I am sympathetic with the discussion in the first few pages. There are certainly young people who are turned off by conservative Christianity. (If you look at the points listed by Barna, they are basically the distinguishing characteristics of Christian conservatism.) I agree with them in this.
However its pretty clear that liberal Christianity is having the same problem keeping its young people. Im all for people accepting science and critical scholarship, but thats not likely to solve the problem of retaining young people.
I dont have a real solution. My feeling is that the issue is actually that today it doesnt look like Christianity matters. During the medieval period, people were quite clear why they should be Christians: If they werent theyd burn in hell forever. Conservative Christians still claim to believe that, but I dont think they believe it enough for it to affect their behavior. So people are no longer part of the Church to save themselves.
I grew up in the post-WW II period. In that period churches were booming because its what middle class Americans did. it was part of the whole culture that everyone wanted to be part of. But thats past too (and the churches that benefited by those people are now increasingly empty).
I think the real issue is finding a purpose for the Church that matters to people. I doubt the old purposes will come back. For being part of a Church to matter, its got to make life better. Not better in theory (i.e. better in the sense that it complies with Gods will), or better in the afterlife (I doubt those fears will come back as major motivators) but better so that it actually attracts people who arent in the Church. If you believe Stark and various other writers, that was the reason the early Church grew. Christians actually supported each other much more than the general Roman culture did, and being a Christian led to a better (and longer) life.
Im not sure how many of our churches are up to being judged that way.
However its pretty clear that liberal Christianity is having the same problem keeping its young people. Im all for people accepting science and critical scholarship, but thats not likely to solve the problem of retaining young people.
I dont have a real solution. My feeling is that the issue is actually that today it doesnt look like Christianity matters. During the medieval period, people were quite clear why they should be Christians: If they werent theyd burn in hell forever. Conservative Christians still claim to believe that, but I dont think they believe it enough for it to affect their behavior. So people are no longer part of the Church to save themselves.
I grew up in the post-WW II period. In that period churches were booming because its what middle class Americans did. it was part of the whole culture that everyone wanted to be part of. But thats past too (and the churches that benefited by those people are now increasingly empty).
I think the real issue is finding a purpose for the Church that matters to people. I doubt the old purposes will come back. For being part of a Church to matter, its got to make life better. Not better in theory (i.e. better in the sense that it complies with Gods will), or better in the afterlife (I doubt those fears will come back as major motivators) but better so that it actually attracts people who arent in the Church. If you believe Stark and various other writers, that was the reason the early Church grew. Christians actually supported each other much more than the general Roman culture did, and being a Christian led to a better (and longer) life.
Im not sure how many of our churches are up to being judged that way.
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. So we are going to have to see some love Monday to Saturday, some concern for the sick, the widows, the poor etc. A community, because the secular society and modern family doesn't provide it anymore.
