Keeping It Weird
Like many Millennials, Rachel Held Evans was raised in the Christian faith; and like many of our children and grandchildren, she abandoned it in young adulthood.
Later, when she found her way back, it was not to the Evangelicalism of her childhood, but to a branch of Christianity deeply shaped by ritual and tradition, by sacraments and a sense of mystery. Reflecting on this, Evans wrote:
“[A] church can have a sleek logo and Web site, but if it’s judgmental and exclusive, if it fails to show the love of Jesus to all, Millennials will sniff it out. Our reasons for leaving have less to do with style and image and more to do with substantive questions about life, faith and community. We’re not as shallow as you might think.
If young people are looking for congregations that authentically practice the teachings of Jesus in an open and inclusive way, then the good news is the church already knows how to do that. The trick isn’t to make church cool; it’s to keep worship weird.”
—Rachel Held Evans, “Want Millennials back in the pews? Stop trying to make church ‘cool.’” Washington Post, 30 April 2015