Are You Gonna Be a Part of the Statistics

Church analysts in America have reported that young adults are leaving churches at a frightening rate. Michelle and I personally know many young adults that are no longer attending church on a regular basis.

It's shocking to see young people we have known for years who used to have great passion for the Lord but are now wandering down a church-less path.

The question I keep ruminating in my mind is in all those years I saw friends passionately worshiping and claiming an undivided love for the Lord ... did they not really mean it? Is their love so small that they cannot even continue in their faith for more than a few years at a time? Did they not encounter the power and love of God (this love that's better than life) in a real way like we have encountered it? How could they be so far from their passion for their Creator?

Young adults - I think the question we need to ask ourselves is - are we going to be a complainer or are we going to add value? We only have one life to live - do we really want to live it stirring up controversy and complaints. Do we really want to spend our lives as mud-slingers? 

Or could we get over our issues, roll up our sleeves and serve Christ's body (the Church around the world)? Maybe it's time to stop pointing fingers at everybody else and realize that we are dangerously far from living and walking the way Christ has called us to walk. To realize that when we are living unholy and apart from the local Church, we have less to say than everybody else.

Maybe it's time to realize our own smallness and lack of knowledge. Yes, God is doing more than we think! But also - the local Church is doing WAY more than we think too! I can promise you - the church you've always dreamed of, that you've longed for is already out there doing just the things you've always desired it to do. You just haven't heard of it yet. I tweeted recently: "How many generalizations do we make about the Church that are just flat wrong? Due to assumptions & our own lack of knowing what's going on!" Let's recognize the fact that we are not as cool as we think we are - but God and the Church are better than we think they are.

Young adults - are you going to be a part of the statistic and go the way culture (and all the forces of hell) want you to flow? Or are you gonna be different and stand up for God in this generation?