5 Churchy Phrases (we can do without?)

Addie Zierman:

The statistics are in. The millennials are leaving the church, and nobody seems quite sure what to do about it.

I am one of them. Born in 1983, I belong to the wispy beginnings of the new generation. I turned 30 this year, and I’m raising two small boys. I hold within me both cynicism and hope. I left the church. I came back.

Here is what I can tell you about millennials: We grew up on easy answers, catchphrases and cliché, and if we’ve learned anything, it’s that things are almost always more complicated than that…. For some of us, the clichés are still maddening and alienating. Recently, I asked my followers online for the five church clichés that they tend to hate the most. These were the top five responses:

“The Bible clearly says…”

“God will never give you more than you can handle”

“Love on” (e.g. “As youth group leaders, we’re just here to love on those kids.”

Black and white quantifiers of faith, such as “Believer, Unbeliever, Backsliding”

“God is in control . . . has a plan . . . works in mysterious ways”

What would you add? Why?