An Open Letter to Rachel Held Evans: 3 Ways to Keep Christianity Weird and Relevant

Dear Rachel,

I humbly present this letter to you, one millennial to another. This is not a rebuke or reprimand; this is a recognition of how your latest book, Searching for Sunday, and recent topics of focus, are encouraging a much-needed conversation in the church today. I am deeply concerned about the state of Christianity, just as you are. I do not believe the solution is being cooler, hipper or trendier; rather, it is a return to the supernatural foundations our faith was built on! For many, this concept is truly “weird.”

Why’s It’s Important for Christianity to Be WEIRD

You talk about how the church should maintain its weirdness. I wholeheartedly agree with you! In fact, I wrote an article about this, specifically addressing why we need supernatural manifestations in the church today (since many would classify such things as “weird”).

I want to do two things through this letter: encourage you to keep asking some of these critical questions, and also, provide you with some gentle guideposts along your personal quest in ‘Searching for Sunday.’ The way I see it, we are all taking this journey together and my prayer is that our generation would truly witness an authentic demonstration of Christianity.

The Christian faith must remain weird in order to be truly relevant. By definition, it is an otherworldly way of thinking and living. To reduce the Christian life to methods, messages, music or ministries is to cheapen the glorious resurrected lifestyle Jesus made available to “whosoever will …” follow Him.

Why Is a Generation Sleeping in On Sunday?

You wrote that “if early mornings indeed belong to the church, then my generation is sleeping in.” You present a staggering statistic, that in the United States, “59 percent of young people aged 18 to 29 with a Christian background have dropped out of church.”

Are millennials searching for something that, by and large, is not being offered? Yes! You then hit the nail on the head when you wrote, “millennials aren’t looking for a hipper Christianity. We’re looking for a truer Christianity, a more authentic Christianity.” This begs the question, what is this truer, more authentic Christianity? What does it look like? Jesus. The book of Acts. The early church.

So what will bring an Internet generation back through the church doors? It’s not the information, as important as it may be. It’s not the music, either. They can get information and music by watching online church services. And many are “attending” online services at some of the leading congregations across the globe. 

What will awaken a generation that’s sleeping in on Sunday? Weirdness. The supernatural. A kingdom that moves and advances in power. When Jesus enters in and turns over the tables of “church as usual,” all bets are off, and “decently and in order” looks more like the book of Acts than a tightly choreographed Broadway show. We would do well to remember the context Paul presented the concept of “decently and in order” in 1 Corinthians 14:40. It was not an environment that simply tolerated spiritual gifts, or was seeking to limit expressions of the supernatural. Far from it. Paul was providing consultation into a context where it was assumed and encouraged that the church would flow in the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit.

I am aware that such an environment needs to be regulated—a “free-for-all” is problematic, for sure. However, I am almost wondering what is more dangerous: a free-for-all where the Holy Spirit is welcomed and the responses of the people need to be lovingly pastored, or an environment where the Spirit of God is completely restricted. I am convinced a generation will continue to “sleep in on Sunday” to the degree that the raw power and presence of the Holy Spirit are denied entry and space in the context of the local church.

Some of contemporary church culture has become cookie cutter and sadly predictable. What happened to the days where the divine presence so permeated the atmosphere of the community of God that awe gripped the on-lookers … and yet, multitudes were added to the church? Where is the world that Luke describes to us in Acts 5: “Many signs and wonders were performed among the people by the hands of the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon’s Porch.  No one else dared join them, but the people respected them. 14 Believers were increasingly added to the Lord, crowds of both men and women” (12-14).

We claim to want to a move of God. But really … do we really want one? Christine Caine recently stated that “the only thing stopping a move of God on the earth is that the people of God are not willing to be interrupted or inconvenienced.” In other words, we seem content doing the same old thing, the same old way—and yet, we live deeply dissatisfied, hoping that there is more.

Is the prospect of such a culture weird in our modern context? Sure. But I agree with you, Rachel—we need to keep the church weird, because weird is normal according to what we see in Scripture.