J. Warner Wallace has a huge compilation of research related to why young people are leaving the church. He lists a bunch of books/surveys, then summarizes what those found. Here I’ve pulled a few clues that seem most helpful for parents. If you go to the link and search within for the bits I have in quotes here, you’ll land…
It was my first experience in one of those escape rooms. There were eight of us, including my grandkids, with an age range from 8 to 68. We had one hour to solve the puzzle that would stop the “Runaway Train.” What a wild experience! Even in the middle of the frenzy, I was astonished at the various contributions from…
To attend a choir concert one time, Mom and I found ourselves seated in an enormous and ornate cathedral. While we waited for the program to begin, we silently admired the architectural details; and we couldn’t help noticing something quite foreign to us: statues of saints all around, with their names. I recognized names of the familiar St. Teresa, St.…
In a previous post, “Why People Have Left the Church,” I touched on the damage the emergent church has done with their shouting that the church isn’t doing anything and probably never has. Of course, that isn’t true. Though every group has its bad apples, the fact is that the church at large is so often on the forefront of…
There are lots of surveys evaluating why people have left the church. I’d like to offer three suggestions: 1—Ministers encouraged it. Over the last decade-plus, as emergent church leaders’ hate-the-church message was parroted from the pulpit, we were told: the church isn’t doing anything (and probably never has), Christians are hateful, Christianity should be abolished, and “it’s not about attending…