to communicate with you and grow you. If feeling excited or emotional about something is the standard you use, you will miss God’s voice in the mundane. Also, there may be a lot of smoke and mirrors—presentations that evoke an emotional response but have very little or no God honoring truth to them. 

Second, you may be making emotions an idol. If your emotional intrigue is how you evaluate your church, then your focus is on your emotions and not on God. Emotions are good, and God often uses them to get our attention, but by evaluating a church on how it made you feel, makes your feelings the focus. That’s an idol.

   A “Does God like it?” mindset

            -Does it speak the Truth and Grace (The Gospel)?

            -Is this a place attempting to build the body of believers

            -How do I interact with others?

            -What does God want (of the church and me)?

            -If I’m offended, I work toward unity.

Here are a few examples of how the “Do I like it?,” and “Does God like it?” mindsets play out:

Was worship good for me today? vs. Was God glorified by my/ our worship?

Was that event everything I wanted? vs. Did the event help build God’s Kingdom?

Was the time of that event perfect for me? vs. Were there others who were able to make it and hear about or grow in Christ in a way that “my ideal time” matters less?

Why do they talk about subjects that are less than thrilling? vs. What is God teaching me? How can I honor God by listening and asking Him to speak to me during this uncomfortable topic?

They are a bunch of hypocrites. vs. I’m as undeserving of God’s grace as anyone, and I want to help encourage others to align their lives with what they claim about God, so I attend seeking opportunities to pour into others.

They hurt me, so screw them. vs. I hurt Christ, and He died for me. He also desires for His church to be a unified, beautiful bride and I will not allow the pain I’m in to prevent me from deepening relationships with others and joining together to glorify Him.

“Does God like it? Does it bring Him glory? Am I bringing Him honor by the way I’m participating? Do we, as a church, strive to give Him the praise, honor, glory and exhalation that He deserves?” These are the proper questions because when we ask these questions, many of the things that “we can’t stand about our church” get exposed for what they are; attacks of the devil to get us to focus on ourselves, disunifying the body and dishonoring God. Are there proper times to leave the church? Sure, and there are a million ways to make things better, but the motivation to get better is not “because I don’t like  it,” the motivation is because in all we do, in every church service we participate in, in every church community we involve ourselves in, we do it all for the GLORY OF GOD, not for “what I want.”

When I use this lens to look at the church I’m a part of, I can say: I’m thankful to be in a community of messed up people, desperately dependent on God’s grace, who are striving to live Jesus greater than everything. I’m glad we gather every week to worship God, learn more about how He wants us to live, and encourage each other to continue to build our faith. I want to make sure that these things are not just statements about what Real Life does but are statements about how I participate in the church in a way He would like. As a staff we are continually evaluating how we can make things better … but better for God’s glory, because of our love for Him, and because we want all people to joyfully honor God with all parts of their lives.  

Because of these reasons, I love the church I get to be part of!

Here are some other examples of what we’ll call “billboard evangelism”:  

• “Turn or burn.”
• “Stop, drop, and roll doesn’t work in hell.”
• “There’s no air conditioning in hell.”
• “Are you against Jesus?  There will be hell to pay.”
• “If you think it’s hot in the summer, imagine hell.”

There are numerous issues with these types of billboards. The first is how they use church speak to try and reach a population who has no idea how to read church speak. If you were raised in church, you understand the image of Jesus as the bread of life because you have most certainly heard many sermons and pre-communion monologues that discuss this idea. On a billboard, describing Jesus as the “bread of life” removes it from that context and strips it of its meaning, impact and gravitas. It’s like trying to speak to someone in a language they don’t understand.

This goes for many other phrases often heard inside a sanctuary. To the outside world, they just don’t make sense. These might include:

• “Lay down the yoke of burden.”
• “Pray for a hedge of protection.”
• “Give your heart to Jesus.”
• “Free redemption inside.”

If you were raised in church, you can explain what all of these mean, but you’re not the target audience.  

Billboard evangelism also tends to deploy the threat of hell. Given who billboard evangelists are trying to speak to, it’s a poor incentive for attending church or picking up a Bible. Parents know the worst way to motivate their children is by using a phrase like, “If you don’t get in the car right now so we can go to the store, we’re going back into the house and turning up the heat to its highest setting and you are going to receive a spanking, and by the way, this punishment will last forever and you will never get to go to the store again.”

Is that really who we imagine God to be? Is that really who we want other people to imagine God to be? If a Christian really believed the unbelievers in their life were going to spend eternity in hell, that idea in and of itself inspires motivation to reach out to those non-Christians. After all, if hell is real, then about 7 in 10 people on Earth are in serious trouble. Why would we reduce that to a joke on a sign?

And if that’s the case, what’s being done about it?  Why are we making jokes about Hell?

There is a better message. Instead of pointing toward condemnation, we should be pointing toward a better alternative to what people might be seeing in their day-to-day lives. We should be pointing toward unconditional love—the most unconditional love ever.

People might not understand church speak and they might be turned off by images of hell, but people do understand connecting to other human beings. Reaching lost people shouldn’t be left up to billboards, it should hinge on personal relationships.

Church billboards shouldn’t be warnings, they should be invitations: “Come join us.  We think you’re awesome.” And once new people are inside the church, they should feel welcome because of how true that message turned out to be. That’s when they’re ready to hear about the bread of life.

Not the most charitable read on church but if you’ve spent much time with The Simpsons, you know it’s a pretty fair review of the church attended by America’s premier cartoon family. The church appears to be well-attended and well-funded, but it’s not the most celebratory event. Maybe Homer stumbled onto half a point.

Back in the 90s, American Christians were wary of The Simpsons. Organizations like Focus on the Family fretted about Bart’s attitude and Barbara Bush called the show “the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen” — though she softened after Marge herself “wrote” the former First Lady a polite but firm letter in The Hollywood Reporter. “Ma’am, if we’re the dumbest thing you ever saw, Washington must be a good deal different than what they teach me at the current events group at the church.”

There’s that word again. Church. Despite some early conservative queasiness about the show, The Simpsons is very old fashioned when it comes to faith. It’s one of the few shows on TV in which religion is portrayed as a normal part of American life. The Simpsons go to church regularly if not necessarily cheerfully. The pray before they eat. They may not be as faithful as their doofily goofily neighbor Ned Flanders, but it’s safe to say they would qualify as what most researchers call “engaged Christians.” That is, the word “Christian” isn’t just a nominal label — it’s something that has a real impact on their life, including where they spend Sunday morning.

But what kind of Sunday morning service are we talking about here? For all the many appearances of church on The Simpsons, we know precious little about its background. The show has always liked to stay deliberately vague on specifics, including a Joker-like series of answers on which U.S. state the Simpsons’ Springfield is actually in. That makes determining the actual denomination of the church on The Simpsons nearly impossible. But not entirely.

First thing’s first. The church’s “denomination” is actually given as the Western Branch of American Reform Presbylutheranism — another nod series creator Matt Groenig’s penchant for keeping things broad. But let’s see if we can’t narrow it down a little.

Let’s start with what we know. It’s called The First Church of Springfield, pastored by Reverend Tim Lovejoy, Jr. The church is Protestant, as Lovejoy is a proud graduate of Texas Christian University and once got into a brawl with a Catholic priest. Yes, Lovejoy definitely has it out for Catholics (when Abe Simpson asks for last rites, Lovejoy tells Marge he might as well do a Voodoo dance) and went so far as to kidnap Bart when he heard the kid was thinking of converting to Catholicism.

Also worth noting: Lovejoy’s also shown to be jealous of the Episcopalian church across the street, and its more commanding steeple.

So, definitely Protestant. Probably not Episcopalian.

When in preaching church or officiating weddings, Lovejoy wears white preacher’s robes. This is a little unusual in the U.S., where black is often the preferred color for Sunday mornings, but there’s no law against it so, unfortunately, it doesn’t tell us much.

But we also know that Lovejoy wears a reverend collar — a big clue. While clerical collars are most commonly associated with the Catholic tradition, they are worn by church leaders in some Protestant denominations, such as Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian and Lutheran. So we can rule out Southern Baptists, the largest Protestant denomination in the country.

So. Not Southern Baptist. Not Episcopalian. And since neither Anglican or Methodist show up in the church’s denominational mashup, let’s rule those out too. That leaves us with Presbyterian and Lutheran. There are obviously other denominations it could be. Protestant churches are a wild and unruly bunch, with deliberately few governing bylaws. But statistically, Presbyterian and Lutheran are looking good.

We can learn a little more from Lovejoy’s own behavior, which isn’t always becoming of a preacher. He can be dismissive of the Bible (he calls it a “two thousand page sleeping pill”) and brushes Marge’s concerns about sin away by holding up a Bible and saying “Marge, everything is a sin. Have you ever sat down and read this thing?”

This sort of cynicism can creep into pretty much any faith tradition, so it doesn’t narrow things down too much. A little more telling is that Lovejoy seems to have grown more cynical over the years. In flashbacks, we see that he used to be passionate about his faith and excited about ministry — only to grow increasingly grouchy and disillusioned. Where he used to care about Flanders’ skittishness about sin, he now treats both Ned and many other members of the congregation with thinly veiled contempt.

Again, not exactly a unique development. Many pastors could tell the same story about friends of theirs who’ve worked in the ministry. In fact, a few congregation members could probably do the same.

This is where some of The Simpsons’ deliberate vagueness starts to work in its favor. By staying above poking fun at any one faith tradition, it can kind of satire them all. In The Gospel According to the Simpsons, show writer Al Jean recalled that the producer, Sam Simon, didn’t want Lovejoy to be a bad person, just a flawed human. He was not a “cartoony hypocritical preacher,” according to Jean. Instead, Lovejoy is “a realistic person who just happened to work as a minister.”

In other words, Lovejoy isn’t unique. Neither are the Simpsons themselves. They are, like everyone on the show, painfully recognizable, and not always in ways that are very flattering but definitely in ways that come from a general place of affection. What denomination is the First Church of Springfield? It doesn’t really matter. Whatever church you happen to attend, it’s probably got plenty in common with it — warts and all.

Change is something most people try to avoid. We like the way things are. After all, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” But change is not something to be afraid of. If embraced and carefully planned out, change can lead us to new places and new people.

That’s how speaker Tim Ross sees it, at least. Ross hosts The Basement, a weekly podcast where he walks listeners through the way they can change or “disrupt” all areas of their life — relationships, family, finances, careers and even faith.

Ross spoke with RELEVANT ahead of the release of his latest book Welcome to the Basement: An Upside-Down Guide to Greatness to discuss why it’s important to embrace disruption and how the church can benefit from a little disruotion these days.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

RELEVANT: Once someone recognizes something in their life that should “be upset,” what is a good first step to take to make that happen?

ROSS: Yes, self-awareness is always my first step. It’s acknowledging that I don’t have all the answers. I need something that I cannot provide for myself. I recognize a flaw within myself that requires intervention, either to eliminate, modify, or accept. Right?

I believe self-awareness is the first call to action. While it might seem subtle, considering Genesis 3, perhaps Adam and Eve weren’t banished for their actions but for what they concealed. Their lack of self-awareness prevented them from saying, “I messed up.” Instead, it was, “Eve did it.” Then, “The serpent deceived me.” But in reality, it was, “I was tempted by lust and pride. I desired your power, God. I craved your knowledge. You said I could eat from any tree, but you highlighted the forbidden one. And I fixated on it daily until that serpent, without even a greeting, asked, ‘Did God say you could eat from every tree?'” Who begins a conversation like that? Clearly, Eve had been eyeing the fruit for a while.

Therefore, self-awareness is the starting point. When you’re self-aware and own your mistakes, humility is already integrated into that action. And God is near to the brokenhearted. He says the meek shall inherit the earth. Humble yourself, and you will be exalted. So, self-awareness and humility are foundational steps.

The practical steps following that are, “Okay, how can we change our mindset about this?” The body of Christ often fixates on “How do I stop doing this?” But what if we shift focus to “What do I need to change?” What lie am I believing that makes this seem better than God’s will for my life? I believe starting there would lead to a much more pleasant experience of obedience and submission.

What are some of the challenges you’ve faced as you’ve upset different areas of your life?

One of the chapters in my book is titled “Disturbing the Peace.” Jesus, I believe, was masterful at disrupting the elements of people’s lives that were misaligned with his will and ways. Applying this to myself, I reflect on how scripture has disrupted aspects of my life that were out of alignment with God.

Innocently reading scripture, I’d be struck by conviction. “Oh my God,” I’d think, “I wasn’t expecting to be found out! I thought I was reading about Saul, but this isn’t about me. I’ve checked; I wasn’t around during Samuel’s time. How did I get on this page?” I’d then realize, “Ouch, I’ve been found out. I need help.”

So first, I acknowledge the conviction. Second, I pray about it. Third, I confess it to someone else for accountability.

Then comes the wrestling match, like Jacob’s struggle. I’m determined to persevere until I’m exhausted, then grasp God’s knee like Jacob and declare, “I won’t let go until you bless, change or rearrange me!” Anything deeply ingrained in my flesh dies hard. The more we love something, the harder it is to leave it.

Over the years, I’ve adopted the spirit of Leonidas from 300: “Let’s have a beautiful death.” If we’re going out, let’s do it in glory. I don’t mean sinful indulgence, but rather acknowledging, “Lord, I’ll truly grieve this, not because I hate it, but because it displeases you. My relationship with you matters more than my affection for it, whatever it is.”

Whether the object of prayer is removed or remains, I accept God’s will. I’ve prayed about things repeatedly, with no response even from my dad, so I guess you, Lord, will have to handle this one.

What are some things within the church that you would like to see disrupted moving forward?

So this may be the first time I’m saying this out loud. Trigger warning, then. I was surprised, like everyone else, when the vernacular of deconstruction first surfaced. What was it? What did it mean?

I’m not one to comment before I understand the context. I studied administration and justice, aiming to be a homicide detective. To bring a case to the DA, you need a thorough, sequential, and contextual investigation. Otherwise, it’s a non-starter. They can’t prosecute, they can’t go to trial. Missing evidence? Circumstantial evidence? Forget it. That’s not making it to court.

Deconstructionists emerged, and once I understood their definition, I had some thoughts, but no comprehensive commentary. A year and a half later, I felt ready. Let them deconstruct, let them tear down their “legos.” Because that’s what it is. They’re not attacking Jesus or the gospel, they’re questioning how they were taught it.

That’s the essence of deconstruction: questioning the communicated and delivered faith, just like Jesus did with the Pharisees and Sadducees. He deconstructed their beliefs, and it got him killed. So, if there’s nothing new under the sun, deconstruction has already happened, and Jesus was the preeminent one to do it.

John the Baptist could be argued as another deconstructionist, just like Paul. A Pharisee one minute, then not the next, right? In Acts 9. I personally yearn for dismantling the “legos” and returning to the church’s foundational form. Human involvement inevitably means imperfection.

I was saved in a small church of 47 people, including myself. My parents attended for 15 years, even when the pastor held another job. That’s where I surrendered to Jesus, and their foundation remains strong 28 years later.

This contrasts with “Jell-O churches” that offer no standards and lure people with the promise of constant celebrations. The first hardship hits, and they wonder, “Did God abandon me?” Deconstructing Jell-O churches is crucial because they misrepresent the truth, ignoring verses like “in this world you will have tribulation.”

So, no more Jell-O churches, right? Maybe move to “steak churches,” “potato churches,” something with more substance and context. I welcome seeing this change.

The Basement podcast resonates with many agnostics, atheists, and deconstructionists because we help them grapple with thoughts like, “Maybe the whole Church isn’t wrong, just my experience.” They might have had three bad churches in a row. Just like getting food poisoning at three fast food restaurants could make you suspicious, it’s understandable to abandon churches after negative experiences.

But when in pain, we focus solely on ourselves and project to protect ourselves. Our natural state is to seek pleasure and avoid pain. So humanly, if a church hurt you, the thought becomes “don’t go back, don’t get hurt again.” However, this leads to isolation, loneliness, and cynicism.

Without the fellowship of mature believers, your theology goes unchecked, and correction becomes impossible. You become a “cancer cell,” spreading negativity and becoming “weird and ugly.”

That’s an interesting way to view deconstruction. I think inherently most people see it as a negative thing that will only tear down faith. 

Absolutely! I think the thought is that deconstruction is about tearing down the church, but I’m over here thinking, the church is pretty resilient. It’s lasted 2000 years through pestilence and persecution. Real persecution, not just some people talking about it. People have been murdered and martyred in prison. So, no — I feel like this is going to ultimately be very, very good. I think every 20 years or so, things explode and implode. And when all the dust settles, we get to build something new and something different.

Beginning in the woods and marshes on the edges of plantations across the deep south, enslaved Black Americans secretly gathered in worship, free from the censorship of white slave owners. Anti–literacy laws made Scripture readings rare. Singing was also limited because it risked discovery. As a result, these underground Christian gatherings beneath the stars were devoted to the only thing Black Americans could do–

Pray.

Prayers of the Antebellum

Though little is recorded of these underground prayer meetings, there are records of prayer events in the antebellum era. Like in 1813, when enslaved and free Black worshipers in Wilmington, Delaware defiantly gathered on French Street to publicly pray for freedom. Or in 1857, when Black and White Christians gathered to pray in Charleston, South Carolina, giving rise to a revival where more than 2,000 diverse people joined together daily for 8 weeks to cry out to God for freedom. Over time, prayers for the end of slavery could be heard from the wooden pews of Quaker meeting houses to the canvas tents of the Second Great Awakening, raising national tensions and speeding the country towards a Civil War.

The events of the Civil War cannot be told apart from the prayers of Black history makers who made it all possible.

Prayers of the Civil Rights

Prayer continued to define Black history in the Jim Crow era, because although emancipation had come, integration and equality had not. After being segregated from white congregations, Black Americans built thousands of new churches so they could continue to worship and pray. Inexorably, after every lynching, every riot, and every devious act of prejudice, Black history makers gathered to pray familiar prayers for freedom in their new churches. In doing so, the next generation of Black history makers learned to pray by watching their grandparents cry out to God with the same fervor they had prayed during slavery.

But as much as the Civil War generation prayed in private, the Civil Rights generation prayed so that the whole world could see.

During the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955, Congressman Adam Powell organized a National Deliverance Day of Prayer, bringing together 5,000 people in Manhattan and over 28,000 in Chicago to pray for the efforts in Montgomery. Soon after, Dr. King and the SCLC organized a Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom, and 25,000 people crossed the country to gather in the shadow of the Lincoln Memorial to pray that God would give them the ballot. In 1963, 4,000 Black Christians endured a cold Easter morning to kneel in prayer before armed police on the streets of Birmingham, Alabama.

But for every large-scale prayer event, there were hundreds of smaller, but equally dramatic, public prayers. Like students in McComb, Mississippi who methodically lined up in single file to kneel in prayer on the steps of city hall before being immediately arrested. Or the 600 people who knelt in prayer with Dr. King on the Edmund Pettis bridge outside of Selma, Alabama. Or the 50 people who knelt in the rain to pray outside of the jailhouse that held Dr. King in Bessemer, Alabama.

Like the Civil War, the events of the Civil Rights era cannot be told apart from the prayers of Black history makers that made it all possible.

Prayers of the 21st Century

This month, celebrate Black History by letting history repeat itself within you.

No matter your ethnicity, find a Black congregation in your community and worship with them this month. Either in person, or virtually. But do so with the intent to pray with them and add your voice to the centuries of prayers before you.

If Black history teaches us anything, it’s that tomorrow’s headlines will be written by today’s prayers of Black history makers.

When we open our Bibles, we read words that are thousands of years old with twenty-first century eyes. We read words literally written in stone tablets on tablets made of plastic and metal. With such a gap in time comes a context problem. Basically, when we open our Bibles, we are faced with a problem: We don’t know what that culture and time in history was like, so we often take things the wrong way.

Here are some passages that highlight ways in which we do not always read Scriptures in the proper context.

Philippians 4:13 — “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”

This is a verse where an infinite, all powerful God meets very finite, not-so-powerful human beings. Sure, the possibilities are endless with God. The spiritual gifts, holy callings and life journeys available to the Christ follower can be endless.

The keyword is simply can. Can is not the same word as should or will. One of my Bible professors from college said it best when discussing taking a literal interpretation too far. As a new believer, he tried to test this verse by putting way too much weight onto a barbell to bench press because he figured this verse meant he could really do all things. He ended up with the bar against his throat.

There will always be a Samson, for we follow a God who gives supernatural strength, but just because God can bestow that kind of power does not mean it will always be given. We would be wise to read this verse in the context of the whole paragraph, and to learn to be content in “whatever situation,” as well.

Jeremiah 29:11 – “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you, and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’”

This verse, along with a bunch of others in both the Old and New Testament, can tell us more about our own view of God than it does about what God is actually saying in the Scriptures.

The problem we have is with the collective you. In passages like Jeremiah 29 or the armor of God passage in Ephesians 6, we over-individualize the Scripture to such an extent that we equate it with God speaking directly to every individual Christian. But, in fact, if we look at the context, we find that God is speaking to the whole people of God, Israel and the Church.

The context does not negate that fact that God wants us to put on the armor of God by living virtuous lives of spiritual discipline or that the God who made us has a plan for us. What the context of passages like Jeremiah 29 or Ephesians 6 implore us to do, as the people of God, is to be in this together. For God works in this world primarily through the Holy Spirit and the Body of Christ.

What would our small groups, our local church and the whole Christian faith look like if we had more of the togetherness that the context of these passages demands? If we started to live out the reality found here that God’s plan for our lives will only be fully realized with and through the people of God? That we are more courageous and more protected when we put on the armor of God together as a church instead of sending off a bunch of soldiers on their own?

The more we grow to understand the importance of community to discerning God’s plan for our lives, the more we will begin to find our hope and future.

Luke 4:18–19 “He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives.”

When Jesus took up the scroll of Isaiah and read from it, He was reading it to members of a synagogue in Nazareth, a town that had become an outpost of Roman colonialism.

Under the thumb of Roman imperialism there was the pax Romana, but it came at a cost: The loss of freedom. These people lived in a country where the provincial ruler could order every baby boy under two years of age slaughtered and no one stopped it.

This context is often missed on us who take for granted physical freedom. We are not slaves, yet we live in a world where it still exists. Not knowing the context of this verse, we spiritualize captivity. An old pastor of mine, when I mentioned that I worked at International Justice Mission, questioned why I would spend my time as a Christian working to set free people who were not saved. In responding, I mentioned this verse (one out of many), and his reply was that Jesus came to set people free from only their spiritual captivity—from their sin—and not from any physical captivity.

The context of this passage simply does not allow that kind of response. The context Jesus spoke these words in gets to the whole point of his earthly ministry. He saves us body and soul, not one or the other. He wants to save us from our physical captivity and our spiritual captivity. That’s why he healed people and he forgave their sins.

Whether the first century or the twenty-first, slavery to sin and the need for social justice are both realities that are conquered through the death and resurrection of Christ. We need not choose one or the other, and we need not let our privileges blind us to the deep need for justice that Christ is calling us to meet.

Matthew 5:18 “Blessed are the poor in spirit” and Luke 6:20 “Blessed are you who are poor.”

The Beatitudes are written down in two Gospels—Matthew and Luke—and while basically the same, the difference in the very first line is stark. Matthew’s Jesus says “poor in spirit” while Luke’s Jesus says “poor.” One is spiritual, the other is a physical and economic need. This argument usually descends into which interpretation is right.

Interestingly enough, what Christians think Jesus is really getting at in this passage is shown to be a reflection of their affluence: wealthy Christians spiritualize it while Christians in developing countries see Jesus delivering a hopeful message about tangible economic need.

If we look at the context, we see that both are right. Jesus views us holistically, and we would be best to view our own humanity in the same way. Blessings can be found in the alleviation of both physical and spiritual bankruptcy. We are called to be poor in spirit and rich in Christ. In the same way, Jesus wants those who are poor find their wealth in Christ as well. And at the same time, those who follow Christ, as they pursue the Kingdom of God, are called to find ways to clean up the economy of this world and distribute the gifts of God in such a way that those in poverty find the Kingdom in their midst.

Context will always be an issue, especially for something like the Christian faith, where for thousands of years people from hundreds of different cultures have read the same text. Really, issues with context are guaranteed. Yet, this should be an encouraging point. Troubles over context should bring us closer together.

If you think about it, context demands community. In reading the Scriptures together and discussing together, aided by the diversity of Christian thought on the Scriptures dating back to the early Christian teachers, we can begin to understand the Scriptures and become better disciples in ways we never could on our own.

Christians should always remember that their faith in Christ is never a one-time event. The apostle reminds all of us, “as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him.” Observe: there is the past experience, “received”, that is, when we first believed the good news about Jesus, followed by the perpetual experience, “so walk in him.” Thus if we have truly taken the Lord Jesus in our hearts, we will in our heart of hearts continue to walk with him through this world by faith. More than that, the verb “walk” implies action. In other words, true faith manifests itself in our daily thoughts, decisions, and plans; it is not limited to a secret, unnoticeable devotion that we keep solely to ourselves.

Some Christians have contented themselves to keep their faith to themselves by making their faith a secret affair of the heart alone. The writer of the Hebrews describes them this way: “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near” (Hebrews 10:24-25). Apparently, some Christians in the early church opted to refrain from fellowship with other believers by absenting themselves from habitual gatherings of worship and fellowship. Clearly the apostle does not endorse this, but rather encourages believers to resist this “habit” of dissociating themselves from the body of Christ, their brothers and sisters in the Lord.

Today, things have not changed. Perhaps even more than Christians of previous generations, many that profess the name of Christ do not attend a place of worship and fellowship at all. While some are marked by occasional absences, others do not gather with like-minded believers at all. We often hear them say that they listen to sermons at home through podcasts, TV, or the Internet. They do not feel a need to actually see and converse with other Christians. Would the apostles approve of this? How can they “stir up one another to love and good works” if they fail to even meet with Christians at all?

Christians ought to be a reflection of their master, the Lord Jesus Christ. If we walk in him, then, as we meet with other believers, they will be encouraged and exhorted to do the same; and when we comingle with the world, they also will sense the fragrance of Christ through our words, deportment, and actions. We would be salt and light in the world.

“Walking” also implies advancement. When we walk, we don’t remain indefinitely at the same point from which we began; we move forward; we move on; we make progress in our spiritual life. After all, do we know all there is to know about our wonderful Savior? Do not the writers of the New Testament urge us to cling to Christ, to grow in him and abide with him? Consider the intense prayer the apostle Paul offers up on behalf of the Ephesian church:

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being,so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love,may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:14-19).

As we read this passage, does it sound like the apostle Paul is simply encouraging believers to read their devotionals in the morning before they go on to school or work? Does it not rather implore us to diligently seek the fellowship and knowledge of Christ with all our powers? Why? So that we may be “filled with all the fullness of God!” Surely to take in all the fullness of God requires that we get rid of some of that worldly clutter in our hearts that there may be room for our Lord. “As you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him.” That is, just like when we first rejoiced when we found Christ, as a man finds great treasure, let us keep gazing at that great treasure that never loses its luster, but grows brighter with each passing day.  

Let us not turn to the fading, dying pleasures of this world with the hope that they would bring us satisfaction like our precious Christ. Christ is the one thing necessary.

As the church, we should always strive to be better with our witness and be more effective at reaching our neighbors with the gospel of Jesus Christ. So it’s necessary to point out the faults, inconsistencies and hypocrisies.

However, what about what’s right with the church? Today, you have to be Sherlock Holmes to find much writing on what’s good and right with the church. Thankfully, the Word of God is effective at pointing out what is beautiful about the church.

The church is your forever family. If you have been bought by the blood of Jesus and the Holy Spirit of God lives inside of you, you are the Church. We can all be guilty of mentally removing ourselves from both the universal and local church and throw criticisms toward her, but we can’t forget: We are the Church.

You will always be a part of the church, even when you try to run from the local expression of it. It’s still you. It’s your forever family. When God saved you, He saved you into a family. The church is God’s answer to your loneliness. As the church, you can laugh together and cry together. You can rejoice together and mourn together. The most beautiful word in it all is “together.” Just like with your physical family, you’ll be annoyed, frustrated and angered by your spiritual family. However, don’t run and abandon them. Press in. Enjoy them. Love them. Serve them. After all, you have to spend forever with them.  

“So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God (Ephesians 2:19).” 

Besides the Holy Spirit, there is no greater force in the world. When the Church is unified and mobilized, hell cannot prevail against it. When it comes to responding to disasters, sex-slavery, injustice, orphan care and any other felt need, the church is the greatest responder of them all. Do we always get it right? No. Are we sometimes late to the party?  Yes. However, when the church (fueled by the Holy Spirit) rallies around a cause, nothing can stop her. And the world takes notice. In 2017, when the largest flood in U.S. history hit Texas, the unified church responded quickly and stayed long after the news cameras had left. In fact, they’re still working today, recovering and rebuilding. In fact, faith groups coordinating with FEMA provide the bulk of disaster relief in the U.S.

The church maximizes the effectiveness of your life. Every follower of Jesus has been called to do three things through the Great Commandment and the Great Commission: love God, love people and make disciples.  The majority of our calling to be a follower of Jesus has more to do with others than us. We are called to love God (someone else), we are called to love people (someone else) and we are called to make disciples (someone else).

To do this, we are given spiritual gifts through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. These spiritual gifts are used to strengthen others in the body of Christ. “For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you – that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine (Romans 1:11 – 12).” Ironically, the more you serve, love and pour your life into others, the more joy, hope and peace you tend to have. The church isn’t an organization created to fulfill your preferences, the church is a people created to know the Lord and serve others. It truly maximizes the effectiveness and legacy of your life.

The church has an awesome husband. We can’t forget the church is the bride of Christ, and what we have to say about her is taken very seriously by her groom, Jesus. Imagine if folks constantly and continuously had a lot say about what’s wrong with your spouse, how she has lost touch with reality and dwells in the wrong motives, styles and messages and, if she ever wants to see her young people again, better make massive changes. Basically, she needs to listen attentively and cater to ones who have left her or are at least threatening to. If these were the comments made toward and about your spouse, it would probably be disheartening or even enraging.

Truthfully, there are many things wrong with us. There are changes we need to make and we often miss the mark. However, there are many things right with the church and the best thing about it is its husband, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Jesus doesn’t need us, but by His grace and love, He chooses to use us to do amazing things for His glory.

Find out more about my new book, 9 Common Lies Christians Believe: And Why God’s Truth is Infinitely Better at shanepruitt.com/9commonlies

Nonetheless, many of the things I anticipated most left me with the feeling that they could have been better.

The handful that lived up to expectations?

1. Becoming a Christian
2. Marrying Veronica and having children

 (These were both more enjoyable and more challenging than I ever imagined.)

 Beyond that, the list is pretty short:

1. Visiting Kauai, Hawaii
2. Skydiving

And… well, that’s it.

I’ll bet that a few more experiences would make the list if I ever get a chance to do them. Hiking the Inca trail. Climbing Mt. Everest. Hang-gliding. Flying to the moon.

Experiences like these often get put on a “bucket list.” The term “bucket list” became public parlance in 2007 because of a movie by the same name. Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson play two unlikely and hilarious friends bonding over their terminal diagnoses, and they make a list of all sorts of crazy adventures they want to go on before they “kick the bucket.” They call it their “bucket list.”

More recently, the bucket list has been supplanted by YOLO, a 4-letter acronym you use to justify some rash and crazy decision. You Only Live Once, so live every moment to the fullest! Take advantage of every opportunity. You’ll never get a chance to experience this life again, so make sure you get everything out of it that you can.

I will admit, saying YOLO to myself when considering whether to go sky-diving felt motivating, and making a bucket list of things I’d like to get to before I die was a fun exercise. But does a bucket list even make sense for a Christian?

How could it?

YOLO is not true.

YALF is. (You actually live forever).

Bucket lists are inappropriate for Christians not because good Christians stay at home and settle for a safe, boring life. It’s just that we know that life on earth is not our only chance (or even our best chance) to experience what the world has to offer.

Scripture gives every indication that the “new heavens and new earth” (Rev 21:1, 4) will contain better versions of anything in God’s good creation that we enjoyed down here.

Many people wrongly think of heaven as some ethereal life of leisure where saints sit around in diapers on colorless clouds with nerf bows-and-arrows, strumming their harps and sipping non-alcoholic piña coladas. We gather at least twice daily for choir practice, but that’s our only real activity.

The Bible describes heaven much differently. Though it leaves a lot unsaid, what it does say indicates that heaven is a reality that is more than, not less than, anything we experience on earth.

Scholars say “new heavens and new earth” is better read “renewed heavens and earth.” In other words, the new earth is not a replacement of the old, but a renewed and restored version of it, freed from the curse of sin, supercharged with the glory of God. As New Testament scholar N. T. Wright puts it, “God’s plan is not to abandon this world, the world which he said was ‘very good.’ Rather, he intends to remake it. And when he does he will raise all his people to new bodily life to live in it. That is the promise of the Christian gospel.”

That all the mountains, rivers, oceans, animals, culture, arts, music, architecture, solar systems and even extreme sports that I never got to experience here are waiting for me there, in glorified form.

Furthermore, the Apostle John goes on to say that God will “… bring into heaven the glory and honor of the nations” (Rev 21:26). That means the best of culture—the best of Italian food, the best of Arabian and Colonial architecture, the best art, Mardi Gras (without the debauchery), Disneyworld (without the lines), the Jersey Shore (without, you know, the Jersey).

(By the way—I can’t prove this, but I’m pretty sure that in heaven all the foods that are bad for you here are good for you there, and vice versa. There, ice cream and chocolate are good for the waistline, while cauliflower makes you gain weight. Like I said, I can’t prove that, but these things are spiritually discerned. Let the wise reader understand.)

We don’t know all that we’ll be capable of physically in the resurrection, but Jesus’ resurrection is supposed to give us some hints. And, in his resurrected body, Jesus could apparently fly and walk through walls.

I’ve always wanted to climb Mt. Everest. My wife tells me it’s off the table until my kids at least graduate college. And by that time, I may not be physically able, and so I may never get the chance. But that’s okay, because in heaven, I’m confident I’ll get to climb the renewed one, which will be a lot better anyway. And when I get to the top, I’ll fly over to the heavenly Tuscany for dinner.

In cryptic-yet-enticing terms, Paul tells us.

What no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no human heart has conceived—God has prepared these things for those who love him (1 Corinthians 2:9).

In plain speak, that means that if you can think it, it’s not awesome enough. That’s pretty fantastic, because I can think of some pretty cool things. Heaven likely will have all of them, plus a bunch of other stuff I can’t even conceive of yet.

And, of course, this is not even to mention the joy of doing all these things under the watchful and approving eye of an eternally good Heavenly Father.

C.S. Lewis depicts that breathtaking moment when believers are translated from this corrupted world to the renewed and restored one with Aslan saying to his children, “Come further up, come further in!”

And they respond: “I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now. The reason why we loved the old Narnia is that it sometimes looked a little like this.”

Lewis concludes:

All their life in this world and all their adventures had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before. 

So, remind me—why do I need a bucket list?

There’s not anything I’ll miss out on down here that I won’t be able to make up in spades up there.

Except.

There is one thing we can’t do there that we can do here.

Tell people about Jesus.

So, if you want to put something on a bucket list, make it that.

We only have this incredibly short span of our lives to tell our friends, family, and the generation of souls alive on earth right now about Jesus. As the late Keith Green (hippie-turned-Christian-songwriter) used to say, “This generation of Christians is responsible for this generation of souls, all over the world.” We are their only chance to hear.

Those seem to be familiar words in church around this time of year and just about every time of year when resolutions are made, holidays approach, semesters start or seasons change.

I’ll never forget that time a number of years ago when that announcement was made from the pulpit at the end of a service, and I, a single twentysomething, noticed my own visceral reaction: I cringed. I didn’t mean to do so, but hearing those words hit me. Hard. The faces of my two housemates who didn’t go to church and had never placed their faith in Jesus flooded through my brain, and a wave of guilt cascaded over me. Crash.

I realized I really didn’t want to invite them to church.

And yes, I just happened to work there.

But why? Why the cringe, guilt and dismissal? Why do many of us feel that way now if Jesus’ first followers couldn’t wait to bring their brothers, co-workers, and friends to “come and see” what Jesus and the first century church was up to then? Why do many of us feel funny inviting anybody at all to “come and see?”

Some possible ideas and answers come to mind as I dig deep into my own experiences and conversations I’ve had with those in the churches I’ve served:

“My Worlds Would Collide.”

Compartmentalization is a lot cleaner, and inviting friends from work, a team or your apartment complex has the potential to blur everything and bleed religion into daily life. The folks who saw you in the office Thursday or saw what you were doing on Friday night might wonder why you act and talk totally different on Sunday morning.

In turn, your church friends might judge you for hanging out with this crowd. It’s easier, cleaner, and a lot more accepted if you keep your religious stuff in its own box and not let it interfere with the rest of your life or the other people in your life.

The problem with this assumption is that, actually, that’s what a relationship with God is all about: becoming more like Jesus in all things and places, with all people in life. After all, didn’t Jesus want us to break the box of religion so that it would bleed into all aspects of life?

“I Don’t Have All the Answers.”

What if you invite someone to church and they ask you about why you believe certain stuff and you have no clue? You might look stupid or, even worse, you might make your church look stupid.

But then again, the limits of your own knowledge could actually provide an open door, an inviting element for someone to see. It just might let them know that you, too, wrestle with questions about the Bible, why bad things happen, and the nature of free will, but not fully understanding it all doesn’t prevent you from following Jesus anyway.

“It Could Risk Our Relationship.”

You’re afraid that inviting a friend to church might communicate you think she’s messed up or that you don’t respect her beliefs as-is. Maybe your friend even said before that he’s a Christian but doesn’t go to church. If you invite him and he declines, that could make your relationship kind of weird.

That’s a fair concern, so it’s important that church not become the fulcrum of your friendship. Make it clear that your invitation is just that: an invitation. And who knows? Maybe the only thing preventing your friend from going is that she doesn’t want to go by herself. What if your relationship could have the possibility of going deeper than movies and complaining about work?

“It’s Too Foreign to Them.”

You know that the hymns and praise songs you sing about lamb’s blood and the Christianese you use are like a foreign language to your non-church-going friends. They don’t understand what Advent or Lent is, the robe the pastor wears reminds them of The Exorcist, and the prayers everyone knows remind them they are outsiders.

This is a valid concern, and it’s largely our fault for incorporating so many strange elements into our church communities. We need to help our churches understand the importance of teaching the reasons why we do what we do and say what we say. We need to remind the leadership of how things look and feel to new people and those outside the faith and what could be done to ease their discomfort or let them know what to expect. It might mean a drastic overhaul or maybe even starting a new or different gathering that you’d actually want to invite people to be a part of.

“It’s Not Relevant to Them.”

You know that sleeping in on a Sunday morning or going home to watch TV after a long day at work is more appealing to your friends than waking up for worship or joining a weeknight Bible study. When you’ve mentioned participating in church events, they show no interest—and no need. You know there are numerous times that you yourself have come home from church wondering what was even preached.

Where a church service’s easy application ends is where your stories begins, and that’s why it’s so important to not let a church do the heavy lifting in your friendships. Tell your story. Why is Christ important to you and your life? No matter how important it is to bring your friends to your church, it’s more important to bring church to your friends.

You’re not going to change someone’s attitude overnight—that’s God’s job—but you can show evidence of relevance in your relationship with God and with other people. Sometimes someone who finds relevance in something other than Jesus—community, encouragement, hope, serving others—will be the doorway that leads to Jesus.

“They Wouldn’t Belong.”

Because of their history, how they look, or where they’re from, people would stare at them. There’s a chance that if you’re involved in church ministry, you might be busy helping lead something and a friend might have to sit by himself. Alone. And you know that either nobody will talk to him or he’ll be drowned with questions and conversation from well-meaning people who don’t see too many young people.

We need to help our congregations become more hospitable, especially to young adults. Recruit some friends in the church to be intentionally looking out for and not overdoing the hellos with newcomers. Some churches need to be reminded of why they exist—and it’s not for the benefit of those already inside the club.

“They’re working.”

It’s estimated that 30 percent of the U.S. population works on Sunday, which is the day that over 90 percent of worship services are held. That’s even higher for young adults in some areas where service jobs and campuses abound. Plus, many people work late Saturday night and getting up first thing in the morning to gather with people they don’t know to worship a God they aren’t sure of just doesn’t make sense.

We need to reach our friends where they are—a gathering at a different time and/or place that is accessible to those working. What if instead of investing our invitations to church in 11 o’clock in the sanctuary on Sunday, we planned to go and be a church for people where they are, when they are—at the gym, coffee shop, playground, trail, bar, campus, etc.?

Admittedly, some of these gut-honest answers hit us in the heart, while others clash with the culture of our churches. When we cringe at the thought of inviting a friend to join us, the best idea is to stop dismissing and start adjusting—our attitude, our motivation, our presentation and our communication.

After all, if Jesus thought inviting others to follow Him was a good idea, it probably still is.

Joining founder and pastor Louie Giglio on stage this year are guest speakers Christine Caine, Ben Stuart, Levi Lusko, Jonathan Pokluda and Earl McClellan. This year’s musical artists include Crowder, Sean Curran, Kari Jobes Carnes, Cody Carnes, Brooke Ligertwood, KB, Phil Wickham and Brandon Lake.

Giglio launched the Passion Conference in 1995 with one goal in mind: to encourage college students and young leaders from around the world in their faith. The conference has consistently sold out every year, but that doesn’t mean you have to miss it. Viewers can sign-up here to watch the free livestream, which at 7 p.m. ET tonight.

The “nones” — people who reply “nothing in particular” or “none” when asked for their religious affiliation — are a hot topic in Christian circles. They’re growing rapidly, at the same time a number of mainstream Christian denominations dwindle. As much as 40% of Gen Z falls into this demographic, and millennials aren’t far behind.

They’re an interesting and diverse group. To be sure, we should certainly be concerned that this many people — particularly young, talented people — feel so deeply alienated from the church. We should also be curious as to why.

In my experience, religious “nones” have conflated the institutional Church with the hope and love of the real Jesus. Their openness to God is connected to our capacity to live like Jesus.

But it’s important to keep in mind that “living like Jesus” isn’t restricted to our time at church. It’s much more radical, and it’s much more personal: It means modeling God’s overflowing love for all who encounter us, in all aspects of our lives. It means allowing His grace and His truth to shine through every part of our person. 

It also means our answer to the “nones” must be sincere friendship and personal excellence — however that might look for us in our current walk of life, or for them in theirs. The “problem” of religious nones is actually an opportunity for Christians to become more like the people Jesus is leading us to be. 

We are called to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth, with our lives spent simply and humbly demonstrating the fruits of our faith. Let our example as family members, leaders, coworkers, recreational sports players and hobbyists draw people to us. Let our sincere and humble friendship edify those who seek it. 

After all, God did not come to call the righteous. He came to heal those wounded and blinded by sin. 

One of our callings as Christ’s hands and feet is to dine with “tax collectors and sinners,” as Jesus did. “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

God will work through us, our jobs, our pastimes, our music preferences and our personal histories to reach those He calls to Him, “none” or not. God will use our unique talents, hardships and loves for His ends and for the good of those who seek Him.

After all, I didn’t start out wanting to work in ministry. I was a “none” for a long time. I didn’t even want to be a Christian, despite well-intended evangelizers’ best efforts. I went to a youth group in 1979 just to help a buddy win $20. I didn’t go back with that friend, and never intended to.

But later in my life, I saw a man land a series of incredible slam dunks at a university intramural league — and I came with him to a Bible study. That Bible study, and the friendship that came out of it, began to change my life. 

I saw the good he was doing with his life, and became curious about it. I’ve walked the path I know the “nones” can walk. That’s why they don’t worry me. Instead, I focus on my own life, my own church and my own community. 

Early in my ministry journey, I realized I needed to help cultivate a church culture that would’ve reached me. A lot of Christians take things like old hymns or traditional ways of doing things for granted — but to someone who’s been raised outside the church, or has lived outside the church for a long time, “old” is often alienating. 

I brought a friend from spin class to church with me one day, and he asked me, “Why do you sing all these old songs?” 

To be frank, I hadn’t thought about it until then. 

But at the Bay Area Christian Church I serve in Palo Alto, we’ve completely revamped our music program. We led a songwriting competition, and offered prizes to the writers who won.  Much of the music we use now is written by churchgoers — and overwhelmingly, young churchgoers. It’s church culture that’s responsive to their perspective. That’s important, especially if we want to reach religious “nones.” 

When we worry about “nones,” we should be concerned with whether or not we are living the sorts of lives that will make them curious about Jesus. We should strive for excellence, compassion, empathy and understanding.

We should seek to become people worth trusting, worth talking to and worth leaning on. We should get good at our jobs, good at doing the things we love, good at knowing people. And thankfully, church is — or at least can be — a great resource for improving all of these things. 

The church is not a refuge from the world, but a refuge for it. It is a place where those following Christ and those seeking Him can share His joy. It is a place where we can encourage each other to reach freedom in His love and excellence in our lives. But we can only be a refuge for the world if we are willing to sacrifice and serve, putting aside our personal agendas for the greater good of changing lives and the world.

This is just a glimpse of what the Church can be: Dynamic, diverse, loving, humble and connected. And such community will bear rich rewards. 

Living like Jesus in this way — for each other and with each other, offering freely and humbly from the abundance His love provides each of us — will forever change those involved. And it will attract those who’ve not yet joined. 

The “nones” will know us by our fruits, even if they know us as friends long before they ever know us as fellow Christians. Take advantage of the holiday season as a pretext for service: Give of your time, your talents, your experience and your friendship, without agenda, to those who need it. 

You never know whose interest you might pique, or why God uses you to do it. But He will.  

Russ Ewell is executive minister of the Bay Area Christian Church. A minister for more than 40 years, Russ’s teaching is rooted in providing hope for those turned off by tradition, and infused with vision for building the transformative church for which the 21st century public hungers.

It wasn’t always this way. As recently as 2016, just 39 percent of Gen Z said they were Nones, while 41 percent said they were Catholic or Protestant. But it’s been a complicated few years, and the exodus from organized religion that began with Millennials has accelerated with Gen Z.

Now, as Gen Z enters the workforce, those who are still Christian see their faith, the Church and the world around them in a very different way than previous generations did. They have a unique perspective, shaped by economic recession, digital relationships and political roller coasters. In the past, the American Church has been slow to adapt to the changing values of upcoming generations, and doing so has been costly. And now, facing the first generation in memory in which Christians are a minority, the Church faces a challenge. If the institution digs in its heels and refuses to evolve, the decline will continue to accelerate. But if it allows the upcoming generation of Gen Z Christians to take the lead in reaching a new generation, its best days may well be yet to come. 

What Makes Gen Z Different

Gen Z is the most diverse generation in history, racially, sexually and theologically. Because of this, they take things like diversity and tolerance as a given. Millennials may be upset by a lack of representation, but Gen Z is more likely to be wholly mystified by it. The world as they know it is naturally full of people of different races, sexual orientations, immigration status, genders and religious beliefs. They’re connected to these people online, and they expect to see that reflected IRL. 

They’re also a deeply independent generation, who see financial security as an important life goal in a way millennials did not. You get the sense that they saw millennials burn themselves out on passion careers, but Gen Z — forged in the fires of economic uncertainty — wants a stable job that will give them the means to provide for themselves and enough left over to invest in causes they believe in. 

“Their goal is not simply economic security,” said Dr. James Emery White, author of Meet Generation Z. “They are marked by a strong sense of wanting to make a difference and thinking that they can. They want to be social entrepreneurs.” According to Barna Research, 70 percent of Gen Z want to orient their lives towards making a difference in the world. 

And they expect the same from institutions they’re a part of and the brands they follow. In the past, for-profit companies and institutions like churches could skate by without taking a stand on social issues, but two out of three members of Gen Z expect companies to have a position on social issues and 72 percent say brands need to care about things like the environment, humanitarian causes and social issues. 

Why the Church Is Losing Them 

This is where the Church is running into trouble with Gen Z. Nine out of 10 Americans say the American Church is “too judgmental.” Nearly as many say it’s hypocritical. Seventy percent of Americans say the Church is “insensitive to others” and a third say the American Church is characterized by “moral failures in leadership.” 

This is a serious problem for the Church in general, but it’s a particular problem for Gen Z, who will simply refuse to align with institutions that don’t share their values. In the past, the Church could count on an assumed measure of authority. Many church leaders believed that whatever people’s misgivings about religion, churches were still broadly viewed by the American public as the de facto place to turn to with spiritual problems. But with Gen Z, that’s no longer the case. According to Springtide Research Institute, Gen Z gives the Church a 4.9 out of 10 on a level of trust. The Church doesn’t have much cache with this generation because there is neither a sense of trust nor is there a perception that the Church shares their values. 

That’s why Gen Z is taking their passion for making the world a better place elsewhere, to places where they feel a genuine sense of belonging. In 2019, a UK study found that Gen Z was more likely to volunteer than any other generation. They’re distrustful of privatization and think the government should be doing more than wealthy individuals or corporations when it comes to solving problems. That means they’re politically active, demonstrating in the streets for causes they care about and voting in droves. 

In other words, they don’t really see the Church as being a part of the justice movement, so they’re taking matters into their own hands. 

This may sound bleak, but the facts speak for themselves. And once the Church can accept the context, it can better understand what Gen Z has to offer, and how it can see a new generation not as an obstacle, but a gift. 

How the Future Can Be Different

So how can they be convinced to stay? For Levi Lusko, author and pastor of Fresh Life Church, a multi-site church with locations across the country, the question of how to retain younger generations is something he’s taking very seriously. “I think if we’re not asking that question, church leaders, we’re crazy,” he says.

For Lusko, a big key is maintaining a presence in the transitional periods of life: from high school to college, from college to graduation. He says this is when people tend to shed their associations with church, and he’s trying to figure out how to maintain a relational presence in their lives. As well he should.

In 2018, a Cigna study found that Gen Z is easily the loneliest generation of Americans. 46 percent of Americans feel lonely some of the time, but that number climbs up to 69 percent with Gen Z. Moreover, 68 percent of Gen Z feel like nobody knows them well. 

That lack of connection can’t be met by a brand, a corporation or even an institution. But it can be met by people who reach out to them with empathy, love and understanding. If the Church starts empowering the members of Gen Z in its own pews to build relationships with their peers, they’ll not only be building relationships with America’s loneliest generation, they’ll be proving that American Christians are truly interested in the people outside of their buildings on Sunday mornings. 

Lusko has also started stressing something else in trying to equip the next generation for ministry, and just because it’s a little old fashioned doesn’t mean it’s not effective: it’s the Bible. He knows that in his life, the verses that he memorized and internalized as a very young kid in church have been there for him when not much else about the world made sense. He says they’re “coming up in an age where their lives are online and that we have the truth of God’s word to combat the oftentimes treacherous way we feel.”

He’s aware, of course, that everyone has the Bible a few swipes away on their phone now, but Lusko feels the Church can be a place where people can connect to something more real and tangible than the website. He encourages people who work with younger generations to buck the trend and use actual Bibles. “It’s impossible [to read the Bible on a phone] with the notifications coming through,” he says. In other words, there are some times where instead of leaning into technology, the Church can see itself as a haven from it — a place for members of Gen Z to escape the constant notifications and intangible data and instead engage with something real.

But doing this will involve seeing Gen Z as much more than just the future of the Church. Current leaders must see Gen Z as the present of the Church — a generation with real value and wisdom to bring to the Church today, and not just in the future. Their values of diversity, boldness and inclusion are more than just quirks to tolerate — they’re markers of the way the world is changing, and how the Church can be equipped to meet it. 

If the Church truly wants to reverse its trend of decline, the answer lies not in coddling Gen Z nor in inviting them to join. It lies in going to where they are and taking part in the work they’re already doing. The real secret for the Church will be learning that their mission is not simply to shape Gen Z, but also to be shaped by them. That takes a level of humility that might involve some growing pains but, hey, at least there will be growing. 

My first thought whenever I hear this argument is, “Who gave the Church this job?” Obviously the implied answer is God. After all, Jesus does talk a lot about His followers’ responsibility for taking care of the downtrodden, poor and oppressed. If you read His parable about the sheep and the goats, it’s easy to walk away with the impression that eternal life rests entirely upon whether or not a person cares for the poor. It’s pretty obvious that Jesus intends for the Church to be in the business of serving “the least of these.”

But does that mean that He’s delegated that responsibility away from non-faith communities and governments? That seems a little silly. To tell His followers to be mindful of a particular group doesn’t necessarily preclude the rest of humanity’s responsibility to each other. If I tell my kids to pick up their trash, I’m not sending a message to every other parent on my block that their kids can litter because my kids will pick it up.

Christ’s major point is that He cares about what happens to the those on society’s bottom rung. It would be irresponsible for Christians to not encourage everyone to do all that they can to protect them.

What happened to the Christian nation?

In America, there’s a lot of talk about being a “Christian nation.” Typically the people who are the most concerned with viewing the nation as Christian are the same people who don’t believe it’s the government’s job to take care of the poor. And while I don’t believe that a nation can even be Christian, I’m often left scratching my head at what the words “Christian nation” mean to these people.

When I tell them that the word “Christian” isn’t an adjective that you can simply tack on to random nouns, they tell me that “Christian nation” means that the country was founded on Christian principles and its laws were based on Christian values. But if that’s the case, then taking care of the poor would be one the country’s primary objectives.

Think about it. When God was running a theocracy out in the desert, welfare was baked into His laws:

Tithes were collected and this was a provision for the Levites, as well as immigrants, widows and orphans.

Farmers were not to pick their fields clean so the poor could come through and glean.

Every seven years, creditors had to release their neighbor’s debt.

Every 50 years all of the wealth that the rich had amassed was redistributed to its original owners.

Reading the Pentateuch gives you a real understanding of how particular God was about taking care of the poor.

It seems irrational to me to say that a country is based on Christian values and then argue that spending tax dollars on the helping the poor is “wealth redistribution” or robbery through taxation. I mean, taking what the rich have accumulated and giving back to the original owners every 50 years seems like an actual example of wealth redistribution—and it was sanctioned by God.

I fear that too often Christian values are simply as laws that require “Christian” morals in others, but are expected to keep themselves away from my belongings.

Christians do have a responsibility to the poor.

There’s no question that the Church has a responsibility to the poor. If Christians gave even 10 percent of what they earned to the Church—and it wasn’t being squandered on nonsense—we could actually make an enormous impact. But can the Church afford to take care of all the poor’s needs?

The U.S. Census Bureau reported that the median household income in 2019 was $68,703. Now if the population in 2019 was 328.2 million and 65 percent claim to be Christian, that means there are 213,330,000 Christians in the U.S. Now, let’s adjust that for the average family size of around 2.6 people. That leaves us with about 82,050,000 Christian households.

If they all gave 10 percent of their $68,703 income, that would come to about $563 billion dollars. That’s a lot, right? Except the government spends upwards of $668 billion a year on 126 different welfare programs—and that doesn’t meet all the country’s need.

We’re not even close, and that’s not counting the fact that:

The number of committed Christ followers is dramatically smaller than the number of people claiming to be Christians.

On average Christians only give 5 percent of their income to the Church.

We haven’t factored in the finances required to keep church doors open, lights on and staff paid (not to mention the extravagant spending of a lot of American churches).

Christians are called to feel a sense of responsibility for the poor, but they’re not called to live in a fantasy world. The Church simply can’t take care of all of society’s needs, so part of caring for the poor requires us to be the conscience of the state. If we want to live in a “Christian nation” we’d spend more time advocating for charitable spending and combat the percentage of our national income that goes to trusting in horses and chariots (or in our case, drones and bombs).

Put your money where your mouth is.

When push comes to shove, this discussion frustrates me because I know how little the average Christian gives. As I said earlier, on average, people give about 4 percent of their income to the Church. But let’s be honest—that average is only that high because a lot of benevolent Christians are giving so much more.

When I’m having a discussion with a Christian who’s telling me that it’s the Church’s job to take care of the poor and not the government, I’m always wondering how much they give.

There’s no way for me to know the truth, but if a Christian truly believes it’s the Church’s job to care for the poor, I would hope that they’re giving sacrificially.

I mean, if you’re a Christian who wants to argue with me that poverty is the sole responsibility of the Church, you’d better be giving your fair share. Otherwise, this is really an argument about protecting your hoard and not really about God’s concern.

This article was adapted from jaysondbradley.com. Used with permission.

Bobbie and I are starting a weekly online ministry and church in 2024. I’m excited about building this new community.

— Brian Houston (@BrianCHouston) November 29, 2023

The announcement comes less than two years after Houston resigned from his position as Hillsong global pastor after being placed on a disciplinary sabbatical due to issues of substance abuse and inappropriate conduct involving women. He also was facing trial for allegedly hiding child sex offenses that were perpetrated by his father Frank Houston. In August, Brian was acquitted of the charges.

Since leaving Hillsong, Houston has continued to speak at churches around the world, primarily in the U.S. He also shared on social media that he is working on a “very authentic and transparent” autobiography.

Writing a book is hard work. I’m writing my very authentic and transparent auto-biography. I hope it illuminates people and blesses people.

— Brian Houston (@BrianCHouston) November 28, 2023

This isn’t exactly news, but it is a statistical fact:

• Tithers make up only 10 to 25 percent of a normal congregation.
• Only 5 percent of the U.S. tithes, with 80 percent of Americans only giving 2 percent of their income.
• Christians are only giving at 2.5 percent per capita, while during the Great Depression they gave at a 3.3 percent rate.

Numbers like that can invoke a lot of guilt, which isn’t really the point. The larger point is what would happen if believers were to increase their giving to a minimum of, let’s say, 10 percent. There would be an additional $165 billion for churches to use and distribute. The global impact would be phenomenal.

Here’s just a few things the Church could do with the kind of money:

• $25 billion could relieve global hunger, starvation and deaths from preventable diseases in five years.
• $12 billion could eliminate illiteracy in five years.
• $15 billion could solve the world’s water and sanitation issues, specifically at places in the world where 1 billion people live on less than $1 per day.
• $1 billion could fully fund all overseas mission work.
• $100 – $110 billion would still be left over for additional ministry expansion.

Those are some amazing numbers. So why don’t we give?

The real problem when it comes to our giving is not about money. Not really. Actually, the Bible says it’s about our eyes. Rather, it’s what Jesus called “the evil eye.” He explains it in Matthew 6:21-23:

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!”

The term “evil eye” is a Jewish term. Whereas a “good eye” in Judaism refers to good will, benevolence and being genuinely happy when others prosper—the evil eye is quite the opposite. The person with an “evil eye” feels distressed when others prosper, rejoices when others suffer, loves their money and would do nothing in the way of charity. So when Jesus spoke about the eye, He was speaking to a largely Jewish audience who knew what He was talking about. They knew a “good eye” was a generous person and an “evil eye” was a stingy, sour Scrooge.

The truth is: Giving is a heart issue, not a money issue. When Paul spoke about the legendary giving of the Macedonian church he urged the Corinthian church to prove their love like the Macedonians proved theirs:

“But since you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in the love we have kindled in you—see that you also excel in this grace of giving. I am not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others.” (2 Corinthians 8:7-8)

Then he took it a step further and talked about the highest standard in love and giving:

“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.” (2 Corinthians 8:9)

God has always had a special place for radical and “cheerful givers. (2 Corinthians 9:7)

So, what does cheerful giving actually look like? Here are a few suggestions. But I will warn you—this isn’t for those satisfied with ordinary or normal:

1. Start Tithing: Based on the statistics, the Church could really do some wonderful things if we just started tithing consistently. But keep in mind: when you start tithing know there is a difference between the law of tithing and the grace to tithe. The full power of tithing is found in grace and not in fear—it’s something we get to do rather than something we have to do.
2. Teach Tithing: This is a very delicate subject and has the power to split churches down the middle. This is why people water it down so much or resort to threats. But tithing is a subject that, with some tact and wisdom, can actually make for a great sermon.
3. Take Tithing to the Next Level: Tithing is just the foundation. Giving that really changes the world is that which is over and above what’s required.

This articles has been updated from an earlier version posted in 2013.

But that’s the thing about thankfulness. It can look a lot like being selfish, demanding to have it our way despite the clear risks to vulnerable populations. But the true mark of genuine gratitude will always be generosity — a willingness to give and, yes, even sacrifice for others.

It is better to give than it is to receive. Hearing this idiom might evoke images of that quote-a-day calendar HR was passing around last year to keep the sales team motivated. You know, the one with images of a crew team rowing off into the sunset coupled with phrases like, “Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today” or “TEAM: Together Everyone Accomplishes More.”

We can become so familiar with certain expressions that we tend not to believe them. You might imagine your mother chasing you around the house, chastising you, “Don’t run with those scissors, you’ll put your eye out!”—which, apart from extraordinary circumstances, almost certainly never happens, or wise Ben Franklin, kite in hand, stroking his chin and sagely reminding us that a stitch in time saves nine.

Such a concept about giving runs counter to our cultural understanding of what will make us happy. From the time we begin watching cartoons, and subsequently having meltdowns in the cereal aisle, we are raised to be consumers. Good consumers know that the answer, regardless of the question, is more stuff. The problem is, every time we get that next thing, we end up wanting more.

Call it the iPhone dilemma. By the time you have purchased your shiny new iPhone and skipped out the door, extended warranty in hand, Apple has rendered it obsolete by releasing the next model. The once brilliant stroke of technology and innovation in your hand has become a stone age Behemoth and an eyesore. The search for more never ends.

Which brings us back to giving being better, somehow, than receiving. This concept expresses a deep Scriptural truth. And, unlike the saying, “God helps those who help themselves,” this can actually be found in the Bible.

At the core of God’s heart is generosity. He is unrivaled in humility, servanthood and sacrifice. The ultimate proof of God’s love is not that our hearts flutter whenever He is around or in the extravagant gifts He gives us, but in the cross of Christ. Part of why the Apostle Paul tells us in Acts 20:35, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” is because this reflects God’s heart of sacrifice and giving.

When we value giving over receiving, serving over being served, we reflect God’s heart and character. In some mysterious way we are given the amazing privilege of participating in His work here on earth. For the sainted few, generosity is a natural and exuberant response to God’s gracious initiative. Call it the overflow principle, as we find it in 2 Corinthians 1:3-5, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.”

At our best and brightest, our hearts cannot contain the vast love, grace and mercy of the infinite One who draws near with such intimacy.

Often, though, we will find our self-focused programming deeply embedded and difficult to overcome. Even in our church life, we are inclined to think of what we gain as opposed to what we can give. It is easy to slip into a personal cost/benefit analysis of our church community: What was my laugh-to-yawn ratio during the sermon? Did the worship band’s lo-fi, indie take on “The Old Rugged Cross” meet my needs? Should I stick with the Kripsy Kreme during fellowship hour or the Dunkin’ Donuts down the street?

Growing to reflect God’s generosity begins, as with most things of this nature, at the heart level. We can force ourselves to sponsor children and buy fair-trade coffee, but unless this comes from an authentic desire to do so, the endeavor will eventually fail, and we will be tempted to swear off this commitment/failure cycle forever.

Generosity, like worship, springs forth from gratitude. When we allow Scripture to dwell richly within us, thanksgiving is a natural response. And again, giving is like worship in that we do it not so much because God needs it, but because we do. For example, God does not need our money, but maybe we need to loosen our grip on it.

Of course, generosity goes far beyond the bounds of finances. Even more valuable is how we invest our time in building relationships. We could try to spend more time listening to our friends than we do talking (which, incidentally, can also be a very effective way to pray). We can try serving others anonymously, without expecting recognition in return for our kindness. We can give the benefit of the doubt, even to that guy who just cut us off on the freeway. No matter where we begin, may we find our joy, even through difficulty, living in and reflecting the generosity of our God.

So this year, let’s show how thankful we really are by giving to one another. Sacrificing what we want so that others can be safe. Check in on your neighbors. Call your loved ones (especially the older ones). Think about people in your life who could use a little extra help this year and offer to drop off a Thanksgiving side if anyone needs it. It’ll be a strange Thanksgiving Day, no question, but living out a spirit of gratitude is as important as ever.

“You know, we all dress nice when we go to church — that’s our own personal thing,” she said. “This is a sacred space. And I feel like other outlets and stuff just didn’t really align with what I’m looking for, you know? I feel like God spit me out on the doorsteps of the most perfect church for me.”

For many Christians, it was shocking to hear that anyone under the age 60 would seek out a traditional Church. Over the last several years, there was a movement of sorts among young Christians who viewed “traditional” Christianity as backward, out-of-touch, irrelevant and ineffective sub-cultures.

Of course, this isn’t true of all young adult Christians. A growing number, including Von D herself, are beginning to re-evaluate the role of tradition in the Christian life—and that’s a very good thing.

‘Traditional’ Isn’t an Expletive

For many, the word “traditional” is something you don’t say if you’re discussing how to organize a worship service, put together a sermon series or reach the lost. Many people in the modern church think traditional methods are irrelevant methods. We’ve gotten to the point in modern Christian practice where the word “traditional” has become almost an expletive.

In many ways, it comes from a hatred toward legalism and moralism that we’ve associated with our church experiences. I grew up in a fundamentalist church. Until I arrived at seminary, that experience defined my perspectives toward anything “traditional.”

The particular church I grew up in was morally overbearing, communicatively dry and spiritually confusing. Based on that experience, I didn’t believe God was a Father as much as a disciplinarian. From that point forward, I began to superimpose my distaste for legalism and moralism onto my understanding of tradition. “Traditional Christianity” became a functional synonym for “legalistic Christianity.”

That all changed when I researched the fundamentalist movement of 20th century America, the same tradition that gave birth to the church I grew up in. I discovered that the fundamentalist movement, though it was greatly flawed, held as true and important many of the same truths I hold true and important—things like the inerrancy of God’s Word and the importance of combatting cultural lies that can misrepresent and distort the Christian faith.

I then began to see my view of tradition as a problem.

Tradition isn’t just an interesting piece of history that Christians can learn from, it can be a building block in a mature expression of faith in Christ. Tradition, regardless of which tradition you associate with, offers important practices and theology to help grow our understanding of truth, accountability and the dynamic beauty of the coming Kingdom of God.

As I’ve grown in my understanding, I’ve found several reasons to embrace, not reject, tradition.

Tradition Helps Us Understand the Historical Trajectory of Truth

One of the more important roles tradition plays in the life of the Christian is in giving us a fuller understanding of exactly where our beliefs come from.

If we’re honest, we like to believe that our ideas of truth and doctrine are born from an objective reading of Scripture.

While the idea of this notion is pleasant, it’s not entirely accurate. In so many respects, the things we value theologically, spiritually and emotionally come to us from one tradition or another. Tradition offers us the beautiful practice of passing things down. We would not have many of the doctrines, creeds and core truths we hold to be foundational if it weren’t for tradition. This doesn’t mean we automatically accept everything we’re handed, but it gives us a basis of understanding to start from and dig into.

Tradition Creates Accountability in our Theological Conversations

To reject tradition as an unimportant part of Christian life is to place ourselves outside of accountability. And thinking we can completely disassociate ourselves from any expression of a particular tradition is not only naive, but arrogant.

It says we’re not concerned with entering a conversation (with the past) about our beliefs. We would rather lock ourselves up in our theological fortresses and refuse to lower the drawbridge. Rejecting tradition is sometimes an attempt to place ourselves outside of critique.

Tradition Discloses the Dynamism of God’s Kingdom

The Kingdom of God is variegated, dynamic, colorful and transcendent. There will be a myriad of traditions represented in the new heaves and new earth, and individualistic Christianity will fall away.

If we embrace the role of tradition in our lives, we are embracing the beauty of community. People from all creeds, colors and traditions have a seat at the table, and the narrow, monochromatic scope of anti-traditionalism is enveloped in the colorful, variegated breadth of true fellowship.

We All Belong to a Tradition

We would do well to understand that we all operate out of a tradition. We’re fooled if we think we can avoid it. The question becomes, then, will we belong to a tradition that opens itself up to the beauty of interaction with others, or will we remain closed off in an effort to be more in-touch or effective?

The most effective means of Gospel ministry come when we are humble enough to admit that we need the help of those from other Christian traditions, and we need to understand where we’ve come from to understand where we’re going. We need the Church more than we think.

Editor’s note: A version of this article appeared in 2015. 

Von D shared that the church she attends now is different than other ones she’d seen before, but that’s what drew her in.

“You know, we all dress nice when we go to church — that’s our own personal thing,” she said. “This is a sacred space. And I feel like other outlets and stuff just didn’t really align with what I’m looking for, you know? I feel like God spit me out on the doorsteps of the most perfect church for me.”

Von D also shared her initial experience at the church, which she said is a small congregation with “a lot of old people.” She and her family had arrived early and accidentally disrupted an early morning prayer circle.

“These people just stood up and embraced us,” she recalled. “They didn’t really care about who people think we are. They were just like, ‘Oh yeah, you’re the lady who just bought the house down the street, and we’ve actually been praying for you.’”

Von D also said she was primarily focused on learning from the pastor and studying the Bible.

“I want to learn about the Bible,” she said. “I don’t want necessarily feel-good stories. I’m here to learn.”

Von D has been outspoken about her recent conversion since posting a video of her baptism on her Instagram in September. The reality star has shared that she is still in the beginning foundation of her faith, but will continue to share her faith with her followers.

“I don’t really feel equipped to be the poster child for Christianity,” Von D said. “I think that I’m still learning and, as I do, I will become more equipped, but, for the time being, I feel like — I’ve never really been that and I don’t plan on doing that.”

 

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