Series: Engage

March 1, 2023

Tyler McKenzie

How Do We Talk About Grace with a Generation That Feels No Guilt?

How Do We Talk About Grace with a Generation That Feels No Guilt?

By Tyler McKenzie  As generations of young people emerge who are more different than ever imagined, how should our presentation of God’s grace change? Millennials (those born 1981–96) are assuming leadership. Gen Z (born 1997–2012) is entering the workforce. The youngest of those from Generation Alpha (about 2013–25) are upon the age of accountability. They are the new mission field.  From Guilt to Shame  One of my hypotheses is that evangelists of the future will shift from presenting grace through a guilt framework to a shame framework. Guilt is, “I did something bad.” Shame is, “I am bad.” While guilt

January 1, 2023

Tyler McKenzie

A Cheeky Article on Travel Baseball

By Tyler McKenzie   I have three young children, ages 7, 4, and 2. With each passing milestone, my desire to see them grow in Christ deepens. As the pastor of a church made up largely of young families, I’ve found this to be a desire many parents share. At our church, we call it being an “intentional parent.” However, I have also found these same parents feel just as strongly that they are doing a bad job at it. When I ask what the problem is, their answers are the same, “Tyler, I just don’t know how.”   I ain’t buying

November 1, 2022

Tyler McKenzie

Crucial Questions for Church Leaders

Crucial Questions for Church Leaders

By Tyler McKenzie   I grew up a preacher’s kid in the rural outskirts of a small city. Every time we walked into a restaurant, my dad visited at least two tables to check-in on people we knew from church. Often, someone would pick up our check. The community honored him. Back then, people looked to clergy for care and accepted their moral exhortation.  Gone are those days! Barna president David Kinnaman reported on the clergy credibility crisis in his 2017 book Good Faith. “The public’s respect for pastors, priests, and other faith leaders has significantly declined,” Kinnaman wrote. “Today only

September 1, 2022

Tyler McKenzie

Tyler McKenzie

8 Ways Church Growth Has Reached an Idolatrous Level (Part 2)

By Tyler McKenzie  Church growth shouldn’t be the crowning pursuit of success among leadership. And yet, we’ve framed the pursuit of growth as natural and celebrate its attainment as health.  In part one of this article, I shared four concerning trends I’ve observed in American evangelical churches/ministries that can be explained (at least in part) as a consequence of the idolatrous pursuit of the gospel of growth. In this conclusion to the article, I share four more trends that may be indicative of that pursuit.   5. A Culture of Competition over Church (big C) Unity   Sometimes I question if this

July 1, 2022

Tyler McKenzie

8 Ways Church Growth Has Reached an Idolatrous Level (Part 1)

8 Ways Church Growth Has Reached an Idolatrous Level (Part 1)

By Tyler McKenzie I love the church. That’s why I would like to suggest that pursuit of church growth by some leaders has reached an idolatrous level. Growth has become synonymous with health and success. It’s why we invest so many resources in the weekend gathering. It’s why we platform the leaders we do. Having led a large congregation for a decade now, I’ve experienced some of the lusts and obsessions in my own heart.   Growth shouldn’t be the main thing. Tim Keller wrote in “Leadership and Church Size Dynamics,” Out of necessity, the large church must use organizational

May 1, 2022

Tyler McKenzie

Tyler McKenzie

‘Continuous Partial Attention’: The Impact of Smartphones on Us, Our Kids, and Our Faith

By Tyler McKenzie In a punchy scene from Gulliver’s Travels, the Lilliputians (the little people) think Gulliver’s clock is his god because he keeps checking it. After interrogating him, the Lilliputians conclude the following: “And we conjecture it is either some unknown animal, or the god that he worships; but we are more inclined to the latter opinion, because he assured us . . .  that he seldom did any thing without consulting it. He called it his oracle, and said, it pointed out the time for every action of his life.” Already, in 1727, author and Irish clergyman Jonathan

March 1, 2022

Tyler McKenzie

Tyler McKenzie

Healing Our Emotions After Two Years of Trauma

By Tyler McKenzie A pressing need exists for the church to focus discipleship efforts on emotional health, which is something the church rarely touches. It’s been over two years since COVID-19 first shut down the United States. Since then, leading a church has felt similar to being a frontline worker. I won’t pretend that our challenges have rivaled those of an emergency room doctor or a COVID-unit nurse. Still, pastoring a church has felt like a heavyweight boxing match that never ends. There has been heavy pressure, many needs, and relentless controversies. We have felt constantly embattled in fights we

January 1, 2022

Tyler McKenzie

Tyler McKenzie

Wrestling with Deconstruction and Doubt

I recently read a book on the deconstruction of one’s faith called After Doubt by A.J. Swoboda. I’d highly recommend it. In it, he suggests everyone goes through three phases in their faith journey: Construction  Deconstruction  Reconstruction. The Construction Phase The construction phase is when we first come to faith (usually as kids) and receive what Swoboda calls precritical beliefs. We don’t ask questions, we don’t wonder why, we simply accept what adults teach us. When I was a kid, I was told that Jesus rose, and I believed even though I knew dead people stay dead. I

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