Adapt and Die: Liberal Churches Accept Everyone, Still Decline

Jan 25, 2016 by Jill

by Chris Martin, Millennial Evangelical:

One of the hot takes of the 21st century as it relates to Christianity has been this, “The Church is dying because it won’t conform to culture. We’re going to keep losing our young people if we don’t change some things here.”

[…] A well-known Mainline Protestant blogger, Rachel Held Evans, wrote for CNN last year following the World Vision debacle and concerning same-sex marriage:

So my question for those evangelicals is this: Is it worth it?

Is a “victory” against gay marriage really worth leaving thousands of needy children without financial support?

Is a “victory” against gay marriage worth losing more young people to cynicism regarding the church?

Is a “victory” against gay marriage worth perpetuating the idea that evangelical Christians are at war with LGBT people?

And is a “victory” against gay marriage worth drowning out that quiet but persistent internal voice that asks, “what if we get this wrong?”

I, for one, am tired of arguing. I’m tired of trying to defend evangelicalism when its leaders behave indefensibly.

For a long time, it’s been the same song. If the evangelical Church does not come to terms with same-sex marriage, or other such issues, it’s going to die because young people are leaving it.

What’s the point of giving yourself to a God whose standards and Word you don’t even care about, really?

There’s only one problem with that: it’s not true. Check out this graph from the General Social Survey depicting the denominational affiliation of Millennials:

Read here

See also The scandal of biblical illiteracy – it’s our problem, by Albert Mohler