Jan
31
2012

A Millennial’s View of the Church: The Warning Cry

An article by Matt

A few weeks ago I shared about a partnership between the City of Portland and the churches in that city. Shortly after posting the original article, a former student of mine and I struck up a conversation about that article, and some of his experience over the last few years. His story is heartbreaking to me, and should be to the church as a whole, as he has found it necessary to step away from the church in order to save his faith:

Church became a place not to worship God, or to lead nonbelievers to him, but a place to celebrate sameness. A place to be around people that agree with you. That stagnation leads nowhere good. I see people unifying in church not for worship, but to speak out against those who are different: other religions, other cultures, the gays, and even democrats.

God says to love all, yet, this happens. I find it hard to justify speaking against these people instead of reaching out to them. Isn’t that the main point of a church? Saving? And preaching against democrats, of all things. I don’t exaggerate, either: there are people I once considered religious leaders of mine, people I personally looked up to, that I’ve removed from social media sites because they constantly spew hatred and insults towards political parties, claiming the just position of God. I’d understand if it were about specific issues: abortion, the homeless, god in schools. Those are things any person certainly has a right to be angry and forward about.

I’ve seen individuals AND churches give rants on the evils of political parties because of differing views on taxes. How is this becoming of a circle of believers? How does this fit the title of Christian: “little Christ”?

Hate and isolation are not just present in churches; they run rampant… and it’s only a secret to the church.

I don’t go to church anymore because the most disgustingly angry and hateful people I meet are churchgoing Christians. I don’t go to church because I don’t need politics in my God. I don’t go to church because I don’t want to be told to hate a type of person.

I don’t go to church because I love God more than myself, and I can’t find a church that acts that way.

I wish this were the only person I have had this conversation with. I wish that this was just the story of one bad experience, with one church that is missing the mark.

But it isn’t.

It is stories like these that have brought us to a place where 13% of millennials have any use for religion, and fewer still have any interest in Christianity. It is stories like these that causes the church to continue to lose influence in the world around us (note I did NOT say political influence). It is stories like these that we need to stop writing off as one person’s bad experience.

These are the stories that are defining a generation’s relationship with the church…

How is YOUR church working to change the perceptions of the millennials?