Back to work...

same root ~ different fruit

A few days ago Rachel Held Evans caused a stir with her CNN Religion blog -
Why millennials are leaving the church
It set off a buzz of response ... I tried to resist diving too deep into the flood of IMHO's
I just have too much other work to do.  Is that so wrong?

I did skim through a sampling of opinions this evening.
What do Allen, David, David and Rachel all have in common?
They all want their opinions about church decline to get liked & shared...
and thus fuel the frenzy about the demise of particular "organizations".

Meanwhile the head of the organism
- the One who calls the Bride his very own -
claims he'll never leave or forsake her.

Maybe a few days of reflecting on generational stats
and the decline of western christendom is a healthy occasional break
- like the 2011 season of scolding vs. adoring of Rob Bell for Love Wins.

but...
let's get back to work...
let's go plant new churches
grafting in new branches on that ancient stock,
and leave the diagnosis of the dying
and the dissection of the dead
to those who count twitter feeds and nurture facebook stats.  
let's do what every generation has been called to do,
feed the hungry, nurture souls, preach the gospel.

let's not overthink the job, or underserve this generation.
they've got particular problems of which we should be prophetic critics,
but they've also got great passion which will draw them to new forms of organizing,
they may indeed be post-denominational and post-christendom,
but if the Spirit of the Lord prevails (as is his wont)
they will still be the Church.
let's help them grow.