Have it your way – Pleasing self or God?

By: American Decency Staff

“Why Millennials Are Leaving the Church” is the title of an opinion article gone viral, written by Christian author Rachel Held Evans and published on CNN’s Belief Blog.  

Of course this question has plagued the modern church causing knee-jerk reactions to entice 20-somethings to stay in, return to, or visit our churches.  And so we’ve turned to people-pleasing measures to draw them in.  Starbucks coffee, cushy furniture, a hip praise band, a coffee house setting.  Casual clothes, casual atmosphere, casual preaching.  Well perhaps preaching is too strong of a word – rather “meditations” interspersed with witty video clips and flashy power points would be a more apt description of the sermons delivered from many of today’s pulpits.  Actually not pulpits – rather, bar stools on center stage.

Are any of these things “wrong,” per se?  No, however I found it interesting to read the take on such changes from the 32-year-old author of the article reference above. 

“… Time and again, the assumption among Christian leaders, and evangelical leaders in particular, is that the key to drawing twenty-somethings back to church is simply to make a few style updates – edgier music, more casual services, a coffee shop in the fellowship hall, a pastor who wears skinny jeans, an updated Web site that includes online giving.

“But here’s the thing: Having been advertised to our whole lives, we millennials have highly sensitive BS meters, and we’re not easily impressed with consumerism or performances.

“In fact, I would argue that church-as-performance is just one more thing driving us away from the church, and evangelicalism in particular.  …”

So if not coffee, music, and jeans – what does this author think young adults are looking for in church?  As she speaks to evangelical leaders on this issue, she offers her perspective: 

“… 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.

“I talk about how the evangelical obsession with sex can make Christian living seem like little more than sticking to a list of rules, and how millennials long for faith communities in which they are safe asking tough questions and wrestling with doubt.  …

“What millennials really want from the church is not a change in style but a change in substance.

“We want an end to the culture wars. We want a truce between science and faith. We want to be known for what we stand for, not what we are against.

“We want to ask questions that don’t have predetermined answers.

“We want churches that emphasize an allegiance to the kingdom of God over an allegiance to a single political party or a single nation.

“We want our LGBT friends to feel truly welcome in our faith communities.

“We want to be challenged to live lives of holiness, not only when it comes to sex, but also when it comes to living simply, caring for the poor and oppressed, pursuing reconciliation, engaging in creation care and becoming peacemakers. …” http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2013/07/27/why-millennials-are-leaving-the-church/

After reading her conclusions, there is a point or two – actually perhaps several – on which I disagree with the author’s solutions for keeping millennials from leaving the church.

First of all, to say that the evangelical Church is “too political” or aligned with a single political party is truly naïve.  If that were the case why do exit polls election after election show a disconnect between evangelical Christians and the values guiding their votes?  Why do so few evangelicals even go to the polls?  A recent survey from the Center for the Study of American Culture and Faith found that less than half (only 44%) of theologically conservative pastors would definitely provide strong encouragement to their congregations to vote in next year’s elections. 

As Gary Bauer writes: 

“Unfortunately, it has been my experience that when you ask many pastors, even those who generally share our worldview, about the importance of civic responsibility, they often respond by saying, "My job is to preach the Gospel." But if you ask them about the silence of many churches in slave states during the 1850s, they will shake their heads in disgust.

“President Lincoln worried about pastors who told him that slavery was a political issue. And when he discussed slavery in the public square, Lincoln was often told to keep his religion to himself.

“Too many churches were silent in Germany during the 1930s. And when some brave souls like Dietrich Bonheoffer and Martin Niemoeller dared to speak up, Hitler told them to take care of their churches and leave Germany to him.

“This country was founded by pilgrims seeking religious liberty. It has a tremendous religious heritage. Religious liberty was so important to our Founding Fathers that they listed it in the first amendment to the Constitution.

“But when so many pastors are sitting silently on the sidelines of the culture war, we risk losing those first freedoms while America is fundamentally transformed into something our Founders would not recognize.”

Which brings me to another point of contention I have with the author’s claim of what millennials want in church – an “end to the culture wars” and a “truce between science and faith.”  In other words, sticking our heads in the sand and not speaking the Truth of God’s Word into a culture that desperately needs it.  Shall we look the other way when millions of unborn baby are killed, or should we defend these tiny image-bearers who – like us – are fearfully and wonderfully made?  Should we remain quiet when our schools teach our children that they are random products of evolution when all creation shouts the existence of our Creator – even our own bodies made up of an amazing design, including an actual language found in our incredibly complex DNA? 

And while we should reach out to the LGBT community with the salvation message and the love of Christ, should we accept the sin along with the sinner, turning a blind eye to a sin that God calls an abomination, one that in Romans 1 He says will lead to the “due penalty for their error”? 

“Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.  And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”  I Corinthians 6:9-11

The LGBT community doesn’t need to just be “truly welcomed” they need to be washed, sanctified, justified – as we have been.  Many of us can find ourselves in that list of “and such were some of you.”  We don’t need our sin accepted, we need to be saved from it.  Namely we need the Savior.

Which is the major point on which the author and I agree:  our need for Jesus.

However, I do have one final observation on this author’s listing of what millennials want in a worship service in order to keep them from leaving the Church.  Scroll back up and notice the pronouns which begin nearly every paragraph in the article.  Nearly all begin with “I” or “We.”  We want, we want, we want.  

As Christians we are called to go out and make disciples, but when we go in to a church worship service, what should be our primary purpose?  Is it to please self or God?  Are we primarily there to have our wants met or to worship and glorify the Lord?  If worship is the primary purpose for a “worship” service, have we asked God what He wants – how He wants to be worshipped?

We have quite an exalted view of ourselves when we seek to please ourselves in a church service designed to worship the Lord God Almighty.  Maybe the reason millennials are leaving many of America’s churches is because true reverence and worship of a Holy and Righteous God is no longer central – instead, pleasing ourselves is.

“This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.”

Matthew 15:8-9

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