Why Millenials Are Leaving the Church

Rachel Held Evans, one of my favorite authors and bloggers, offers answers to the question in her article, "Why Millenials Are Leaving the Church," to which I find myself saying, "Yes, yes, amen, oh yes, amen, exactly, absolutely, yes, and amen." Among other things.

She starts:

At 32, I barely qualify as a millennial.

I wrote my first essay with a pen and paper, but by the time I graduated from college, I owned a cell phone and used Google as a verb.

I still remember the home phone numbers of my old high school friends, but don’t ask me to recite my husband’s without checking my contacts first.

I own mix tapes that include selections from Nirvana and Pearl Jam, but I’ve never planned a trip without Travelocity.

Despite having one foot in Generation X, I tend to identify most strongly with the attitudes and the ethos of the millennial generation, and because of this, I’m often asked to speak to my fellow evangelical leaders about why millennials are leaving the church.

Armed with the latest surveys, along with personal testimonies from friends and readers, I explain how young adults perceive evangelical Christianity to be too political, too exclusive, old-fashioned, unconcerned with social justice and hostile to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

I point to research that shows young evangelicals often feel they have to choose between their intellectual integrity and their faith, between science and Christianity, between compassion and holiness.

And then goes on to hit more proverbial nails on their heads. So read the whole thing.

And if you're a church leader and you find yourself asking, "What is a 'millenial'?," read it again.

And if you're a pastor and you're thinking, “So what you’re saying is we need hipper worship bands," read it every day for a week.

And if you haven't read Rachel's A Year of Biblical Womanhood, go read it.

And if you think I'm done telling you what to do, you're right.