Brooke Obie Interviews Rachel Held Evans on Why Millennials Are Leaving the Church
My interview on Guideposts.org:
New York Times best-selling author Rachel Held Evans knows a thing or two about millennials leaving the Church. A decade ago, the Christian blogger was one of them.
Born to a deeply evangelical Christian family in Dayton, Tennessee, the buckle of the Bible Belt, Evans had professed her belief in Christ at age 13 and quickly became known in her community for being what church folks call, “on fire for God.” Facilitating the conversions to Christianity of her atheist high school classmates, Evans was confident in who Christ was, who God was, and who she was because of Them.
Then, she went to college.
As an English major at Bryan College, Evans started asking questions about things she didn’t understand in the Bible or in doctrine. Her questions were often met with concern for her salvation, with deflection, with insults about her lack of faith—but no answers. The message Evans received was that there was no room for doubt or even questions in the Church. So, eventually, she excused herself and quietly slipped out of the backdoor of church life.
During this time, Evans became a well-known blogger who often wrote about her struggles with faith. She’s now written 3 books, the latest of which is Searching for Sunday : Loving, Leaving and Finding the Church, where she poetically recounts her faith journey and how she was able to find her way back to church.
Just a few days after Evans gave birth to her and her husband’s first child, Guideposts.org caught up with the new mom to talk about why millennials are leaving the Church and what can be done about it.
Read the full interview on Guideposts.org