Why Are So Many Millennials Leaving the Evangelical Church?

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I think there is a narrative that evangelicals, that young evangelicals (millennials) are leaving the faith because they are turned off by the parts of the gospel that are counter cultural. So, a biblical sexual ethic for instance, if you are going to hold to that then younger people are going to be turned off. I don’t see that. I do not think that narrative holds up. First, the research doesn’t bear that out. Bradley Wright, a researcher/sociologist form the University of Connecticut, has done great work on that and written a couple of books. Ed Stetzer form LifeWay Research has looked at it. And basically, they have said that no serious researcher can look at the data and say that evangelicals are in decline that way. What you are seeing is a drop off in nominal Christianity—mainline Christianity. But even if it was causing a decline, I think Christ did say that to follow him would involve at some points being counter cultural. And he said if they hated me, they are going to hate you. A servant is not greater than his Lord. So, I think we will still choose faithfulness over accommodation. So that we could be true to the gospel.

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