Every now and then someone asks me what book or movie someone should read or watch if they wanted to understand me.  Usually I’d say read The Lord of the Rings or watch Fight Club (well, for the late 90s me).  I might say a novel by Douglas Coupland or a movie by M. Night Shyamalan.  Now I can direct them to a letter over at the Leadership Journal.

A few days ago I posted a link to Rachel Held Evans’ article on why Millennials are leaving the church.  A couple of weeks ago, Fritz Liedtke posted a “letter” at the Leadership Journal titled “Is This All There Is?”  In many ways, it reads like my version of RHE’s Millennial concern.  You can read the whole “letter” here.  Be sure to read it to the end.

I appreciate Liedtke’s sense of gratitude towards “the church” for all that it has done for him.  I also appreciate his candor in admitting where he feels abandoned, how he felt used up, how he isn’t quite sure how to reassert himself in church life.  I understand that.  A few months ago I left the Sunday school class that I had taught for a couple of years (and been a member of for most of my time in Hawaii).  I found that I had no place to go.  I found myself sitting alone in service constantly.  I did not want to complain, but I knew that I couldn’t keep on doing what I was doing.  Turns out the only thing harder than walking away for a while might be finding a good way to walk back in.

Quality quotes:

I wish there were more of a lot of things, but mostly, I wish there were more opportunities to encounter God. I also wish there were more people ahead of me on the path. After 40 years of sermons and studies, I don’t really need any more knowledge right now. I can’t even really hear the preaching anymore. What I need are spiritually deep mentors. Not just theologically deep, but spiritually deep. Not that they’re mutually exclusive, but there seems to be a difference. . .

I need leaders who actually deeply experience God, who deeply know him, not just about him, so that they can help me deeply know him too.

As with the RHE piece, the comments following the article are interesting (and in this case, more encouraging).  I strongly encourage you to give the article and the comments a look.