For over two decades, we have collectively watched young adults walking away from their faith at an alarming rate. Most Christian resources focus on this exodus from a sociological lens, and we have benefited from the work that has been done in this area.  

But as three people with on-the-ground experience working with young adults every day, it is increasingly clear that young adults are not so much reacting to Jesus, his message, or even his plan for the church.  Instead, many young people are being repelled by a counterfeit and enculturated version of Christianity, a version of Christianity that commingles the American culture and political ideology with the Christian faith. Jesus told us we could not serve two masters, and yet so many Christians have tried to serve both the teachings of scripture and the dictates of the American culture. Young adults have taken notice, and they want nothing to do with this tainted form of religion.  Many may bemoan the loss of so many young people, but we have often given them the reasons they cite when they leave. 

The number of young people who have had any meaningful exposure to the gospel or to the teachings of Jesus is decreasing every year.  Even those who claim to follow Jesus rarely engage the scripture or have learned the skill to understand it.  For this reason, our first goal is to highlight issues about Jesus and the scripture that most young adults have never heard.  While doing so, we are also validating many of the feelings of anger and pain that young people have when their only exposure to Christianity may be the enculturated versions that young adults rightly identify as counterfeit and inauthentic. 

We also want to demonstrate that faith is not opposed to questions and that it is not opposed to doubt.  So many faith communities have tried to talk over young adults, silencing young adults from openly sharing their honest struggles because of a fear that doubts might be contagious, or because so many Christians value certainty over the wisdom and resiliency that comes from finding biblical answers to difficult questions.  We want young adults to understand that their questions and concerns are reasonable, and to model the ongoing struggle with scripture that faithful discipleship requires.  We don’t want to give fifty cent answers to million dollar questions like so many have attempted to do simply to shut down these questions and doubts. Rather, we want to encourage youngs adults to lean into these questions and discover the intricacy that is deeply embedded in the Christian faith.

It is actually unanswered questions and doubts that lead many to deconstruct their faith.  But often, the faith handed down to us was weak to begin with, passed along without much depth or nuance. Young adults must make their faith in Jesus their own. Some call this process deconstruction, but deconstruction by itself is lazy.  Anyone can ask questions they cannot answer or to attack the seeming hypocrisy or faithlessness of others. It is much harder – and much more beneficial – for us to reconstruct our faith after we have questioned it, and so our goal is to use these honest conversations to discover a deeper, more robust discipleship to Jesus.  

While researchers can interview young adults about why they are leaving their faith, and we can preach sermons decrying the terrible statistics, ultimately this issue is a battle for the spiritual lives of young adults. The stakes are high. Millions of young adults are walking away from the only faith that can lead to true life.  And while Christians have developed various ways of understanding spiritual warfare, the Apostle Paul had a very succinct definition: spiritual warfare consists of arguments and opinions raised up against the knowledge of God. (2 Cor. 10:5).  Our response is also made clear in the same verse: to take every thought captive to obey Christ. 

Our podcast is designed to first and foremost untangle the teachings of Jesus and the will of God revealed throughout the scripture from the enculturated version of the gospel that has spread to many corners of the church in 21st Century America.   In doing so, we hope to validate what young adults have long suspected, while challenging them to go deeper with Jesus rather than bail out on a counterfeit gospel.  We want to demonstrate honest questions and to wrestle with doubts while also encouraging young adults to do the work of seeking answers and working to rebuild their faith. 

In short, we want to demolish every argument and opinion that stands against the knowledge of God, and to take every thought captive to obey Christ.  We pray that you do, too.