2 Timothy 3:6,7 “They are the kind who worm their way into households and captivate vulnerable women who are weighed down with sins and led astray by various passions, 7who are always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.

Important Takeaways:

• As attendance dips, churches change to stay relevant for a new wave of worshippers
• American Christianity is in the midst of an identity crisis. Attendance is in steep decline, especially among millennials and Gen Z who say traditional church doesn’t speak to their realities.
• [Some say] they’re looking for a faith community, but they’re burned out on traditional religion.
• Pastor Chris Battle walked away from more than three decades leading Black Baptist churches and turned his attention to Battlefield Farm & Gardens in Knoxville. They grow vegetables and sell them at a farmer’s market. They also collect unsold produce from around the city and deliver it to people in public housing once a week.
• Methodist pastor Bradley Hyde, sitting at a table sipping java while the milk steamer hisses behind the counter. “I think people were already wanting to leave church, and Covid gave them a great opportunity to say, ‘Good bye.’ I’m not the only pastor who has noticed that, but a lot of people have just not come back.”
• Baptist Pastor Chris Battle says he used to measure the success of a church by what he calls “the BPs.”
• “Butts in pews, bucks in the plate, baptisms in the pool, and building programs. The BPs. That’s how you grow a church, right?” he says, chuckling.
• When he was senior pastor, the question used to be how can the church change the culture? Today, he says, it’s how do we change the culture of the church?

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