{"id":24648,"date":"2011-12-18T15:08:29","date_gmt":"2011-12-18T22:08:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/18\/you-can-only-manage-change-for-so-long.html"},"modified":"2011-12-20T17:05:49","modified_gmt":"2011-12-21T00:05:49","slug":"you-can-only-manage-change-for-so-long","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/18\/you-can-only-manage-change-for-so-long.html","title":{"rendered":"You can only "manage" change for so long"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whether talking about social institutions, political ones, or religious ones, efforts to manage change that don't actually involve change<\/i> are doomed to failure. Especially when people can vote with their feet.<\/p>\n

"I don\u2019t think that anything we said mattered much because I don\u2019t think any of it was what they wanted to hear. What they wanted to hear was some secret trick that would enable them to bring Gen X-ers back to church as faithfully obedient spectators in the pews without the church having to make any changes to the way things have always been done. And emphatically without any change in who had always been<\/i> in charge of doing it. They didn\u2019t really want to hear about how the way they had shaped the church might need to change in response to the new generation. Instead, they wanted to find some way of changing the new generation to make it conform to the way they had shaped the church."<\/i><\/p>\n

Christianity in this country is, in fact, dependent on the Millennial generation, just as it's been dependent on the Boomers. And for Millennials, there are far more options out there, both in terms of other faiths and in terms of not being churchgoing (or even religious) at all. How Christian churches will convince the Millennials to stick with them — and what that will actually mean in terms of how those churches evolve — will be fascinating to see. <\/p>\n

And, for some folks, terrifying. Because for too many Christians, especially socially prominent Christian "leaders," remaining the ones "in charge of going it," not to mention being the leaders of the majority religious faith in this country is far more important than what their faith actually means and does. It's a battle for social and cultural dominance, not for personal salvation and discerning and acting on God's will, and that desperate battle will only increase as the numbers continue to change. #ddtb<\/p>\n

\n

Embedded Link<\/strong><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tslacktivist \u00bb Millennials will change the future of the church<\/a>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTweet. First let me tell you a story from almost 20 years ago. My buddy Dwight and I were arguing over what I was going to wear to a meeting. \u201cI'm not a catcher,\u201d I told him. Catchers have to wear…\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whether talking about social institutions, political ones, or religious ones, efforts to manage change that don't actually involve change are doomed to failure. Especially when people can vote with their feet. "I don\u2019t think that anything we said mattered much because I don\u2019t think any of it was what they wanted to hear. What they … Continue reading “You can only "manage" change for so long”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,27],"tags":[107],"class_list":["post-24648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","category-religion","tag-ddtb"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":33263,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/04\/18\/when-teachers-proselytize.html","url_meta":{"origin":24648,"position":0},"title":"When teachers proselytize","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 18-Apr-13 6:42pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Dumb. Stupid. Irksome. Bad teaching. Bad history. Bad Christianity. It's like a Poor Pedagogy Trifecta.\u00a0But the question becomes, what does the kid do?Reshared post from +Les JenkinsA young atheist looks for input on a proselytizing teacher. http:\/\/wp.me\/pHP04-3lY\u00a0 A young atheist looks for input on a proselytizing teacher. I received this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2589,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/05\/31\/mr_mom_2.html","url_meta":{"origin":24648,"position":1},"title":"Mr. Mom","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 31-May-02 1:06pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Margie went off to the office, as she'd been planning to do in the afternoon, so that left Kitten and me to do the Errand Thang. 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This time out we\u2019ll be joined by a Very Special Guest:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Podcasts"","block_context":{"text":"Podcasts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/podcasts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6074,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/05\/28\/why_yes_this_is.html","url_meta":{"origin":24648,"position":3},"title":"Why, yes, this is my church, Part II","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 28-May-04 8:35am","format":false,"excerpt":"A new article in the Rocky about goings-on at our parish. 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And there will be a sequel....","rel":"","context":"In "Media & Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Media & Culture","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27700,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/01\/reinhold-niebuhr-on-the-separation-of-church-and-state.html","url_meta":{"origin":24648,"position":5},"title":"Reinhold Niebuhr on the separation of church and state","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 1-May-12 11:22pm","format":false,"excerpt":"From an interview with Mike Wallace in April 1958:\"The separation of church and state is necessary partly because if religion is good then the state shouldn\u2019t interfere with the religious vision or with the religious prophet. There must be a realm of truth beyond political competence, that\u2019s why there must\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24648\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}