Every church has outliers—people who don’t quite fit the mold. I’m not talking about unbelievers who try out church for a while but then leave because they don’t actually love Jesus. I’m talking about zealous Christians, passionate believers, people who would much rather feed the poor than listen to yet another sermon.

That title makes me think of a killer Pearl Jam song from the mid-nineties. Or was it the late nineties? Can’t remember. That era of my life is a blur for various chemical reasons. 

Before we dive in, I want to thank you all for offering helpful feedback during this series. Through Tweets and DM’s, comments and texts, emails and phone calls, my thinking has been tremendously shaped by people interacting with my posts.

I  suggested in my last post that what we’re talking about here is largely (though not exclusively) a white problem. Instead of adding the word “white” to everything I say, though, I’ll just stick to the terms “Millennial” and “church” with the understanding that what we’re talking about may not apply to churches made up of racial minorities.

I guess this could be subtitled “part 4” of my current series. But since I’m shifting gears a bit, I decided to let it sit as a stand alone, yet related, blog. After reading my first post in the series, my friend Derwin Gray Tweeted me a message saying that the flood of Millennials leaving the church is largely a white problem.

The following post is an interview. But instead of me interviewing an author, this time the author is going to interview me. We thought it'd be good to mix it up a bit.

Millennials are leaving the church for all sorts of reasons. And as I showed in a previous blog, there are different types of Leavers. However, after combing through various books and studies on the topic, all of which consist of extensive surveys and interviews of people who have left, I’m struck by the common reasons that keep popping up. 

I want to take a quick break from our current series on why millennials are fleeing the church and reflect on how I experienced God this weekend. My wife and I visited an amazing church in the French Quarter of New Orleans

In my last post, I pointed out that millennials (18-29 year olds) are fleeing the church. Again, it’s not that I’ve based this on a few anecdotal stories. It’s not that I’ve read one or two surveys that have argued this. The evidence is overwhelming,