Faith for Exiles: 5 Ways for a New Generation to Follow Jesus in Digital Babylon

The authors of “Faith for Exiles” leave no cherished church practice unrebuked. They write: A few years ago, the Barna team was conducting research among teenagers who had left the church. While interviewing a young woman about her relationships with the church before she left, David asked, “Did you have good friendships at the church?” “No, not really. I guess a couple of my age group were my friends, but not close.” “None of the adults?” “No.” “What about the youth pastor?” “The youth pastor was paid to be my friend.” David needed a couple of seconds to catch his breath. “What do you mean?” “That was part of his job. He’s paid to be a marketer of church to teenagers.” Ouch.Whoa. We have a big problem—and David Kinnaman and Mark Matlock are gutsy enough to talk about it. My words (not their words): Sunday morning at 11 a.m., while helpful, is not the whole enchilada. And the more we persist in adding more bells and whistles to the one-hour per week “main event”—putting most of our eggs into this basket—we are deluding ourselves. The king has no clothes, colleagues. It’s time to admit it.The authors’ research concludes that “many young people (and older adults, for that matter) are dutiful churchgoers while remaining spiritually inert. Church involvement is a necessary but insufficient condition for resilient discipleship.” They add, “It is difficult if not downright impossible, to shape hearts and minds with only a few hours a week to work with.”Yikes! “Let’s say you show up at a home improvement store and stand in the paint aisle every week for five years straight. You even attend a couple of demonstrations by the experts in the orange aprons. That doesn’t make you a painter.”The good news: this book is hopeful, not disparaging. Subtitled, “5 Ways for a New Generation to Follow Jesus in Digital Babylon,” it delivers on its bold promise—and along the way, you’ll experience all the emotions: mad, sad, glad. (I got teary-eyed reading some of the Kinnaman and Matlock family stories to my wife.)Until “Faith for Exiles” was published last September, I had not seen such thoughtful segmentation thinking since The Engel Scale (google it). High fives to the authors!The Barna research reveals that “Resilient faith is not easy to sustain in any context, but it’s even harder for young people in digital Babylon. Among today’s 18- to 29-year-olds, here is what’s happening among those who grew up Christian.”• 22% are Prodigals (Ex-Christians)• 30% are Nomads (Unchurched)• 38% are Habitual Churchgoers• 10% are Resilient DisciplesThe book defines each segment and notes that “Habitual Churchgoers” have attended church at least once in the past month, “yet do not meet foundational core beliefs or behaviors associated with being an intentional, engaged disciple.”You might be discouraged upon learning that 90% (the first three groups above) are not on the disciple path, but Kinnaman and Matlock will, in fact, encourage you. They see great promise in the 10% and their research and practical next steps will inspire you to focus on the few. (Hmmm. Reminds me of the Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13. If you’re a leader at a Christian college or camp, youth ministry or church—and/or you’re a fully devoted parent or grandparent—this is a must-read.)So…the authors share their robust research and recommendations in five meaty practices for growing resilient disciples:• Practice 1: To form a resilient identity, experience intimacy with Jesus.• Practice 2: In a complex and anxious age, develop the muscles of cultural discernment.• Practice 3: When isolation and mistrust are the norms, forge meaningful, intergenerational relationships.• Practice 4: To ground and motivate an ambitious generation, train for vocational discipleship.• Practice 5: Curb entitlement and self-centered tendencies by engaging in countercultural mission. (For example—read about 18-year-old Katie’s amazing Ugandan adoption adventure on page 201. Eighteen!)So what’s with the Babylonian exile metaphor? “Ancient Babylon was the pagan-but-spiritual, hyperstimulated, imperial crossroads that became the unwilling home of Judean exiles, including the prophet Daniel in the sixth century BCE. But digital Babylon is not a physical place. It’s the pagan-but-spiritual, hyperstimulated, imperial crossroads that is the virtual home of every person with Wi-Fi, a data plan, or—for most of us—both.”“In digital Babylon, where information (and any thing we could ever want or need) is instantly available at the godlike swipe of a finger, Almighty God has been squeezed to the margins.” They add, “That transition—from faith at the center to faith at the margins—is happening in North America and other societies in the cultural West. Our data show widespread, top-to-bottom changes from a Christianized to a post-Christian society.”Yikes…I had highlighted more than 100 quotable quotes for this review. Way too many. I identified more than a dozen zinger, attention-getting titles for this review. I could only use one! I was ready to wax eloquent on Practice 4’s “vocational discipleship” and why it was my favorite chapter—but it was replaced by Practice 5, which was replaced by the “What’s Next” conclusion. Killer insights: hard truth delivered with hopeful hearts. You’ll just have to read or listen to this book yourself. Don’t settle for the paint aisle at Home Depot.Well—OK—if you insist. I’ll end with five teasers:• “If, in trying to build our ministries, churches, and impact, we have contributed to the inoculation of a generation, how can we repent?” (See pages 56-57).• “When Christians capitulate to the zeitgeist of cultural norms—if we cannot articulate a countercultural biblical morality, for example—we leave the next generation immunodeficient.” (Relevant metaphor!)• David Medders at a seminar with Christian college students: “I’d like to personally repent for my generation, the Boomers, and how we’ve let these negative perceptions [about Millennials] take root.” (Must-read: pages 141-142)• Three Buckets! Barna research identified three major career aspirations of practicing Christian teens: Entrepreneurial, Science-minded, and Creative. “Skye Jethani points out that, according to the book of Genesis, God ordains work to accomplish three things: to generate abundance, to bring order, and to cultivate beauty.” ( on this alignment in “What’s My Calling?” on pages 154-157.)• “At one point in his life, Mark wrote down every biblical proverb on an index card and sorted the cards into thematic piles. As he did so, he discovered that each proverb falls into one of seven broad categories.” (See page 169 for the seven marks of a wise person, according to Proverbs.) Read more

I've now spent the last 30 years of my professional life teaching and coaching and discipling and building relationships with the NEXT generation of Christian students and young adults. It's been incredibly fulfilling, brought me great joy, and full of challenges in the invitation that I've extended to them to live a different and compelling life as followers of Jesus among their peers and in our culture and world.I think it's pretty honest to say that there has never been a time in those 30 years more filled with negativity, daunting statistics, and great uncertainty, especially in the American/Western church culture, when people look forward to the future as it relates to young people and their engagement with Scripture, Jesus, and His Church.The books written by Dave Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons and Mark Matlock have been incredible works that have detailed some of the challenges faced inside and outside the Church as well as the unique opportunities provided for this generation of young Christ followers. UNCHRISTIAN, YOU LOST ME, and GOOD FAITH have awakened the American evangelicals and others to some of the issues and crisis points we have been and are facing in the faith journey of emerging adults.Their latest book entitled FAITH FOR EXILES released this past week and hones in on the 5 practices of young disciples of Jesus who thrive and resiliently live out their faith in what the authors refer to as "Digital Babylon" where they now find themselves. This list and the explanations and examples given for each of the 5 practices comes from Barna's research on this group that is in many ways caught between cultures. Here is the list of the 5 PRACTICES as they counter the influence and impact of the digital culture and world we now live in:1. To form a resilient identity, experience INTIMACY WITH JESUS2. In a complex and anxious age, develop the muscles of CULTURAL DISCERNEMENT3. When isolation and mistrust are the norms, forge meaningful INTERGENERATIONAL RELATIONSHIPS4. To ground and motivate an ambitious generation, train for VOCATIONAL DISCIPLESHIP5. Curb entitlement and self-centered tendencies by engaging in COUNTERCULTURAL MISSIONI see these 5 traits as powerful ideas and targets that can and will enable faithfulness to Scripture and the capacity to flourish and be salt and light in the culture and communities students are part of in this era of digital relationships and communication that has altered so much in their lives and thoughts about the pursuit of faith.Faith for Exiles is a book that anyone who is a parent, mentor, teacher, coach, pastor, or friend of the next generation should read as they consider their role in inspiring and developing the faith of the future leaders of the church of Jesus Christ.In the midst of a sea change in the culture and the church in these days, I have incredible HOPE for what God and His people will do in the years and decades to come. My hope comes from walking alongside many of these FAITHFUL in EXILE students as I see them lean into the issues in our world and live out their faith in radical and redemptive ways every day. It's an incredible privilege to not just lead and pour into them, but to learn from and follow them as they chart a new and beautiful way on the faith journey of following Jesus in this day.Grab a copy and learn and be inspired and challenged and equipped for the role God has for you in encouraging and raising up resilient disciples!

Great book for understanding some aspects of modern culture, and how Christians should respond.Would recommend & have.

Youth workers and pastors, please read this book! Researches have shown a generation of young adults with no resilience, swept by the hurry of our digital world. This book won’t tell you we should go back to “the good times” when there wasn’t Tik Tok, Snapchat and Netflix, but instead it will give you the practices that need to be implemented in our ministries to see the formation of a faithful generation of young leaders, who are in, but not of the world. Highly recommended! It was a true pleasure to read every single page of this book.

This book contains 5 practices to help a new generation follow Jesus in what is referred to as digital Babylon! Very interesting and informative!