for the past week josh brown has been posting the stories of 8 friends under the age of 25 that have decided to walk away from the traditional model of ministry in pursuit of something different.
it’s an interesting biography and collective story of the differentiation among the generations and the ways in which we as the traditional church burn up and burn out our idealists, our youngest and our brightest in ministry. As Josh explains:
This is our attempt at sharing our stories. Beyond the statistics and figures. Beyond George Barna’s book, Revolution, with pseudo names. We have nothing more than real stories and real experiences that tell of how we walked away, were forced out, or fired. Some of our stories our painful and we still need time to heal the wounds as we “detoxâ€. Some of our stories our hopeful as we have found alternative ways to live the way of Jesus in our world.
This is neither an attempt at being critical or to minimize the role and value that many of the traditional models of church still have and play in God’s economy. These are simply the faces behind the stats, that tell us that young people are leaving the church at a fairly rapid rate. At a time in history when many pastors and church leaders are bemoaning and concerned with the loss of young people in their congregations . . . we . . . the young, creative, gifted, and called twenty-somethings . . . have been pushed to the margins. We now stand on the outside looking in at a time when the church most needs us.
hopefully at some point, the church will begin to take notice. hopefully at some point the church will listen. and hopefully this little experiment, embarked upon by this group of 8 friends, is the beginning.
you can read their stories here…
Related posts:
- musings about the incarnational way.
- why i’ve stayed in the traditional e-evangelical church.
- questions of the emerging church
- renewing older churches.
- a new life…. or lack thereof.
aaron, thanks for the link and for highlighting our little project. it’s always interesting to stumble across someone on a similar path. i’ll be looking forward to following your story more.
josh, thanks for putting this together! it’s a great idea, and a great look into the faults that we’re unwilling to take a look at. thank you, and keep it up!