The Miraculous Story of Michigan's Austin Hatch

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Basketball player Austin Hatch has faced unimaginable tragedy in his young life. Having lost a number of immediate family members and nearly his own life in two separate plane crashes, Austin has shown remarkable faith and perseverance in his journey to earning a basketball scholarship at the University of Michigan

ESPN tells his inspirational story here. Get your tissues ready.

Are Millennials Leaving The Church...Or Just Searching For Authentic Faith?

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There is a perception that seems to be pervasive in American evangelical churches that Millennials (i.e. those born in the early 1980s to the early 2000s) are leaving the Christian faith in droves. Some studies (such as this one from the Pew Research Center several years ago) helps to demonstrate that this might not be the case.

In fact, having worked in ministry with young people for twenty years, it's my opinion that those of Generation Y are mostly looking for an authentic expression of Christianity. They are tired of the fake religiosity that many of them have experienced personally or only know through negative portrayals of Christians in the media.

This does not mean, however, that there are not Millennials that were raised in the Church and have left. There are. But I think it's unfair to single out this generation as somehow having abandoned its faith in ways that haven't also been true of my generation (Gen X), my parents' generation (Boomers) and others before that.

As a member of this Gen Y, Barnabas Piper offers some helpful insights on the belief that Millennials are abandoning the Church in greater numbers than previous generations:

"In decades past America was a traditionally churched, religious nation. A significant portion of society was religiously involved, and church was a cultural centerpiece. Those who grew up in explicitly religious families and contexts attended church out of habit. It was expected that come Sunday morning they would scrub behind their ears, put on their nice trousers and tie, and off to church they'd go. The power of cultural expectations was enormous. In entire swaths of the country a person was a pariah if he wasn’t a churchgoer. But no more. Sure, the Bible belt still exists, but the cultural pressure to be in church week in and week out has waned to near zero. 

Along with waning cultural pressure, the respect for institutions has diminished among young people, and with it the respect for institutional leaders. While the good Reverend McGillicuddy might once have been a community icon and an authority figure in people's personal lives he is no longer. Neither are churches community hubs (at least in white communities). Young people don't look to institutions or their heads for instruction. The trust isn't there. 

And there is a reason trust is missing for the institutional church. For decades a gospel of moralism and legalism was taught in numerous churches. People attended because it was the "right thing to do" and a way to "get right with God." 

The expectations placed on members were a particular brand of morality built around which things we don't do (drink, cuss, smoke, watch certain movies, listen to certain music, etc.). It was a burdensome law, one nobody could keep. Many didn't even try though they acted like it on Sundays. And while everyone knew it they kept on doing it. Except now young people won't pretend any more or follow an institution so full of fakery. They don't trust the hypocrisy and they reject the moralism. 

So what is it young people are leaving behind? In many cases they are leaving a faux godliness. Millions of lost people, people hanging their hat on morality or mere attendance, populated the pews of the church in previous generations. They were just a lot harder to pick out than those who brazenly walk out the door, so hard we can't even be sure how many there were."

To read the rest of Piper's post Are Millennials Less Godly than Previous Generations? please click here.

Martin Luther King, Jr. on the Role of the Church in Pursuing Justice

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Taken from "Letter from a Birmingham Jail":

"In deep disappointment I have wept over the laxity of the church. But be assured that my tears have been tears of love. There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love. Yes, I love the church. How could I do otherwise? I am in the rather unique position of being the son, the grandson and the great grandson of preachers. Yes, I see the church as the body of Christ. But, oh! How we have blemished and scarred that body through social neglect and through fear of being nonconformists. 

There was a time when the church was very powerful--in the time when the early Christians rejoiced at being deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society. Whenever the early Christians entered a town, the people in power became disturbed and immediately sought to convict the Christians for being "disturbers of the peace" and "outside agitators."' 

But the Christians pressed on, in the conviction that they were "a colony of heaven," called to obey God rather than man. Small in number, they were big in commitment. They were too God-intoxicated to be "astronomically intimidated." By their effort and example they brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide and gladiatorial contests. 

Things are different now. So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an archdefender of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church's silent--and often even vocal--sanction of things as they are. 

But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If today's church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. Every day I meet young people whose disappointment with the church has turned into outright disgust. 

Perhaps I have once again been too optimistic. Is organized religion too inextricably bound to the status quo to save our nation and the world? Perhaps I must turn my faith to the inner spiritual church, the church within the church, as the true ekklesia and the hope of the world. 

But again I am thankful to God that some noble souls from the ranks of organized religion have broken loose from the paralyzing chains of conformity and joined us as active partners in the struggle for freedom. They have left their secure congregations and walked the streets of Albany, Georgia, with us. They have gone down the highways of the South on tortuous rides for freedom. Yes, they have gone to jail with us. Some have been dismissed from their churches, have lost the support of their bishops and fellow ministers. But they have acted in the faith that right defeated is stronger than evil triumphant. Their witness has been the spiritual salt that has preserved the true meaning of the gospel in these troubled times. They have carved a tunnel of hope through the dark mountain of disappointment. I hope the church as a whole will meet the challenge of this decisive hour. 

But even if the church does not come to the aid of justice, I have no despair about the future. I have no fear about the outcome of our struggle in Birmingham, even if our motives are at present misunderstood. We will reach the goal of freedom in Birmingham and all over the nation, because the goal of America is freedom. Abused and scorned though we may be, our destiny is tied up with America's destiny. Before the pilgrims landed at Plymouth, we were here. Before the pen of Jefferson etched the majestic words of the Declaration of Independence across the pages of history, we were here. For more than two centuries our forebears labored in this country without wages; they made cotton king; they built the homes of their masters while suffering gross injustice and shameful humiliation -and yet out of a bottomless vitality they continued to thrive and develop. If the inexpressible cruelties of slavery could not stop us, the opposition we now face will surely fail. We will win our freedom because the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of God are embodied in our echoing demands."

To read the complete letter, please click here.