Outdated wisdom

One of the things that still knocks around popular American Christian culture are variations on stuff like “There’s a big difference between being a CHURCHIAN versus being a CHRISTIAN” or “Just going to Church no more makes you a Christian than standing in a garage makes you a car.”

See, here’s the thing: There was a time when going to Church was the conventional thing to do in order to establish your bona fides as a solid citizen. Bill Clinton hauling around his Big Ol’ Bible in order to demonstrate True Contrition and similar demonstrations of piety, as well as Southern Gothic displays of Horndog on Saturday night/Church-going on Sunday are something you run into with my generation of aging Boomers.

But with Millennials, the reality is that if a person is still in Church by the age of 30 it *is* proof they really believe in Christ, because Millennials don’t go to Church if they don’t believe. There is no social benefit of conventionality for Millennials who go to Church. Indeed, there is often a real cost. So don’t lecture Millennials on their need to abandon “religion” in favor of True Discipleship to Jesus. If they are in Church, the reason they are there is because they are trying to obey Christ, often against daunting odds and at considerable cost to themselves in terms of rejection by peers.