Mostly Minority: How the Church Must Adapt

I don’t know if you saw, but last week, new Census data showed that more minority births were reported than non-hispanic white births. It’s the first time ever that over 50% of births have been minorities.

First off, I love this.

I love that we’re becoming more diverse ethnically as a society. I think it leads to new experiences, steps our of our comfort zones, and new ways to connect with each other.

Reading this story, though, I couldn’t help but think about the local church.

If the local church is going to reach the world (which we MUST), we’re gonna have to do it with people that don’t look like us and often don’t act like us either.

We’re going to have to reach people that we’re not used to having relationships with…

We’re gonna have to get comfortable being uncomfortable until it’s no longer uncomfortable.

It’s the only way.

You see, when something like this is brought to light, we have a choice as Christians in the Church…

We can let it educate us and leverage it,
or we can ignore it.

We have to recognize and be intentional about reaching the WORLD.

Is the local church you go to ‘diverse’? What steps does the Church as a whole need to take toward reaching a more diverse crowd and generation? 

[You can read the story about the Census data here.]

What Young People Think About the Bible

Thom Rainer posted this on twitter a few weeks ago…

Just 6% of Millennials believe the Bible is the written word of God…

Wow!

Just 6%!

I don’t know what kind of poll was taken by Rainer and his organization, but regardles this is alarming.

It’s alarming for me as a young person to think how few of my peers really believe that the words of God are real.
It’s alarming to older generations because it means they haven’t done the best job of teaching the importance of scripture.

Of course, my number one question about this stat is ‘WHY?’

Why is it that so few of us believe in the Word?

I’m not saying I have the entire answer or all of the answer comes down to this, but I do believe that,
we’ve done a bad job of showing the power of scripture.

We haven’t lived it out and displayed its beauty and life changing truth.

You see, I know this about my generation. I know that we want to see to believe. We want to know that what we’re doing matters and is making a difference. We want the truth, but we want it verified.

After all, if it really is the word of the Almighty, it should change lives and countries and generations.

But,

I think we’ve dropped the ball on verifying the truth of scripture.

The love.
The Grace.
The Beauty.
The Power.
The Mercy.

of God… of Christ.

What do you think? Why do only 6% of young people (millennials) believe scripture to be the Word of God? Would love to hear your thoughts. 

[I wrote 3 tips for reaching young people here.]