Your 20somethings not in church?

One of the reasons I wrote One.Life: Jesus Calls, We Follow is because so many parents have said this to me and then asked the big question:

My son or my daughter is a Christian but has no use for church.What can I do about it?

My conservative estimate is that I’ve been asked this 200 times. The answer is not simple. I tell them church is not just important but it is the locus of what God is doing through Christ in this world.

The problem often enough is connecting what they think church is with what young (sometimes radical) adults think church is.

20somethings can be profoundly serious about following Jesus Christ and find church shockingly alienating. One of my former students who no longer goes to church said to me not long ago “If I found the church interested in Jesus I’d be there in a minute. Believe me, following Jesus is what matters most to me!”

Why is this alienation occurring? I explore some of this in the book. Clearly, the kingdom vision of Jesus, with its profound commitment to justice for the poor, peace, love and finding a vocation that matters are not at the top of the list either of what churches talk about on Sunday mornings and neither are they central enough to what churches are committed to during the week with their funds.

Many of us know we have but one life and we want it to count for Jesus and his kingdom.

I think this book will help such parents to see what young adults consider important to “church” and to being a disciple of Jesus.