Rachel Held Evans and others maintain that it’s not hip-ness and cool-ness that most young adults need and want in a faith community. It’s authenticity. It’s real, loving, stand-by-you-no-matter-what community. It’s a family of people from all generations. It’s a congregation where all–and I mean ALL–truly are welcome and wanted in the congregation’s heart and life together. Many small congregations cannot be “cool,” and yet we are this kind of community. Real. Mine is. So how do we raise our profile so we can connect heart to heart with people hungering for the God we love, and who loves us without condition or limit? How do we mingle with people “out there”?
I recommend Rachel’s book Searching for Sunday, and here is an article she wrote for the Washington Post: “Want millennials back in the pews? Stop trying to make church ‘cool.”
The Mustard Seed Journal 