Church Without Limits: Connecting with the Millennial Generation

Church Without Limits: Connecting with the Millennial Generation
Author: Dr. M. Andrew Davis
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 125
Release: 2018-06-07
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1387859196

Are you ready to produce ministry that includes the millennial generation? Many find this task difficult, searching for inviting strategies that remain appealing to the younger generation. This book provides insight regarding the ministry needs of the millennial generation and highlights a successful approach to maintaining the interest and church involvement of millennials. The reader will explore a theoretical and practical approach that will inform how to do ÒChurch without Limits, Ó in order to make a successful connection with the millennial generation.

The Next Mormons

The Next Mormons
Author: Jana Riess
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 312
Release: 2019-02-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 019088522X

American Millennials--the generation born in the 1980s and 1990s--have been leaving organized religion in unprecedented numbers. For a long time, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was an exception: nearly three-quarters of people who grew up Mormon stayed that way into adulthood. In The Next Mormons, Jana Riess demonstrates that things are starting to change. Drawing on a large-scale national study of four generations of current and former Mormons as well as dozens of in-depth personal interviews, Riess explores the religious beliefs and behaviors of young adult Mormons, finding that while their levels of belief remain strong, their institutional loyalties are less certain than their parents' and grandparents'. For a growing number of Millennials, the tensions between the Church's conservative ideals and their generation's commitment to individualism and pluralism prove too high, causing them to leave the faith-often experiencing deep personal anguish in the process. Those who remain within the fold are attempting to carefully balance the Church's strong emphasis on the traditional family with their generation's more inclusive definition that celebrates same-sex couples and women's equality. Mormon families are changing too. More Mormons are remaining single, parents are having fewer children, and more women are working outside the home than a generation ago. The Next Mormons offers a portrait of a generation navigating between traditional religion and a rapidly changing culture.

Worship Without Limits

Worship Without Limits
Author: Philip Renner
Publisher: Destiny Image Publishers
Total Pages: 184
Release: 2019-08-20
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0768450837

Worship is a priceless gift. Unfortunately for many, this gift remains unopened and unused because of a lack of understanding. In truth, worship is not christianized entertainment, a religious ritual, or zealous demonstration. The biblical picture of worship is an intimate encounter with the infinite God that spreads into...

Beyond Church Walls

Beyond Church Walls
Author: Dr. Richard Rouse
Publisher: Fortress Press
Total Pages: 214
Release: 2016-05-19
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1506410278

Pastoral care has been traditionally understood as pastoral acts administered to individuals or small groups by an ordained or lay religious practitioner. As congregations in the twenty-first century begin to reclaim the missional nature of church, this view must be broadened to include care and concern for the needs of the larger community. A missional perspective of pastoral care embraces the notion that all of Gods peoplenot just trained professionalsare called to partner in the healing and redemption of the world. In Beyond Church Walls, Rick Rouse sets out to articulate precisely what such an approach to pastoral care looks likeand the substantial impact it can have on congregations and communities. A skilled teacher and pastor with deep experience in real communities, Rouse leads readers through the changing realities of the twenty-first century and to new ways for missional churches to succeed in offering pastoral care for the whole community.

Blank Slate

Blank Slate
Author: Lia McIntosh
Publisher: Abingdon Press
Total Pages: 179
Release: 2019-03-19
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1501876279

The church must get “unstuck” from its current context in order to address the context of younger generations; otherwise, it will not be relevant to younger people and will die with the older generations. As an example, a letter from the Younger Generations to Baby Boomers: Dear Baby Boomers, Thank you for all you've done, but I don't want your church. I want you, our relationship, our engagement, but not your church structure and outdated assumptions. Signed, The Younger Generations Blank Slate guides leaders to envision, and actually design, the future church. The authors start by describing each generational group currently living in the US, helping readers understand the varied context of people in every age group. Next, they explore five innovative secular organizations, drawing sharp lessons for the church. The last section includes a seven-step process for ministry leaders to engage current and upcoming generations. This book, with questions for individual and group reflection in each chapter, is a powerful planning tool for ministry teams. “In a time when so many of us want a blueprint for how to do ministry in a rapidly changing world, McIntosh, Smothers, and Smothers hand us a pencil and tell us to draw it ourselves. God has entrusted us to be the designers and visionaries for a new way. Blank Slate is the guide that you and your team need to design a new future together.” –Jacob Armstrong, pastor, Providence Church, Mt. Juliet, TN

You Lost Me

You Lost Me
Author: David Kinnaman
Publisher: Baker Books
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2011-10-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1441213082

Close to 60 percent of young people who went to church as teens drop out after high school. Now the bestselling author of unChristian trains his researcher's eye on these young believers. Where Kinnaman's first book unChristian showed the world what outsiders aged 16-29 think of Christianity, You Lost Me shows why younger Christians aged 16-29 are leaving the church and rethinking their faith. Based on new research, You Lost Me shows pastors, church leaders, and parents how we have failed to equip young people to live "in but not of" the world and how this has serious long-term consequences. More importantly, Kinnaman offers ideas on how to help young people develop and maintain a vibrant faith that they embrace over a lifetime.

The New Copernicans

The New Copernicans
Author: David John Seel
Publisher: HarperChristian + ORM
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2018-01-16
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0718098889

"Our millennial children, as well as nonchurchgoing millennials, are both the church's greatest challenge and its most exciting new opportunity." —John Seel, PhD Warning: There is a fundamental frame of reference shift in American society happening right now among young adults. You may think of this group as millennials—those born between 1980 and 2000—but millennials resist this label for good reason: the national narrative on them is pejorative, patronizing, and just plain wrong. Here's what we do know: Of Americans with a church background, 76 percent are described as "religious nones" or unaffiliated—and it's the fastest growing segment of the population. Close to 40 percent of millennials fit this religious profile. Roughly 80 percent of teens in evangelical church high school youth groups will abandon their faith after two years in college. It's unlikely that the evangelical church can survive if it is uniformly rejected by millennials, and yet: Millennial pastors and youth ministers are disempowered; their perspective is often not taken seriously by senior church leadership. Most millennial research is framed in categories rejected by millennials; that is, left-brained, analytical communication is lost on right-brained, intuitive millennials. Evangelicals' bias toward rational left-brained thinking makes the church seem tone-deaf. What's next? Read on. John Seel suggests survival strategies—communication on-ramps for genuine human connection with the next generation. It can be done.

The Gaslighting of the Millennial Generation

The Gaslighting of the Millennial Generation
Author: Caitlin Fisher
Publisher: Mango Media Inc.
Total Pages: 170
Release: 2019-05-15
Genre: Self-Help
ISBN: 1633538850

A success guide for millennials that debunks the negative stereotypes and champions their unique strength as a generational force to be reckoned with. We’ve all seen the headlines: Millennials aren’t buying diamonds or saving for retirement. They’re killing the housing market because they eat too many avocados. They all want cushy jobs with foosball tables and nap pods. The truth is, millennials were raised to believe they could do anything if they worked hard, and then they worked hard only to be told the world owes them nothing. Now they’re tired of being gaslit. The tide of young adults standing up for themselves is culminating in massive societal change. The Gaslighting of the Millennial Generation uncovers the misconceptions about millennials, examining not only their unique strengths but also the baggage they have inherited from Baby Boomers. It shows just how different millennials are from previous generations—and why that’s a very good thing.

Vagabonding

Vagabonding
Author: Laurie Lyter Bright
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 138
Release: 2018-12-03
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1532619189

Keen to make your church relevant to Millennials? Then put this book down immediately. Vagabonding: In Defense and Praise of Millennial Faith is not that book. If, instead, you are interested in forging meaningful relationships and building the future church alongside the Millennial generation, come on in. Learn how the patterns of communication, social justice, missiology, and faith popping up with Millennials echo patterns of the early church disciples. Through this text, we’ll explore the ways in which the institutional church and Millennials can learn a great deal from each other, and enter into those relationships on a central creed of Christianity: Fear not!

Ever Hear of Feuerbach?

Ever Hear of Feuerbach?
Author: Mark Ellingsen
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 146
Release: 2020-10-13
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1532649622

Christianity is in decline in North America and Europe. Polls indicate that in the US the fastest-growing segment of the American population is the religiously unaffiliated (the so-called Nones). Why is this happening? Mark Ellingsen calls our attention to a previously overlooked reason—the flawed theology and Christian education material used in most mainline churches. These approaches forfeit the transcendence of God. They logically fall prey to the claim of German philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach (and his student Karl Marx) that Christianity is nothing more than a bunch of teachings that human beings have made up. Insofar as this is a message the public has been hearing, little wonder Christianity in America and Europe is losing ground! Though his main concern is to get church and academy talking about this problem and to prod us to do something about it, Ellingsen proposes a way out of this mess. Drawing on insights from the neo-orthodox, postliberal, progressive evangelical, and black church traditions, he offers a proposal that succeeds in making clear that God is more than how we experience him. He invites readers to explore with him the exciting possibility that a theological use of the scientific method could be employed to make a case for the plausibility of Christian faith.