Many modern churches are slowly dying in today’s world. In order for a church to grow it must put a lot of time and effort into teaching the younger generations the ways of Jesus so that they can continue to reach the modern world. Sadly this is not happening and many of today’s churches are taking massive hits in their youth group’s attendance. It’s sad that according to both Christian today and lifeway research about 70 percent of youth drop out of church for either an extended time, and out of that 70 percent around 30 percent never come back to the church. Three big reasons that the youth are leaving the church are they are not prepared for the world when they leave home, they find the church to be judgmental, or they simply move away from …show more content…
While the church is teaching teens how they should live their life and telling them bible stories the average high school is teaching that there is no God and using observable facts to try and teach this point. This is causing young students to question their faith because many of them have never heard a defense of the faith or any type of apologetics. If we would use the time we have with our youth groups to not only teach them about Jesus but to teach them the history of Christianity and all of the observable evidence that proves God exists than maybe when their science books claim there is no God they will be able to defend Christianity. I think that our youth groups should be taught arguments such as the first cause argument, the moral argument, and other arguments like these so they can challenge atheist who question them in the world. I think this would cause more of the youth to stay in the church because they will not easily fall for atheist …show more content…
I think that it is a part of human nature that we are judging. However, it tends to be pointed out that Christians are judgemental more often because society holds us to a higher standard than the rest of the world. I think as a church united in Christ we should be more careful to not quickly judge each other. I think if us as Christians would seek wisdom about the situations we are put in daily before just speaking the first thing that come into our mind than more people would see that we speak the truth In love rather than hate. An example of this is the recent legalization of gay marriage, ever since this had been ruled I have seen plenty of Christians with signs such as “God hates Gays.” However I do not believe that this is the right way to go about a situation like this. Instead Christians should follow Ephesians 4:15 where it states “Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow.” Rather than yell at random strangers that God hates them I believe that Christians should first seek out a relationship with the person so that people wont feel like a random stranger is judging them. We as Christians should also make sure that we are always leading these people back to God and the
Why I Left the Church” by Richard Garcia is a poem that explores the ongoing and conflicting relationship between a child’s fantasy and the Church. Although the majority of the text is told in present tense, readers are put through the lenses of a young boy who contemplates the legitimacy of the restricting and constricting nature of worship. It is a narrative that mixes a realist approach of storytelling with a fantasy twist that goes from literal metaphors to figurative metaphors in the description of why the narrator left the church. The poet presents the issue of childhood innocence and preset mindsets created by the Church using strong metaphors and imagery that appeal to all the senses.
Judging someone can hurt their feelings.It happens to alot of people just because they come from a different place,or a different religion.It had happen to me before,I was in junior high and some kids came up to me
Christianity is one of the largest religions in world with believers spreading across barriers of language and culture. Christianity can come in many forms with beliefs on different subjects varying wildly, but there is one practice that remains relatively the same: church attendance. The ritual of getting up every Sunday morning and attending a church service including a sermon by a pastor and sometimes a smaller, more focused lesson given during what is called “Sunday School”, is something that is practiced by many faithful Christians across the world and the United States, in particular. Attending church is a practice that is integral to the Christian faith as it is shown in the Bible. It informs and impacts the lives of many believers of
Because of this dilemma, words such as “judgmental”, “hypocritical”, and “intolerant” are all accusations that are placed on Christians because of their moral standing on subjects that differ from public opinion. More often than not, Americans overlook the positive impact of the public influence of Christians. This concept of intolerance is something that is highly frowned upon in the America that we live in today. Intolerance is defined as, “Not willing to allow or accept something; not willing to allow some people to have equal freedom or other social rights; or unwilling to grant equal freedom of expression, especially in religious matters”. People within America today have confused the concept of being intolerant with keeping someone accountable for their actions, or fighting against a wrong for the betterment of a larger society.
Even today, many people who have good hearts and intentions are put down because of the way they look or how they live. In conclusion, people who judge others based on what they perceive are often wrong because they do not know the true character of those individuals.
Secondly, the Church can insist on its identity as an inter-generational community. It can do this structurally, by refusing to segment congregations by age, and temperamentally, by recovering a biblical respect for maturity and rejecting popular culture’s infantilism, thereby offering to children a goal of growing up. Popular culture exalts perpetual adolescence.
People these days are so worried about the shape of the ice (the structure of the church) than they are of what kind of soda (faith) they are putting in the cup with it. In this case, push people away from “church”. It is great for fellow Christians to fellowship together, but it does not say in the Bible that that fellowship has to be within the four walls of a known church. In the Bible, it actually states in Matthew 18:20, “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.” The same Jesus is among two Christians sitting in a diner talking about His word and testifying about how good He is and the church that is filled with a hundred people each Sunday.
I agree with Kitchens, Mead, and Roxburgh who all basically say in their own way that one change in ministry that we need to focus on more is the congregational life of the church. However, I think Mead explains it best when he says that the future church must be more intentional in the spiritual formation of its laity (Mead, location 919). According to Mead, the church is moving towards becoming a more missional institution that cares for the needs of the community. Therefore, oftentimes laity will be the ones on the front lines and will need the capacity to minister to people on their own without the help of clergy. In order to do this they will need more directed and intensive training to deal with...
The Catholic Church’s corruption during the late Middle Ages further enabled church reforms due to the ever-increasing view of the loss of credibility within the church by both the laity and clergy. Thus implementing the ideas of reform. Martin Luther is considered the father of the reformation where he instigated the challenging for the church, papal authority, and changed how the people were allowed to worship. Carlstadt and Zwingli, much like Luther, practiced Evangelical traditions, however, they expanded further than Luther in regards to doctrine and practice. John Calvin on the other hand challenged some of the Evangelical and Reformed Traditions by various religious changes politically and socially. Lindberg examines the Evangelical
What I learned about unpaid women’s work I found the article, ‘How Society Pays When Women’s Work Is Unpaid’ confusing to be honest. Not the article’s content, but the motivations of the people mentioned in the article, particularly that of Melinda Gates. I understand that if we are talking about women in the workforce contributing to the economy by converting unpaid hours to actual paid work hours, I would have to agree that the economy as far as GDP and growth would increase. I do question the importance that would have over things like equal pay.
Root, Andrew. "Talking About Sin with Young People." The Theological Turn in Youth Ministry. Andrew Root and Kenda Dean. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press Books, 2011. N. pag. Digital file.
As a Christian myself it makes me angry when I see so many other Christians put a bad name to our religion. Christianity is a very accepting religion if you compare it to others like Islam and when these people make it seem like a hateful, unaccepting religion, it's severely misrepresenting Christianity. I have known people who say things like “I hate religion” all because of this facade that some of these people put up about
People Are Not Leaving the Church Because It Isn't Fun Enough "And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God" (1 Cor. 2:4-5). The power of God is not found on a fancy stage, under bright lights, working through cool bands, or streaming across video screens. The power of God is found through the Holy Spirit who appears through holy fire. That's not to say that God cannot work in a place that has a nice band or tech savvy production team, but when your church depends on you to draw the people in instead of God, there is a good chance you won't find the Spirit there.
For my observation trip, I decided to visit St. Ignatius Church in Oregon, Ohio. I visited a mass at 11:30 on Sunday November 19. I decided to visit a catholic church because my family has no religious background whatsoever, and I decided that I could go with one of my good friends that way if I need to ask questions, she was there to answer them for me.
Jesus served as example for all of humanity. His life work was to solve the fundamental problem of humanities sin and to provide eternal life with the Father. Jesus Christ demonstrated the way humans should live. He modeled behavior to the poor, the sick, the imprisoned, women, tax collector, to His friends. He came to set the example of the way to live for Christians. Basically, Jesus life was an outline of how to live your own life. Jesus confirmed that you should love your neighbor as yourself. That you should love your God with all your heart, with all your mind and with all your strength. This was demonstrated on a daily bases. Jesus verified that although humans are prone to sin, one can make a choice to not sin. When tempted by Satan, Jesus refrained from sin and turned to God the Father for strength to turn away from the temptation. Jesus was the teacher of complete, true knowledge.