My online friend, and author of Evolving in Monkey Town, Rachel Held Evans, posed this question on Facebook on Saturday:

Lots of folks are talking about the future of young, disenfranchised evangelicals. I'd love your thoughts on this. What is driving them away? Where are they going? (Working on a post that explains the phenomenon from my own perspective - as a young, disenfranchised evangelical myself!) :-)

Below is what I responded. How would you respond?

I definitely feel disenfranchised by church, and I struggle daily with how I fit in. A large percentage of m...y church (75% ?) is enthralled with our Sr. pastor's sermons, and for them that's all they need. It's not nearly enough for me. I really enjoy and am challenged often by his sermons, but that won't sustain my faith or journey alone.

To be frank, I generally continue attending my church for one reason: so my kids have a peer network within the faith. I don't mind one bit their Sunday School lessons are more "fluff" than substance. All the better so I can share with them the real biblical stories at home when I can try to answer as many questions as they will have about why God seems so mean to everyone else by the Israelites...

I, on the other hand, don't find that peer connection on a Sunday morning, likely for the first statement I made about the preaching being all most people think they need. I don't find others, on Sunday mornings, looking for the same things I am: dialogue not monologue, discussion not answers, intentionally community not informal chatter.

So where are we going? Honestly, I don't think we are going very far at all, if anywhere. Most of us, I think, are trying to make do with the best we can. We are keeping quiet instead of speaking up, attending passively instead of volunteering for leadership positions. The hierarchical tradition of our church is killing our passion, and the intra-denominational battles over survival and control are killing our trust. Worship wars are burning us out. If worship doesn't turn into a pep rally for God (like a republican victory cry), it feels like a forced set of songs simply to apply the theme of the sermon as a not-so-subtle undertow.

If I was able to plan out a new model of church community, it would be this:

Weekly 60-75 minute worship-only gathering - a pure, straightforward emotional and spiritual connection with God. That vertically focused refresh that we all need. All types of music welcome, liturgy welcome, scripture reading welcome. But no sermons.

Weekly small group gathering - over a meal, focused on sharing each other's life-burdens, loving each other as we are. There is no need or expectation to be the biblical historian, the doctrinal challenger, or the context interpreter. Simply come as you are and live among each other. Discuss what's on your heart, open up to others about the faith challenges you experienced, pray for each other about the hurdles that lie before you.

Regular (probably monthly) larger gathering of small groups and worshipers over a large feast that allows the small groups to share with each other their experiences, connects the larger community together, and gives everyone a chance to be spiritual fed by a pastor. Here the sermon becomes dialogue and discussions at the tables, and small groups share how they've seen these faith themes existing in their life stories, or how applicable that is to a challenge they've been praying about.

For now, I sometimes go to a megachurch worship service and just be anonymous for that 75 minute worship refresh. They do worship excellently and without distraction, and I can merely focus on God, my relationship with him, and pour out my burdens to him. I love my small group, and we do work very similar to how I described above. But the third piece is still lacking.