Lifeway Survey Paints a Grim Picture

USA Today ran an article in their religion section on Tuesday which was based on a survey recently done by Lifeway Christian Resources. (You can read the article here) The survey focused on the Millenial Generation and their feelings and beliefs when it comes to faith and religion.  They paint a pretty grim pictures.  Here are some highlights that were pointed out in the article.

• Out of the 1,200 surveyed, 72% called themselves spiritual rather than religious
• 65% rarely or never pray with others, and 38% almost never pray by themselves either
• 65% rarely or never attend worship services.
• 67% don't read the Bible or sacred texts.

Even among those who have accepted Jesus Christ as Savior and believe that they will go to heaven...

• 68% did not mention faith, religion or spirituality when asked what was "really important in life."
• 50% do not attend church at least weekly.
• 36% rarely or never read the Bible

The Church is doing a poor job when nearly 70% of young adults do not pray, attend worship or read the Bible.  Thom Rainer, the President of Lifeway says that if this trend keeps up that,

"the Millennial generation will see churches closing as quickly as GM dealerships."

This is not hard to believe.  Look around your congregation- look for the 20 year olds.  In many places they are absent.  Our staff recently took stock of what many of us thought we 20somethings in our congregation and they turned about to be 30somethings.  Aside from a few 20somethings- we are missing a huge segment of our population.  They are not hearing the gospel. They are not experiencing transformation through Jesus Christ.

The Church needs to rethink how we go about our ministries- reaching out to those who have never heard and discipling those who express faith in Jesus Christ.  It's hard to imagine that 50% of people who define themselves as Christians do not attend worship weekly or that 36% rarely read their bible.  Rainer goes on to say,

"We have dumbed down what it means to be part of the church so much that it means almost nothing, even to people who already say they are part of the church."

So what must the church do?  Here are some of my quick thoughts.

• We must get rid of the attitude that is ok with college students "falling away" from their faith because we believe that they will come back to church when they have kids.  I have heard this a lot in the local church and people are ok with it.  We need to change our attitudes towards young people
• Churches need to realize that it is not the Youth Pastors job to instill faith in young people.  First, it is the parents responsibility- then it is the responsibility of the entire congregation- per baptism vows (in the UMC, the entire church vows to help raise our children to know Christ as Savior.  We are falling short of that vow.)
• We need to rethink how our churches do evangelism and discipleship. Discipleship is not a program, but a way of life! Evangelism should naturally flow out of our lives because God's love and grace overflow in our daily walk.
• Worship services, music and sermons need to express the mission of God and invite young adults (and people of all ages) to participate in God's kingdom.  Look at your worship service...would a 20 year old feel comfortable there?  Does your music relate and reach to young adults? There is no "right" form for worship...it needs to be whatever best communicates our thanks to God and points to God's love for the people we are trying to reach.

If you are older than your 20's, think back for a moment.  Almost every major decision that has made you who you are was made in your 20's.  Your studies.  Your career.  Your life goals.  Your spouse (for many). Your dreams.  Yes, these can change as you grow older...but many of these were solidified in your 20's.  It is imperative that we continue to do all we can to reach young people- especially those in their 20's.

How is your church reaching 18-29 year olds? Are they trying?  What are some things that need to change to help 20 year olds become disciples of Jesus Christ?

A Passion2010 Review: Pt. 2- The Messages

Yesterday's post was mostly about the music at Passion.  If your someone who has been in a contemporary/modern/youngish church over the last decade, then you know the music of Passion.  Just on music alone, the Passion Conferences could hold it's own.  I was really excited to hear the speakers of Passion and the message given.  Read more about the speakers after the jump

A Passion2010 Review: Part 1

I had the opportunity to travel to Atlanta on January 1-5 for Passion2010 with three of our college students here at the church.  This was my first time to Passion and I was pretty excited as I have been listening to the Passion CD's since they first started coming out.  Much of the music that has come from that conference has been influential in my life and the life of the Church.  I was looking forward to also hearing the message that goes along with the music.

Our little group drove down to Atlanta to spare some of the cost and spent and night in North Carolina at the halfway point to make the 12 hour drive a little more manageable.  We stayed with our friends Jason and Krystal Goss.  Their hospitality was amazing!  We arrived in Atlanta on Saturday afternoon and it was freezing!  We knew it would be cold, but not this cold!  The high was never above 36.  I'm glad I packed a lot of long sleeve shirts because I only brought a windbreaker with me!

The music at Passion was amazing- which was to be expected.  My group began the conference in the Georgia World Congress Center where we were led by Charlie Hall and his band.  It doesn't seem to me that Charlie Hall gets the same publicity that David Crowder, Matt Redman, or Chris Tomlin get- but he may be my favorite out of the three (with Matt Redman coming in a close second).  I really like Charlie's approach to worship leading- and he has an amazing gotee!

The David Crowder Band was the late night concert in the Phillips Arena on Saturday night.  From all apearances, it seemed like a great concert- but we were stuck high above the speakers and could not hear clearly.  Every time Crowder spoke, it sounded like an adult speaking from a Peanuts movie.  Needless to say, it was my least enjoyable part of the weekend-even though it had nothing to do with Crowder!  We just had terrible seats.

On Monday, we were back in the Georgia World Congress Center and led by the Passion Supergroup featuring Chris Tomlin, Kristian Stainfill, Christy Nockels, and Matt Redman.  It was pretty cool to see them on stage together.  Tomlin and Stainfill are pretty demonstrative on-stage while Redman stands there strums his guitar, and sings.  It was an interesting dichotemy of worship leading styles.

Sunday night, we went to the late night concert featuring Hillsong United.  I thought about telling how we had floor seats, lost our floor seats because of a Passion communication glich, and then snuck into the concert because we couldn't attend the following night because we were heading home.  I won't tell you about that.  I'll just say that Hillsong United was great!  It was high energy, passionate worship.  I was pretty pumped that Brooke Fraser was there to sing "Hosanna."  That really made my night.

The new Passion CD with music from the conference comes out in March.  As someone who was not impressed with the last Passion CD, I think this one will be really good. 

Tomorrow- I'll be recapping some of the messages from Passion2010

Back From Guatemala: Pt. 1

It's been awhile since I've posted because I spent the last week in Guatemala, leading a team from our church. It was an amazing trip that I continue to process in my head and heart. So I am going to do at least 2 post; the first post will tell some of the basics of our trip, while the second part will talk about what God taught me while in Guatemala. Be sure to check back for part 2 later on in the week.

We arrived in Guatemala on Saturday, June 6th. Travel was uneventful- which is what one wants during a foreign trip. None of our team slept the night before since we left at 2 a.m., so we were pretty tired. We traveled by van from Guatemala City to Antigua to San Pedro Las Huestras where our mission house was. It was absoultely stunning there. Antigua sits at the base of Agua- a dormant volcano, and there are several other active volcanos in the area. From our mission home, we could see three volcanos. One, Fuego, erupted daily and really made the location seem exotic compared to Delaware (ok, so it wouldn't take a volcano to make a place feel exotic compared to Delaware!!) We were also at a much high altitude than Delaware. Antigua is about 5,000 feet above sea level while the school we worked at was another 1,000 feet higher.


On Sunday, we had another day to get acclimated to Guatemala. We all felt refreshed after a good night's sleep. We went to Antigua to exchange money at the bank, chilled at Cafe Barrista (very cool place!), and then went to a bilingual church with the missionaries. The pastor at the church was from Philadelphia originally. You could still hear his Philly accent. I enjoyed the worship service as it set our hearts for the week. After lunch in Antigua, we took on the challenge of the markets of Antigua- bargaining for a good deal. There were certainly times where I know I could have gotten a lower price, it was still so very inexpensive to buy some of the items that we did.

When we began our week, we were working at the Escuela de Vida y Esperanza (School of Life and Hope) in Santa Lucia. There are about 280 students at the school, kindergarten through 9th grade. We taught a bible lesson, music, testimony, and craft to two classes a day while hanging out with kids when we were not teaching. Our team used a skit to teach the Bible lesson (Zaccheaus from Luke 19). We had two young children (Eliza-6, and Kendra 9) who played Zaccheaus and Jesus. Chris, one of our college students, played the tree that Zaccheaus climbed up into. The lessons were great and the children seemed to enjoy them. Our testimonies also went well. Even Eliza and Kendra shared, which was so appropriate for the age of students that we were working with.

The children at the school were amazing. I have been out of the country on a mission trip 2 other times. Mostly, I have done some sort of construction- and this is where I am comfortable. There were usually only a few children around while we worked on the construction site. This was different at the school. Chris and I were swarmed the first day as we were willing to pick kids up and toss them in the air. We immediately had lines of 20-30 kids each waiting for the ride. Let's just say we wore out quick and found other ways to love on the students. The kids had a great capacity to love, and as we loved on them they loved us back. It was overwhelming at times.

One of our projects that we worked on was an outreach to another community with the teachers from the school. This is part of the school's vision- to have a lasting impact on the surrounding community at large. There were games, songs, worship, and dramas as part of this outreach. The gringos lead the drama and helped faciliate some other activities. It was exciting because it wasn't dependant on a foreign team to lead the outreach, but it was the heart of the teachers and students to share God to the community. Wally, the principle or head administrator, is a soft spoken, yet passionate when it comes to God and the school. The other teachers really feed off of that passion with their own passions. Some of the teachers just about bounce of the walls with enthusiasm for God, the children, and the community.

It's Not Easy Being Green

I stopped by Dolce this morning on the way to the office. I was there to do some reading. There is a big comfy chair that faces out towards the sidewalk with a great view of Walnut St. here in Milford. It's a great chair to read from, but also to people watch. Dolce @ 8 a.m. in the morning is a pretty busy time for people watching.

At about 8:20, a soccer mom in her early 30's got out of her vehicle. She was wearing an Orioles ballcap and a T-shirt that said "Green is the new Black....Save the Trees." Going Green is certainly all the rage and Andrea and I are doing our part by recycling, using energy effecient light bulbs, turning down our hot water tempurature, etc., etc., etc. What I found interesting (ironic?) is that the woman was driving a Nissan Xterra. According to my 30 seconds of research on the internet, a 2008 Nissan Xterra has a city/highway rating of 16/20 mpg. I have to admit, after seeing her t-shirt, I thought she would be driving a Saturn Vue Hybrid (25/32) or a Prius (48/45) or something in between.

Maybe I am being a little hard on green soccer mom. But it is important that what we communicate matches how we live. This is especially so as Christians. We may communicate one thing with our lives in regards to our faith and beliefs and communicate something else with how we live it out. I'm reading a book called unChristian by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons from the Barna Group. It speaks of the major perceptions of young people of Christianity. One of those perceptions is that Christians are hypocritical. "85 percent of young outsiders have had sufficient exposure to Christians and churches that they conclude present-day Christianity is hypocritical." Here is a statement from the same book that is really hard to swallow. "Among young outsiders, 84% say they personally know at least one committed Christ. Yet just 15% thought the liefstyles of those Christ followers were significantly different from the norm. This gap speaks volumes." (emphasis mine).

So what now? The authors of unChristian uncover a lot of useful information when it comes to reaching out to young adults who may be outsiders to the faith. In order to overcome some of these perceptions, we (Christians) have got to get back to follow Jesus. Love one another, feeding the hungry, caring for the sick, carrying our cross. An outsider should see that Christ has made a difference in our lives.

Passion Regional Conference: Washington D.C.

Our Passion Conference weekend got off to a little icy start. While watching the weather, I decided not to bring our group to D.C. on Friday. The incoming track didn't look too promising. With that decision made, we left early on Saturday for the Passion Conference in DC.

Now, I've been a fan of the Passion cd's since they first started coming out. I always wanted to go to Atlanta or Tennessee to the big four day conference. So I was pretty excited to be able to take a group of students from our church. This was kind of the big kick-off for our college/young adult ministry as we look to begin bigger things in May.

The conference was everything I thought it would be. Great worship, challenging messages, and an electric atmosphere. I really enjoyed Charlie Hall as he led worship. Francis Chan gave a great talk about resting the knowledge that God loves us...and that God cannot love us any less or any more than how much He loves us right now. This is a tough thing to grasp because there are times where I feel I try to earn God's love.

I also appreciated the prayer time at the end of the evening for the different campuses, students, and towns. I think it gave me a fresh heart to be in prayer for our college students on a different level...going for more depth. I was also encouraged to be in prayer for Milford and how our church can be a beacon to our community.

All in all, it was a great day. I'm a little tired (I only got 4 hours sleep before getting up for church). But I feel blessed to be able to worship the True God with the students who gathered this weekend.