#ReimagineCHURCH : First “Nones” ~ Now “Dones”

[Phil Miglioratti]

From John Armstrong:

The baby boom generation inherited the benefits of the post-War prosperity and opportunity. We also inherited a Christianity that invited us into an easy commitment, a form of religion that feed our latent narcissism. The result is that many of find the Bible inadequate, God insufficient and church impersonal.

We hear a lot about how Gen X and the Millennials have left the church ("Nones") but the fact is that a large number of my peers have also given up on the church ("Dones"). Many no longer see the church as deeply attractive and relevant. Why?

There are many contributing factors, at least to my mind. Here are a few:

1. The social climate is drastically different, leaving us more partisan and divided and far less optimistic.
2. The climate of prosperity and progress worked for our generation, at least to some extent (it is not working for ensuing ones). Yet we are still unsatisfied, looking to merely finish our lives with enough money and thus with little interest in our local churches.
3. The future was once "ours for the taking" but Vietnam, Watergate, the growth of wealth (for a few), etc. all have had a corrosive impact on us.
4. We are now nearing our own mortal end, and not doing well in facing death with a clear path into our eternal future. Yet the church has embraced an "uncertain" word about life after death. We hear little good teaching on this reality, both how to face it and how to prepare for it.
5. Our lives of self-sufficiency have let us down. The reality is that we have little hunger for intimacy with God given how busy we have been for decades and how empty we now feel.
6. We have sought happiness as an end-in-itself and when we met challenges and struggles we felt cheated and blamed God.
7. We are fed up with the "us" versus "them" lines drawn in the sand. Our churches have embraced, left and right, these lines and we shut out those who disagree. We have reached the end of our binary thought process which has failed us profoundly.
8. We never learned the art of transformative prayer and deep meditation in the Scriptures and upon the Word of God; i.e., the person of Christ.
9. We realized, at some point, that our propositions of faith are not the same as real, living, loving faith.
10. We are tired of church programs that promise to satisfy us and grow the church. We need deep formation and less strategic planning and renewal programs that promise what they cannot deliver.

I could list more but these came to mind as I prayed in my early morning worship time.

Some of my best friends are "dones" thus I know I have not done justice to their struggles with the church. I have concluded that though I do not leave the institutional local church I understand why they have done so. I do not judge them. Most of my "dones" are still deeply in love with Jesus spite of the church. I have learned so much from such friends and hope this will continue.