The Notorious RHE has done it again: hit the nail squarely on the head, Jesus style.
I wouldn’t consider myself a fan and I don’t regularly follow her blog, but just about everything she’s written that’s come my way has struck me as insightful and cutting to the core. I predict that she’ll be one of the primary voices from my generation that gets remembered and quoted for decades, if not longer. In short: she’s good.
In this particular piece, I felt like she had a tape recorder going inside my head. Like her, I exist on the chronological borderline between Gen X and Millennial. To all you pastors, parents, teachers, and church members who desperately want to know how to attract people my age (33) and younger: THIS IS YOUR ANSWER. Read it and read it well.
Let me say it again in no uncertain terms, just so we’re clear: This is what we’re thinking. This is what we’re looking for. If you really, actually want us in your church (and not just to stroke your ego and pad your pews, but because you’re interested in actually doing ministry with us), then these are the values you need to learn and internalize. Here are the highlight’s from RHE’s article…
Reblogged from CNN
By Rachel Held Evans
Many of us, myself included, are finding ourselves increasingly drawn to high church traditions– Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, the Episcopal Church, etc. – precisely because the ancient forms of liturgy seem so unpretentious, so unconcerned with being “cool,” and we find that refreshingly authentic.
What millennials really want from the church is not a change in style but a change in substance.
We want an end to the culture wars. We want a truce between science and faith. We want to be known for what we stand for, not what we are against.
We want to ask questions that don’t have predetermined answers.
We want churches that emphasize an allegiance to the kingdom of God over an allegiance to a single political party or a single nation.
We want our LGBT friends to feel truly welcome in our faith communities.
We want to be challenged to live lives of holiness, not only when it comes to sex, but also when it comes to living simply, caring for the poor and oppressed, pursuing reconciliation, engaging in creation care and becoming peacemakers.
You can’t hand us a latte and then go about business as usual and expect us to stick around. We’re not leaving the church because we don’t find the cool factor there; we’re leaving the church because we don’t find Jesus there.
The emphasis added on that last sentence is mine because that’s ultimately what it comes down to, not just for us, but for every generation. This is the perennial problem and I’d bet dollars to pesos that you once said the same thing about the church in your parents’ generation and I’m going to hear that same complaint from my own kids one day…
Hopping Hadrian's Wall 
As Rachel said in the blog . . . I’m a boomer grandmother, and I say ME TOO.
I just saw this article online and after reading it thought “Yes. This. Exactly this.” and then after some slow afternoon link clicking/internet browsing saw your post on the same article (which I actually still have the article open in another browser window).
When I read the line “You can’t hand us a latte and then go about business as usual and expect us to stick around. We’re not leaving the church because we don’t find the cool factor there; we’re leaving the church because we don’t find Jesus there.” I wanted to stand up and clap. If I want to go somewhere cool, I already have a lot of options for that already. If I want to be challenged personally and spiritually in a supportive community of people whose love and integrity inform their every decision, well, then there aren’t nearly as many options out there.