I saw a link on Facebook to a blog titled ‘Young Evangelicals Are Getting High‘ that addresses some of the trends I’ve seen among evangelical people my own age in recent years, namely that we’re tired of a casual, “cool” relationship with Jesus. Instead of finding the best coffee at church, we can go down the street. Instead of trying to make church music seem relevant, we can listen to bands like Mumford & Sons who are just as confused about the purpose of the church as we are.

Many of the people my age who have grown up in a Protestant Evangelical church have begun turning back to those with a high view of church (i.e. Lutheran, Catholic) or else going back to some more traditional ways of doing church with more liturgical services. The article makes this distinction:

congregations that carefully teach robust, historic Protestant theology to their children are notably not losing them to the Vatican, or even Lambeth. Protestant churches that recognize their own ecclesiastical and theological heritage, training their children to value and continue it in a 21st century setting, usually retain their youth. These kids have the tools they need to think biblically through the deep and difficult issues of the day and articulate their position without having a crisis of faith. They know the headlines, church history, theology and their Bibles, and so are equipped to engage culture in a winsome, accessible way. They have a relationship with God that is not based on their feelings or commitments but on the enduring promises of the Word and so they can ride out the trends of the American church, knowing that they will pass regardless of mass defections to Rome. That’s not to say that the Book of Common Prayer is unbiblical–far from it! It is to say that children raised in spiritually substantive and faithful homes usually find things like holy water, pilgrimages, popes and ash on their faces an affront to the means for spiritual growth that God has appointed in His Word.

Does your church practice many of these traditions, or is it too busy trying to “stay modern”?