I'm seeking a long obedience in the same direction. I believe all of the Holy Scriptures sing one song, and I'd love to see Creation get lost in it.

I'm a runner, writer, thinker, and pastor. I love to agitate people's consciences. I like to spend my time reading, running, and relaxing with family & friends.

I work as a director of community formation at Highland Park Presbyterian Church and this blog in no way reflects the thoughts or attitudes of my church. You can catch me teaching regularly at Wake Up! and Pub Night Dallas.

I use the Lectionary to read Scripture and pray daily, join me!

mrcrowder.com

How Can You Abandon Everything?

I recently received an email that had statistics about why young adults drop out of church. The #1 reasons listed was:

1. They simply want a break from church (27%)

This doesn’t surprise me, but it does confuse me. Maybe it makes more sense to say that it conflicts me.

It doesn’t surprise me because I’ve heard this numerous times out of people’s mouths. I’ve heard a lot of people, especially after a jam-packed, high energy, high commitment run through a youth-ministry machine, say that they’re just “tired of church.”

Still it confuses me. It actually worries my soul.

What do you/they want a break from?

You see, if you realize the true function of the Church, then you understand that the Christian faith is actualized and fully realized in Community.

You can’t Christ-follow alone.

And, if you understand what it means to follow Christ, then you also realize that it’s not something you can pick up and put down, or sign-up for and cancel at will, like a country club membership or dating relationship. A commitment to being a Christian is, by definition, a commitment to a full-life s. Rightly understood, deciding to follow Jesus means that your entire identity is now wrapped up in the implications of the life, death, & resurrection of Jesus.

It is the defining reality of your life.

How can you walk away from the defining reality of your life?

It makes my soul churn to think that we have raised and educated people about Jesus, faith, and ultimately Church in such a way that walking away from those things would be the same as walking away from community college, a job at Chili’s, or piano lessons.

And like I said earlier, (sadly) it doesn’t surprise me…

we walk away from our families,

we walk away from our spouses,

we walk away from our children.

Dallas deserves a better kind of young adult. People who don’t walk away, but show a whole life commitment to God and others.

Is it possible to live as followers of Jesus, in a faith-bound community known as a Church, that exhibits the kind of Life that one just couldn’t walk away from?