What do the Millennials want from church?

I have lost track of the surveys that have shown the Millennial Generation walking away from organized religion in droves. Rachel Held Evans has become one of the strongest voices for reform, particularly within the evangelical tradition. Her recent article at CNN nicely summarizes some of her suggestions for making Christ and the church more attractive for these young adults as they find their way in this world.

We want an end to the culture wars. We want a truce between science and faith. We want to be known for what we stand for, not what we are against.

We want to ask questions that don’t have predetermined answers.

We want churches that emphasize an allegiance to the kingdom of God over an allegiance to a single political party or a single nation.

We want our LGBT friends to feel truly welcome in our faith communities.

We want to be challenged to live lives of holiness, not only when it comes to sex, but also when it comes to living simply, caring for the poor and oppressed, pursuing reconciliation, engaging in creation care and becoming peacemakers.

It is difficult to argue with those points. They line up well with the results of survey after survey of attitudes of young adults toward organized religion in America.

Rachel describes the tone deafness of some religious leaders. They think can tweak the communication style but leave the substance unchanged. Same old wine in new and improved packaging. Bread and circuses instead of a vibrant body of Christ.

We’re not leaving the church because we don’t find the cool factor there; we’re leaving the church because we don’t find Jesus there.

Perhaps we should also ask who stands to benefit from culture wars, political allegiance, and loud pronouncements of who is acceptable in God's eyes by religious authorities. It is about power and control by earthly men and women. It is nothing new. From Isaiah 29:13:

“These people come near to me with their mouth 

    and honor me with their lips,

    but their hearts are far from me. 

Their worship of me 

   is based on merely human rules they have been taught.