My ministry partner, Stephen Corbett, and I were renting a car recently after flying into Chicago. The likable young man who was handling our rental engaged us in conversation. He inquired as to what brought Stephen and me to the area, and we indicated we were on the ministry staff at SoHills and were attending a conference at a Chicago area church.By the time we reached this stage of our conversation, we were standing in the agency's parking lot inspecting our rental. Upon hearing that we were ministers the young man smiled and said, "That's great for you guys... but I don't do church. I don't need any church telling me how I'm supposed to know God."
I've got a strong sense that this young man's sentiment is representative of a broad section of our culture, especially those in their 20's. They love God, they love Jesus, they have a significant disdain for church... most likely because of bad experiences with church.
I'm unwilling to categorize people who feel this way as spiritually immature, or possessing a bad attitude. I'm thinking that church has to come to terms with the fact that we've got to develop a response to those who see church as irrelevant.
I don't have the answer... or I'd be letting all of you in on it. I'm just struggling with the question: "What are we willing to do to reach out to those people that no church is currently reaching?"
