The New Copernicans: Millennials and the Survival of the Church

by David John Seel Jr.

"Our millennial children, as well as nonchurchgoing millennials, are both the church's greatest challenge and its most exciting new opportunity."
—John Seel, PhD

Warning: There is a fundamental frame of reference shift in American society happening right now among young adults. You may think of this group as millennials—those born between 1980 and 2000—but millennials resist this label for good reason: the national narrative on them is pejorative, patronizing, and just plain wrong.

Here's what we do know:


Of Americans with a church background, 76 percent are described as "religious nones" or unaffiliated—and it's the fastest growing segment of the population.
Close to 40 percent of millennials fit this religious profile.
Roughly 80 percent of teens in evangelical church high school youth groups will abandon their faith after two years in college.
It's unlikely that the evangelical church can survive if it is uniformly rejected by millennials, and yet:


Millennial pastors and youth ministers are disempowered; their perspective is often not taken seriously by senior church leadership.
Most millennial research is framed in categories rejected by millennials; that is, left-brained, analytical communication is lost on right-brained, intuitive millennials.
Evangelicals' bias toward rational left-brained thinking makes the church seem tone-deaf.
What's next? Read on. John Seel suggests survival strategies—communication on-ramps for genuine human connection with the next generation. It can be done.

Genres: Religion, Christianity, Book Club, Church, Leadership

224 pages, Paperback

Published January 16, 2018

Reviews

[sam tannehill · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dr. Seel offers some keen observations about the church in America and the cultural changes on the horizon. I have several issues with the foundational assumptions from which Dr. Seel proceeds with his arguments for what the church should do next. Dr. Seel's main thesis is that the church in America is not preparing for the inevitable transference of Christian faith and tradition that is to come when the Millennial generation assumes the leadership of the church. He argues that the church is not assessing or responding to the "frameshift" of worldview thought and action/behavior that the Millennial generation is subscribing to in general. And the prognosis that Dr. Seel offers is that the church attune itself to be able to properly assess this "frame-shift" and react accordingly. This involves a change from the church from a position of closed-transcendent doctrine and practice to an admission of open-transcendence. This means that the church should welcome critique and "b.s. flags" from non-Christian, open-transcendent outside observers. And the desired end-state is a church that prepares an heir in the Millennial generation that will tender a Christianity from shared experience, rather than instruction and doctrine.

Dr. Seel, in my opinion, is making several mistakes. The big "C" Church, that is the body of all Christian believers, is not a set of doctrine and practice that is transferred from generation to generation with a fear that future generations will or will not bear the true Christian faith, and that Christian faith will be won or lost, preserved or extinguished if this transference does not occur. Rather, Christ is the head of the Church, and the Church is preserved through his Kingship and providence.

Another issue that I have is that this book focuses on this crucial change of attitude that the church in America. But the Church is not American, and the Christian faith will be preserved regardless of this change happens in America. The Christian Church is growing in other parts of the world, and this book does not acknowledge that.

This book also does not acknowledge the long history of the development of Christian doctrine and practice. Dr. Seel mentions a change in Christian instruction that occurred during the Enlightenment. However, he does not say specifically what changed or who made the changes. He only says that the changes led to a loss of value in experience.

Having read a fair amount of Church history and about the development of Christian doctrine and practice, my opinion of Dr. Seel's arguments is that they are inadequate based on his foundational assumptions from which to draw his way forward. He advises Christians to embrace an experiential, mystical pilgrimage to faith and to invite others along, at the expense of the value for Christian instruction and indoctrination. This means discarding a great deal of thought and literature on Scripture and what it means, that has been developed by devout thinkers, loving pastors, and theological scholars over 2,000 years, led by Christ's Kingship and the authority of Scripture.

When Dr. Seel advises Christians to seek holiness at the Burning Man's Orgy Dome to share their experiential pilgrimage with other open-transcendent pilgrims, then he is advising Christians to seek holiness in paganism, not Christianity. That is a problem. I think that advice such as this is derived from a belief that all things can be subjugated to Christ and that all things will be redeemed by Christ. Yet, this is not a reason for Christians to seek truth in the world rather than the revelation of Scripture, which Scripture warns against.

An other major and minor issues: Dr. Seel uses several demographic statistics, but even fewer references to Scripture. The references to Scripture are short and without context.

My overall assessment of this book is that it is interesting and concise and offers keen observations, but it is not edifying to either Christians or non-Christians beyond the observations. The foundational assumptions, the arguments, and the prognosis are not helpful to understanding the problem that Dr. Seel states in his thesis or how to address it. On the contrary, those are the reasons why I advise readers not to read this book for instruction. It does start a good conversation that I think needs to be had and I hope that Dr. Seel welcomes critique and disagreement to his ideas. Dr. Seel presents his arguments with grace and with a loving tone. I did use this book to start some interesting conversations with other folks who I know would agree with Dr. Seel. But I do not agree. For readers interested in where the Christian Church is going, I would recommend reading a church history (Philip Schaff or Nicholas Needham). I would recommend reading "Pro Rege" or "Our Program" by Abraham Kuyper. And I would recommend reading theology as opposed to non reading theology. Christians believe that faith is given by grace and based on knowledge. That knowledge is through instruction.

If we rely merely on our experience, then we are at risk of leaning on our own knowledge and understanding. And further, if the Church is teaching Christians to evangelize non-Christians with accounts based primarily on experience, and starts moving away from instruction and indoctrination for fear of losing a generation to whom the Christian faith will be heired, then it is not trusting in the truth of Scripture of the Headship of Christ.

[Peter · Rating 2 out of 5]

My local small group is just finishing this book by John Seel. This writer is insistent that we need to move beyond the negative research studies that claim young adults are narcissistic, entitled and lazy, caught in the spin of self-centred, middle-class Moralistic Therapeutic Deism. In fact, Seel claims that young people are the carriers of a new paradigm of Copernican proportions, and this paradigm is not only more holistic and true (more right-brained), it’s more Jesus-like.

The message of the book is a warning to Christians: Change your ways, or like the self-satisfied Titanic you will crash and drown on the iceberg of the new cultural frame! Current membership decline in the church is a symptom of the church’s increasing irrelevance – its pride, its judgmental attitude, its disembodied emphasis on doctrine. Instead, what youth want is a body of Christ that is more relational and experiential, more open to mystery, spirit, beauty and justice. In a word: it needs to be more authentic – not fake or cool, but like real people who connect with the “longings and losses of others in a manner that is deeply human.” Our focus should not be on inviting youth to join “us” in the church, but rather “joining together on a shared spiritual pilgrimage to a yet undeclared destination.”

There is some good cultural analysis here, but ultimately, it falls into the trap of denigrating the old and extolling youth as the promise of the new. Its the belief in the genius of youth, at the expense of something more basic to Christian theology: entering into the death and resurrection of Christ by his Spirit. We can learn some things from youth, but salvation lies elsewhere.

[Paul Rasmussen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book captured potential reasons for many of the conflicts that I’ve experienced with faith over the last few years. The author describes the friction millennials must grapple with as they navigate questions that don’t have easy answers in a more traditional faith paradigm. While the book was written for pastors of evangelical churches, I believe that the concepts span Christianity and even across other religions.

Some key things I take away:
- Only two real ways to change a paradigm are experience and imagination - if we millennials want our more traditional leaders to understand, we must find a way to let them imagine our reality. Conversely, if leaders hope to convince the growing group of religiously unaffiliated that there’s value in organized religion, they must immerse themselves in the other worldview.
- Nuanced open / closed approximates similarities better than faith/no faith - open doesn’t mean open to everything, but it means you’re open to the possibility that your life to that moment may not have given you the tools to accurately see truth. Closed is more dogmatic - whether faith is included or not
- Start with love, mud on your shoes - go be with people, and that’s when you’ll change paradigms and build the relationships that God hopes.

My one critique of the book is how harsh it is in criticizing traditional thinkers. There was probably a reason for this, but I didn’t get enough appreciation for how difficult it is to change how you view the world or why more closed paradigms evolved to be the way that they are.

[Christian Koethke · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good analysis with a poor solution. Dr. Seels sounds the alarm bell that millennials are leaving the church in droves. He also details why they are probably leaving.

The solution? Dr. Seels asks us to let go of hard/unpopular doctrines and embrace a liberal view of christianity. Become more relational and mystical and the rest will take care of itself. He also repeatedly cites KA Smith. I enjoy Smith but citing any author too often makes one wonder if they should be reading the cited author instead.

Seel advocates for a turn toward liberal theology to appeal to millennials. He asks churches to soften in areas like homosexuality, women in ministry, etc so that people will embrace Jesus and the church. The problem is that the church needs to be faithful to scripture first. Also, the church tends to grow when it flows against the cultural excesses of the day. A cross centered life causes us to let go of our sinful proclivities and to ask others to do the same. True Christian doctrine does not change to attract people and this seems to be a major point of his book. Change your ways and some of your less desirable doctrines so that young people will like you.

[Cameron Roxburgh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two comments about the book.

It is an excellent review of Millenials and who they are, how they think and what makes them tick. It was very helpful.

Secondly, I thought it was severely lacking in its dealing with how we might encourage both faith in Millenials and then listen to what they have to say. I found the book leaning heavily to capitulation, instead of encouraging us to be able to find the place of listening with convictions.

Even the title sets me off on the wrong foot. It is as if we need to cater to the whims of a specific generation (why is one more important than another) in order for the church to survive. Seriously? Like if we don't give them what they want, the church will die? Hmmm. Not sure if he checked with God on that one.

Maybe I need to read it again... because the first time I was just getting angry. But maybe that is my problem. According to the book, that may just be a sign that I am unwilling to listen or change. Me thinks there may be another option also.

[Daunavan Buyer · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book left me feeling quite troubled. I understand the need for a book like this, but it many ways I felt that hjs conclusions were more sociological than theological, more philosophical than soteriological. I know that he wasn’t explicitly doing this but he seemed to deny the power of God in calling people back to relationship with Himself. Does evangelicalism need to change? Sure… but the change should be rooted in the leadership of the Holy Spirit as opposed to trying to capitulate to cultural norms. Jesus has been building His church for 2000 years and even with all the mess that has been made “in his name,” He will continue to do so. This just seems like he’s advocating for a much more complicated “seeker sensitive model” like we saw in the late 90’s.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am excited to introduce you to a book that, while not a faith and work book, has serious implications for the future of the faith and work movement, John Seel’s The New Copernicans: Millennials and the Survival of the Church. I realize that is a strong statement; please read on.

John is a cultural renewal entrepreneur and social impact consultant. He was the former director of cultural engagement at the John Templeton Foundation and is the founder of John Seel Consulting LLC, specializing in millennial research. He has a Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Maryland, an M.Div. from Covenant Theological Seminary, and a B.A. from Austin College.

Seel starts the book, not in the present, but by jumping back a century to describe how the famous sinking of the Titanic could have been avoided. Captain Edward J. Smith received nine warnings which unfortunately were largely ignored:

The Marconi radio operators in charge of passenger communications on the Titanic received even more updated and threatening warnings about icebergs, but as they were employed to facilitate passenger communication, they did not relay this information to the ship’s bridge. Consequently, those with the greatest knowledge of the situation [emphasis mine] remained silent. Once an iceberg loomed directly ahead, there were few options still available. By then it was too late.
Seel describes the three levels that are used for emergency radio warnings at sea, in escalating order of importance: sécurité, pan-pan, and mayday. This provides the impetus and context for this book.

This book is pan-pan alert. There is a looming cultural frame shift, largely carried by millennials, which if ignored is poised to threaten the evangelical church. The warning is not limited to youth or college ministry, but encompasses the entire legacy and survivability of what is known as institutional evangelicalism.

Warning: There is a fundamental frame of reference shift in American society happening right now among young adults. You may think of this group as millennials—those born between 1980 and 2000—but millennials resist this label for good reason: the national narrative on them is pejorative, patronizing, and just plain wrong.

Here’s what we do know:
Of Americans with a church background, 76 percent are described as “religious nones” or unaffiliated—and it’s the fastest growing segment of the population.
Close to 40 percent of millennials fit this religious profile.
Roughly 80 percent of teens in evangelical church high school youth groups will abandon their faith after two years in college.
It’s unlikely that the evangelical church can survive if it is uniformly rejected by millennials, and yet:

Millennial pastors and youth ministers are disempowered; their perspective is often not taken seriously by senior church leadership.

Most millennial research is framed in categories rejected by millennials; that is, left-brained, analytical communication is lost on right-brained, intuitive millennials.
Evangelicals’ bias toward rational left-brained thinking makes the church seem tone-deaf.
–book description and background from the publisher’s website
I had an opportunity to interview John about his book and his research on millennials.

Chris Robertson: What was your original purpose or goal for The New Copernicans?

John Seel: The goal was to right the widespread misperceptions in the public about millennials and to give them a language by which to articulate their important insights. It was to right a wrong.

CR: How does The New Copernicans make a distinct contribution to the existing body of knowledge?

JS: It is true that millennials are the most studied and most misunderstood cohort in American history. This book is different in that it seeks to let millennials frame the questions, it is not based on cohort research, and it provides a broader cultural analysis of what is happening in and through these young people. It argues that millennials are carriers of a shift in the plate tectonics of American religious culture. They think differently and better.

CR: What are the top two things you most desire people to come away with after reading this book?

JS: The church has long accommodated itself to a left-brain Enlightenment mindset that is now threatening its own survival. A frameshift is needed if one is to be genuinely biblical and there is not a lot of time to make this difficult shift. The survival of institutional evangelicalism is at stake.

CR: I’m curious what are the 1-2 things have really struck you as you have learned more about this generation.

JS: These young people are very tired of being stereotyped unfairly. This defensiveness sometimes makes it hard for them to articulate the unique way that they process reality and relationships. As a result, their important contribution is sometimes muted. Their younger siblings, sometimes called Gen Z, are far less muted. Gen Z young people are the voices behind the March for Our Lives movement.

CR: Do you have any stories of individuals who have thought incorrectly about millennials and how their thinking has changed?

JS: Tom Scott, formerly of Nantucket Nectars and CEO of The Nantucket Project, had his eyes opened. He said, “I’m embarrassed to admit I have held an under-examined negative view of millennials. John has opened my eyes to what is possible.” Hopefully, as a result, there will be more millennial voices participating on stage at The Nantucket Project.

CR: I know you’re currently working on a book about vocation and the common good. As I read The New Copernicans I could not help but make connections to the faith and work movement and see some opportunities based on your research if the movement is to endure. As you study the faith and work movement, what opportunities or improvements do you see as you reflect on the research you did for The New Copernicans?

JS: Millennials think about work in a very different manner than previous generations. They avoid sacred vs. secular dualism, which is good. They start with the “why” or “meaning” and then work toward the “how” and “what.” They are more entrepreneurial and more aspirational. They make no mental distinction between for-profit and non-profit. Nor do they think in terms of institutions, but results. They have also adopted a portfolio kind of employment pattern. No business will long survive without aligning themselves to their priorities.

CR: Is there anything you would like The Green Room audience to understand about millennials in particular?

JS: Millennials are the needed answer to the impending crisis facing the church. They are also the front line of the missional opportunity. Sadly, for many evangelical churches, this will prove to be a bridge too far.

I would like to highlight Seel’s discussion of dwellers versus seekers/explorers from the book:

Hitchhiking is one of the cheapest ways to travel. It is best to think of it as a walking adventure with the chance of getting a ride, more than anything else. People today are far more reluctant to pick up hitchhikers than in the past. One needs to be prepared to walk all day.

For most hitchhikers, the adventure is the appeal, as much as a cheap mode of travel. There is an attitude of openness, an unscheduled chance encounter with a total stranger perhaps going in a similar direction. The journey is the point as much as the destination. The picture of a hitchhiker on an open road is an apt metaphor for New Copernicans.

Dwellers are those who are happy where they are, who feel they have found the truth, while seekers, represented by New Copernicans, are those still looking for answers. Anyone can be an explorer: a Catholic, a Muslim, even an atheist. [Father Tomas] Halik, [Czeck philosopher] believes that those in the community of seekers actually have more in common with one another than do seekers and dwellers from within the same faith tradition.

Dwellers, whether religious (fundamentalists), philosophical (foundationalists), or political (ideologues) are increasely passé because this perspective is no longer on the front line and is receding from cultural relevance. It continues to exist in subcultural pockets, but is no longer cutting edge or broadly held.
His section reflecting on Burning Man gives a good description of the millennial audience that our faith and work movement needs to engage.

At its best, Burning Man is an experience of liminality, a desire to transcend or find the sacred in the ordinary.

If Burning Man is New Copernicans’ most effective cultural event, then the open immanent social imaginary is their natural habitat. Here is the church’s missional front line. If we pay close attention to the world they are now creating in business, education, politics, religion, and philosophy, we can begin to see the long-term significance of this emerging perspective. New Copernicans are in the process of rethinking their understanding of human society. We are now caught in the brief interlude between the lightning of their insight and the thunder of its implications to cultural institutions. As we touched on before, even now the Olympics and the Republican Party are aware that they face a crisis because of the disaffection of millennials. The evangelical church will follow. So millennials are a benefit to us as observers because their reactions are valuable in determining the ongoing implications of this cultural shift.

The Burning Man culture is based on ten principles, principles that largely express the contours of the New Copernican sensibility: no boundaries, a priority on experience and participation, expressive individualism, respectful community, antonomous authenticity, oneness with nature, justice, beauty, love, and spirit.

In a world where nuance, uncertainty, and shades of grey are ever more common, becoming comfortable with ambiguity is one of the most valuable skills you can acquire. If you view your job as taking multiple choice tests, you will never be producing as much value as you are capable of…Life is an essay, not a Scantron machine. -Seth Godin

I heartily encourage you to get a copy of The New Copernicans. This is an important resource as we consider the past and future for the faith & work movement as well as how we engage millennials as well as other generations in our work, churches, and organizations.

http://greenroomblog.org/2018/04/06/b...

[Jeff Elliott · Rating 4 out of 5]

From the foreword:
New Copernicans don’t view life in traditional binaries of sacred versus secular, biblical versus nonbiblical, left versus right, and so on. They are comfortable with both/and. They are the champions of non-dualistic unitive thinking. They don’t place all their life experiences into clean categories or systems. Instead, they embrace a life lived off the edge of the map. They eschew our traditional maps and navigate by compass toward what is experientially good—good people, good experiences, good causes. It’s a world where story trumps worldview; where experience trumps theology. Much has been written about the whats of millennials—what they want, what they like. Much has also been written about the hows of millennials-how to manage them, how to motivate them. John Seel helps us understand the why behind the whats and the hows. This book serves as a primer to introduce how an increasing number of people are thinking and experiencing life.

p. 6
Moving between frames happens through engaging the imagination or through lived experience. A frame shift, like all paradigm shifts, is the result of a transrational aha moment that results in thinking outside the box or outside the given frame. Reason works within frames, the imagination between them. Piling on facts when they don’t fit the frame will change nothing. Instead one needs a new story.

The point here is simply that our bias toward rational left-brained Enlightenment thinking makes it very hard for the evangelical church to communicate effectively to a cultural frame shift.

p. 19
The import of this neurological insight for our analysis is that millennials not only think differently, they think better. They have intuited a more accurate assessment of human nature and reality.

p. 23
We learn best from experience that captures our imagination and which we subsequently reflect upon analytically; hand, heart, and head. Millennials assume experiential learning that is the opposite of Enlightenment assumptions: where embodiment takes precedence over cognition, practice over principle, street over book smarts, and lived experience over classroom theory. Theirs is a post-Enlightenment perspective where the messiness or an incarnational reality is paramount.

p. 48
Dwellers, whether religious (fundamentalists), philosophical (foundationalists), or political (idealogues), are increasingly passe because this perspective is no longer on the front line and is receding from cultural relevance. It continues to exist in subcultural pockets, but is no longer cutting edge or broadly held.

p. 49
Millennials are the poster children of seekers or explorers because they maintain an open mind and adopt a provisional attitude toward belief and reality, all the while longing for more. They embrace epistemological humility (the starting attitude), follow the scientific method and the explorer's quest (a process of open inquiry), and maintain a curious metaphysical openness to the laws of life wherever they may be found. They celebrate the journey, the exploration and the quest for new discoveries. They adopt the posture of a humble pilgrim or a courageous explorer rather than an arrogant teacher or know-it-all theologian.

It means that all I believe I must accept with a measure of humility, an openness to correction, and a willingness to see the same truth from different angles--even or especially truth derived from reading the Bible.

p. 50
At issue is not what I believe, but how many angles inform my faith. It is in this sense that we are all secular now. We are all attached by an acute awareness of alternative positions to our own. The price of pluralism and hypermodernity is an increased acceptance that all belief is contingent-infused from its inception with contestability, never held with absolute certainty.

p. 51
Rather, they embrace humility, the possibility that some of our angles on the truth are incomplete and inadequate or just plain wrong. As the apostle Paul reminds us, "we know in part" (1 Cor. 13:9). It is actually good for our faith that we acknowledge this.

p. 52
We would be wise to walk away from the Enlightenment's left-brained, either/or framing. This will require embracing ambiguity, paradox, and mystery, all of which are characteristics of Celtic spirituality and Eastern Orthodoxy. Left-brained thinking is the consequence of bad philosophy, reductionist theology, and erroneous neuroscience.

We would be wise to embrace complexity and contingency, humanness and fallibility. This is to adopt a humble attitude.

p. 56
New Copernicans favor experiential learning. One of the most important characteristics of this shift is its bias against abstractions in favor of lived experience. Rather than having everything explained
and laid out in theory, New Copernicans would rather muddle through experientially and figure it out on their own. They would rather live in through themselves than accept an abstract theoretical model or philosophical worldview first. The existential and the phenomenological take precedence over abstractions and theory (therefore rationalistic worldview instruction has limited value to them). They take their views from life, not authorities. Yes, this is a messy approach and inevitably filled with errors. But they are uniquely their errors.

p. 59
…eight in ten millennials said experiences help shape their identity and create lifelong experiences. Running has had a renewed surge in popularity not because of traditional 10K events or marathons but because of nontraditional extreme events such as Tough Mudder, the Color Run, and the Spartan Race. According to Running USA, in 2013 more runners participated in nontraditional races than traditional events, such as half-marathons and marathons, a fortyfold growth since 2009.

p. 65
There is an incredible opportunity for the church. The arena where there is the greatest potential for spiritual cultural influence is among open immanents [Seel describes four social imaginaries of the “good life”-“Dwellers”-Closed transcendent, and closed immanent and “Explorers”-open transcendant and open immanent. See pg. 64]—the very social imaginary where most young people and New Copernicans are found.

p. 77
Intellectually, we would do well to return to an ancient faith expressed prior to the Enlightenment. Philosopher James K. A. Smith writes, “I will argue that the postmodern church could do nothing better than be ancient, that the most powerful way to reach a postmodern world is by recovering tradition.”
“Those whose Christian experience has been shaped by American fundamentalism are particularly open and receptive to this critique of determinate modern religion since we have seen and experienced firsthand the kind of harm that is done—both to people and to the gospel—by such practices and theological formulations.”
But the intellectual difficulties of this shift are further compounded by the existential damage done by the tone this modernist posture takes. One rarely gets to the epistemological debates with New Copernicans because they are already turned off by the tone we take in our public affirmations of faith. They do no hear contingency or humility, and thus the entirety of our faith is written off as inauthentic.

p. 78
Again, I am not advocating for the absence of convictions or the embrace of either skepticism or relativism, only the self-awareness that my knowledge is limited and my proclivity for error is real. We need to hold our convictions and beliefs with an open hand suffused with humility. We must move from closed to open, from dweller to explorer. The most important difference between people is between those for whom life is a quest and those for whom it is not. As long as we portray the sense that we have a corner on truth and that we have nothing to learn from others, the conversation with New Copernicans will remain closed.

p. 79
We need to do a much better job of matching our music to our lyrics, to allow the beauty of the gospel to be evident in how we talk to others, how we see ourselves, and how we present our convictions. Catholic spokesman of Pope John Paul II's Theology of the Body Christopher West reminds us that "the Christian message is often set to the wrong music, or is is not set to music at all. When this happens, Christianity becomes dry, cold, and seemingly irrelevant to the real desires of the heart." Can we win the question with beauty and music? Can we speak first to the imagination and heart? Isn't this the lesson of the compelling film Babette's Feast?

p. 80
Custer was a flamboyant, charismatic leader, not unlike many megachurch pastors. His courage has rarely been questioned. The combination of arrogance and poor reconnaissance was his undoing. History need not repeat itself.

p. 96
What we experience is secularism , rather than an antipathy toward faith, is a renewed openness and explosion of many modes of believing, all of which are contested and held with a more humble open hand. The either/or dichotomies of secularism are rejected for the both/and framing of secularism. Seth Godin counsels, “In a world where nuance, uncertainty and shades of grey are ever more common, becoming comfortable with ambiguity is one of the most valuable skills you can acquire. If you view your job as taking multiple choice tests, you will never be producing as much value as you are capable of…Life is an essay, not a Scantron machine.
So a secular age does not entail the rise of atheism and unbelief but instead the rise of cross-pressured belief, where belief and doubt are fused comfortably together.

p. 101
It we are going to be useful partners in the pilgrimages of New Copernicans, we will first need to become the kind of people who reflect this larger reality of love. There will need to be a gentleness, flexibility, patience, winsomeness, and openness that have not marked many believers.

Lewis [C.S.] says a pagan life well lived with brutal honesty will bring you back to the church; the pagan’s pilgrimages are not in vain.

p. 103
If we think of faith as a pilgrimage rather than a light switch, we’ll be in a much better place to assist New Copernicans in their spiritual seeking. There are certain characteristics of open transcendent believers. They have a combination of intellectual humility combined with deep spiritual mysticism. There is immediacy to their experience of God that is often combined with a scientific inquisitiveness.

p. 102
For left-brain—oriented evangelicals, we will have to overemphasize the poetic to get some measure of balance.
What we mean by addition is that your relationship with Jesus—participation in the resources of the kingdom of God—builds on your longing for love, justice, beauty, and spirit.

p. 115
We’ve returned to the age of polytheism. It’s a rebirth of pagan gods. Judeo-Christianity never defeated paganism, but rather drove it underground. Now that Judeo-Christianity is in cultural decline, however, what was once underground is now resurfacing as a popular means of spiritual communion.

p. 116
Evangelicals prefer the practical atheism of capitalism and the techno-humanism of scientism to a belief system that sees spirits in trees or rocks. We would do well to reread C.S. Lewis: “Christians and pagan had much more in common with each other than either has with a post-Christian. The gap between those who worship different gods is not so wide as that between those who worship and those who do not.” For many neo-paganism is a way back to spiritual reality. We need to celebrate and appreciate this neo-pagan cultural turn.

p. 117
Evangelical churches are too often business enterprises before they are spiritual communities-pastors are CEOs rather than spiritual guides. Various forms of neo-paganism are resurfacing as the church’s influence on culture has weakened in American culture. We need a renewed emphasis on the reality of the living presence of Christ and nature as a portal to transcendence.



New Copernicans live their lives within an immanent frame: that is, they assume that their lives can be lived successfully within the natural order without any reference to the transcendent or God. The idea of God is not an operational part of their day-to-day life assumptions, and it is not a part of their vision for the good life.


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Judeo-Christianity never defeated paganism, but rather drove it underground.”14 Now that Judeo-Christianity is in cultural decline, however, what was once underground is now resurfacing as a popular means of spiritual communion.


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We would do well to reread C. S. Lewis: “Christians and pagans had much more in common with each other than either has with a post-Christian. The gap between those who worship different gods is not so wide as that between those who worship and those who do not.”


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How, then, should the church respond to the growth of neo-paganism? First, we must humanize neo-pagan believers. We must get to know them as individual people and listen to their stories.


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Pierre Teilhard de Chardin is attributed to have said, “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, but spiritual beings having a human experience.”


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Second, we must recognize that the growth of neo-paganism is an indictment against the church. We must repent of our own spiritual and cultural culpability rather than reproach those who are attracted to a vital, nature-centric spirituality, which is in their mind more spiritually animated, more holistic, more experiential, and more compassionate in practice than the cognitively truncated, privately marginalized, politically judgmental religion of many evangelicals.


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Third, we will not have anything to say to the neo-pagan if we don’t have a biblically strengthened view of creation and our stewardship of it.


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Finally, we need to appropriate the reality of the incarnate Jesus in our daily lives. Theology that fails to be embodied in daily life fails to be theology rightly understood.


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what is as important as an imagined future destination is the quality of our encounter on the path in the present.


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It is the journey that will change us.


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Most of us need to get off our self-righteous soapboxes and stop preaching. We need to join others on the damp and cold trail and simply listen to the stories of others.


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When we preach, we need to acknowledge how strange some of the Bible seems to modern ears.


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If we think that the essential task of our sermon is information transfer, we will preach in a certain manner. If, on the other hand, it is connecting our deepest longings with all our brokenness with the risen presence of Christ, it will take our sermons in a different direction.


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There is nothing sadder than a Christian fellowship where every song must be victory, every prayer full of faith, every member always smiling and joyful. It is an exhausting pretense to keep up for long, and it condemns those who cannot hide from their fears to further pain of failure and inadequacy. It is actually dishonest. It means that we can never offer our tears as well as our smiles, our questions as well as our certainties, our wounds as well as our victories. It means that we are always keeping Christ out of the very places in our lives where we need him the most—the places of darkness, uncertainties, and fears.

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what other aspects are important for a retail experience to be successful? Five come immediately to mind. The experience should be unique (even exotic), consequently memorable, photogenic, sharable, and relational.

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Social media is the means by which experiences are shared relationally and validated personally.

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It is also important to reemphasize that events cannot be transactional to be authentic. A transactional relationship has the expectation of something in return, an emphasis on what you get from the relationship. If the event has some other agenda that is not clearly stated at the outset, it will be rejected. In other words, do not offer events to get people to attend your church or to hear an evangelistic message. The event needs to be limited to the integrity of the event itself—the one exception being if the event is being done as a benefit to a social cause.

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Unique, exotic, photogenic, and relational—these are the kinds of experiences that New Copernicans crave.

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We don’t really know how to be in a relationship without an agenda. Older adults may roll their eyes at young people “hanging out.” But isn’t this simply being with another person without an agenda, without a timetable, and without a script? New Copernicans demand better relationships.

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We need to recapture the Celtic priority of belonging before believing, of building relationships first before demanding creedal affirmation.

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Attitudes of judgment—which are presumed by all nonbelievers of believers—make churches and Christians something to be avoided rather than embraced.

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This idealism is rooted in wanting to align one’s life with a meaning and story larger than oneself and in promoting businesses with a triple bottom line (people, planet, and profits). For New Copernicans this is the positive functional equivalent of a religious quest.


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This is what secularity3 feels like from the inside: a nagging fear that there is a story, meaning, or spiritual world larger than oneself that is the final validation of one’s own personal plot.

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Jesus promises us that the foundations of every life will be eventually tested (Matt. 7:24–27). Every person will have a natural affinity to one or more of these portals. Theologian N. T. Wright describes these as “echoes of a voice: the longing for justice, the quest for spirituality, the hunger for relationships, and the delight in beauty.”8 These points of longing are valuable on-ramps for spiritual conversation and further progress on one’s spiritual pilgrimage.

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Christianity is the answer to a real existential longing. Its interpretive power is not found in a philosophical argument so much as in the living of life and particularly living in the midst of one’s deepest longings.

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Before moral debates about sexuality, we need to ask the bigger framing question: What is the purpose of sexuality? What is the purpose of my body? Theological and ethical arguments over sexuality rarely move or influence a person. Learning the contours of love from the reality of relationships with their longings and loss is a far better teacher.

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As soon as sex is involved, people in the church get an empathy cramp.         •  The longing for love is among the strongest and most important relational longings, one that exceeds sex but includes it.         •  We must be able to talk about the

[Jeremy Manuel · Rating 3 out of 5]

The New Copernicans: Millennials and the Survival of the Church is a book making a case that Millennials are essential for the thriving and maybe even the survival of the American/Western church. David John Seel Jr. is basically saying that there has been a massive frame shift within the culture and if the church doesn't minister with that shift in mind it is going to lose out on reaching the Millennial generation and maybe even beyond that. He basically compares the church to the Titanic, and presents the book as a warning for the church to heed or meet the same fate.

As a Millennial myself, I would say that he's on target with a lot of what he says. A lot of what he says about seeing faith as a journey approached with humility and love is very much how I try to live my life and approach my faith. I do think he's a got a decent pulse on what Millennials are looking for, but of course some are going to resonate more than others.

While I do like his challenge and think he's on target, I also think that the church at large has failed to meet the challenge. He wrote this about five years ago, but the reality is that the Millennial age group is anywhere from 21/22 - 42 by now. Those five years have not been pretty either with the church doubling down on Trumpism and then a rejection of all things COVID-19, I'm not sure that they made a lot of headway with non-believing or struggling millennials with either of those moves.

Of course this isn't the books fault, but I will say that there were still a few things about the book that didn't quite feel right to me. First, I felt the author was a bit too fixated on the Burning Man Festival. I mean while I got what he was saying with it, I think having a section on it in one chapter would be fine but he brought it up quite a bit. Personally, it wasn't something that really resonated with me, and felt like it was dropped in to seem relevant.

Another thing that I felt was a bit of a flaw, is that while he kind of gave general principles to follow, he didn't really do a great job of giving practical ideas for churches to do. I get why he is presenting the general principles, but it felt like there could have been a bit more to it. It's a good place to start so that you can brainstorm how it look like in your community, but there aren't too many concrete ideas to work with.

Lastly, while I did overall like the book, I don't really feel like it will be a book that is useful much past the moment we're living in right now (and even then it may already be fading in usefulness with all that has happened since it was first published). Even if not, it's going to be a book that just doesn't age too well other than to see if he was right or not.

I never quite know what to do with books like this that are for a unique moment in time. I liked the book and largely agreed with it, but being a person who is rarely on the cutting edge of all the books being published it is also a book that is rather limited in its scope. However, the underlying message is timeless. Listen to the next generations, don't just dismiss them or think that they are going to be the same as you. There will be change in the future and the church will always need to find ways to meet those changes head on, not in conflict, but in trying to find the best way to live out and present a faith that will resonate with those changes.

[Benjamin Young · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is sort of a “how to evangelize the next generation” course marketed to evangelical organizations that are starting to realize that their evangelism approaches are not working anymore and are looking for new strategies to use. The book criticizes many of the approaches and inaccurate perceptions that older evangelicals have had of “Millennials”, however the solution out propose is more of the same treatment and misunderstanding of millennials that is merely more camouflaged. The quadrant chart in the book is worth understanding and a lot of the book is decently written and humorous. However this book does not seem to take the “New Copernicans” quite as seriously as it attempts to let on. The author does not include himself among the “New Copernicans” and yet does book tours selling himself as an expert on this population though he cannot genuinely claim to see through their eyes. I met this author in person and attended an in person seminar with him on his book. However my overall gist is that the author is correct as far as there being a Copernican-scale shift. However this book falls short of accurately identifying the scale of the shift, which is seismic to be sure, but this is like reading a book written by a geocentric scholar who is trying to convince followers of Copernicus that they are wrong about the universe. However I perceive the shift as far deeper than this book lets on and the solutions offered here seem to be more of a bandaid of artifice than an actual treatment and encounter. The organizations which are using this book to “learn how to evangelize the New Copernicans generation” are getting more of a temporary marketing ploy than actual insight that will stand the test of time. Sure this book will portray a clearer picture of the younger generation than they would probably have had otherwise so they may find it effective as far as getting some instant hits and results with evangelism but it’s low hanging fruit that still falls short of the great commission and seeing the heart of Jesus in the skin of every culture and generation. I enjoyed the detail in the book that talked about how Copernicus’ middle finger is displayed in a museum exhibit. I suspect that the generation being described herein defies the descriptions by the author and will leave a gesture of their own for posterity to remember them by. I think that the danger here is that the book seeks to equip missional organizations to appear to be successfully reaching / marketing to the younger generation but without actually encountering their hearts. To my blunt estimation it’s more gimmicky artifice than genuine engagement.

[Joel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Caveat: This review is based on reading the book over a year ago. I found myself really conflicted about the book: it's quite worth reading, I think I'd like and respect Dr. Seel, but I don't think the book will connect terribly well either with an Evangelical audience or with the "nones and dones". Seel really seems to "get" a lot of the Millennial world, and to want to explain it to Evangelicals...but (and this feels really hard to pin down) it feels like he's still "rooted" in basic assumptions about Evangelicalism being a central, going concern as part of the Church, and it feels like that distorts his views in some strange ways--I think he'll likely turn off both audiences, without "turning off" either having to be a given. Some of his proposals sound far too progressive for Evangelicals (and even unnerving to this mild progressive), while some of his references to Millennials feel like those of am outsider.

Seel starts his book by declaring its purpose as a "pan-pan" warning to fellow Evangelicals: that there isn't immediate threat, but that they're entering a new, dangerous kind of sea and need to consider their actions. I disagree with his "threat level"; I think a more appropriate one would be a notification that bulldozers are on their way to Evangelicalism's house, will arrive in half an hour, and you don't want to be inside the place when it falls. This is the kind of warning that Evangelicalism should have had circulating a decade or three ago, before it evolved to its present state. It's worth reading...but it's not a source of easy answers.

[Matthew Edwards · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am ambivalent toward this book. On the one hand, it made me feel seen. Though I am not a Millennial (I am GenX cusper), I identified with just about every cultural indicator in the book. This is how I have been trying to "do church" for almost 20 years. On the other hand, the framing of this vision for church as a kind of Copernican revolution gives me a profound sadness.

I don't want to tear things down. I don't hope for revolution. I just want to see God.

Seel's vision for the church of the future--one that emphasizes justice, beauty, love, and spirit, resonates deeply with me (although I think more in terms of shalom than justice). I have given my life to moving the church toward faith-in-action, right-brained thinking about God, authentic relationships, and mysticism. Some have found their way (or their way back) to God through this vision for church. Others have been driven mad by it.

At the end of the day, I can only tell others about God as I have experienced him, and this is how I have experienced him. This book reminded me that I am not alone in my hope for the future of the church. For that I am grateful.

[Jacob Hudgins · Rating 3 out of 5]

I came to this book expecting/hoping for insights into how churches can relate to millennials and their unique perspective. What I found was an absolutely uncritical apologetic for why all Christians should abandon traditional beliefs, approaches, and even Scripture because they are all wrong. The millennials are right! About everything!

Several of Seel’s major points—the need for authenticity and openness, the motif of spiritual journey, seeing the deeper needs for love and transcendence instead of knee-jerk rejection—are helpful and well-put. The focus on humility (yes, even in theology) is important. But these are biblical values, not millennial values!

[Ethan Callison · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book challenges the paradigm and the teaching of many evangelicals. There were a lot of pieces to this book that is super easy to write about, but rather difficult to live out. The major flaw I see in Dr. Seel's argument is that the solution for the 'church' is found in millennials. They are 100% part of the solution, but they themselves are not the entire solution. My biggest takeaway is that the incarnation of Jesus and the manifestation of that theological principle is still the greatest assets to evangelism.

[David Pierson · Rating 5 out of 5]

It goes without saying that enormous shifts are reshaping American culture and the church. I found this book to be invaluable and recommend it to anyone who cares about the Christian faith and rising generations. If you want to move beyond questions of mere survival to discerning how to become better followers of Jesus, positively embracing change and new opportunities, this book will help. It won't necessarily be easy, but there is hope!

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is incredibly compelling. Although I don’t agree with everything, it’s push for church leaders to challenge themselves in seeing and engaging with the frame shifts of the next generation is unbelievably valuable. I think he makes some very valid points on what tangible steps we need to take to boldly walk with millennials and future generations. I think many will struggle with this book but it’s absolutely worth the time!

[Scott Curran · Rating 5 out of 5]

David Seel has helped put language to the new cultural moment spear-headed by millennials. Not only that, but he has provided helpful guardrails for engaging millennials on their pilgrimage. This book is helpful for the cultural observers and critics, but challenging to the seeker, the dreamer, and the pilgrim alike.

[Brady · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’d give this 10 stars if I could. Forget that it is written about the evangelical church, a church I don’t even belong to. If you want to understand and see millennial's for the good they can provide, it is a must read.

[Stacy Hankins Henning · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for professional development. Interesting food for thought. Written more for an Evangelical Audience than Catholic, but still there is much to consider in the life of a high school theology teacher.

[Christopher Julian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read in learning how to engage the Millennial generation. This is not a how-to book but perhaps guidelines (poor word) to understand their journey in life. Instead of the negative, Nelson brings out the positive and what millennials bring to society.

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved and appreciated these insights. I want our spiritual institutions to be relevant in the lives of my posterity. I'm optimistic that this can be so, if we're willing to listen and change and allow God to disrupt our Comfortable Christianity.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very helpful, if at times overly-simplistic, introduction to the ways millennials think. Highly recommend for church leaders or those who work with Christian young people.

[Jane Rattray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating, informative work that offers a path to connecting with millennials if we ate willing to listen and learn from them.

[Daniel Cash · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting read. I hope the author is correct in his comments about weather vs climate.
The book is helpful in addressing the church’s need for change.

[Dan Laubach · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was wonderful to hear an older person arguing for the strong impact my generation can make on the American Church

[David Schneider · Rating 5 out of 5]

So good! This book gives some great language and a framework to understand the shift in thinking in the next generation, and what that means for the future of the Church.

[Joel E. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Critical

Read this as a eulogy to conservative Christianity and a celebration of the glorious rennaisance of true followers of Jesus.

[Dawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good insights into millennials - not sure if he is advocating changing everything to attract them but there is some good food for thought.

[Heidi Strybos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting read for most part. It was not what I was expecting but did open my eyes to different ways of looking at Christianity. It's a journey and not a destination.

[Caitlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great conversation starter