He spoke about the phenomenon of people going to church through high school and college and then disappearing from church. He said that it is not because the church is bad or boring or because the people who leave are evil, but because they have come with this young, fresh, naive "lets try this new method" energy about them and their ideas are immediately shut down. When this happens a few times, they will be gone.
I think he is on to something!
I think of how often our Adventist church methods are updated and refreshed and I don't believe it happens as fast as the changes in culture. I have seen this in our youth group. A year ago I thought I was pretty hip and in touch with the youth culture and just in the past four months I have realized that the youth subculture has changed so much recently and that I haven't kept up. Sometimes I feel like I shouldn't even have a part in designing a youth ministry just because I really don't know the best ways to communicate with students or because I no longer knows whats cool or not.
I guess it would be ideal if a church could update their culture and methods every day to keep up with the changes in culture.
I figure that in this area, the best thing to do would be to find the students who set the trends and lead their peers and just empower them and tell them to do all that is in their hearts.
Anyways I'd like to hear about your church culture and how often it's updated, and who makes the calls on how things are changed.
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