Intersections

  [NOTE: This sermon was done in note form, so it is not the sermon verbatim. Also for context, I was preaching on the book, "Lasting Change by Carey Nieuwhof] Last week for this sermon series - next week we will have Bashor Children’s Home as guest speaker. I would say I have a lot to cover - about half the book, but come to Sunday School over the next 6 weeks, and we are going to go more in-depth than I could ever do justice for in a 20 minute sermon.  But we will be covering two topics today - Why are Young Adults Walking Away from the Church? And What Cultural Trends Are We Missing?  Why Are Young Adults Walking away from the church?  Culture changing rapidly No group is leaving more quickly than those Carey identifies as “millennials” - generations under the age of 30, which is objectively wrong.  I am from the millennial generation - or at least I feel like I belong more to it than Gen X (the one before). Millennials (in broad terms) are people born betwee...

  Have you ever been in an organization where leaders were burned out? I have. Trying to get any new ideas through to changemakers is so difficult it affects everyone around them. Motivation is minimal, and anger is a low level mood, all the time. It’s difficult to be in that environment. Who wants to work for someone like that? Why would volunteers join that kind of organization?   To make matters worse, when you go home, the apathy and irritation follow you. So many modern symptoms of burnout can be found everywhere. We are all burned out to one degree or another, having lived through a global pandemic and economic volatility that is only supposed to be around once in a generation.  Are our leaders ok? Are the people serving the church ok… really? We are meant to be authentic here, and if there’s anyone to be straightforward with, it’s those who see you regularly. Our overindulgent culture is maybe a sign we’ve gotten too off-track too with what matters - overeat...

 [NOTE: This is an outline only. I am preaching on Carey Nieuwhof's book Lasting Impact ) I. Why Are We Not Growing Faster?  A. Sensitive Subject 1. It's the subject everyone wants to know about, but no one wants to talk about.            2. Focus is not on growth for growth's sake, but for the sake of being effective in our mission and vision of reaching people who need to know the love of Jesus Christ in their lives.  3. Understand that most of us carry an innate sensitivity  about certain subjects a. defensiveness on part of small churches  b. "focus on quality, not quantity" c. Don't be cynical about growing churches d. As a rule, healthy things grow. (Jurassic Park - "Life Finds a Way") B. Church growth is a mystery... or is it? Is church growth just up to God leading people to our door, or is it on us to share what we love about our community and invite people to be a part of that?  ...