SHHHHH
The Episcopal left’s psychotically enthusiastic embrace of the OWS deadbeats suddenly makes a whole lot more sense. Here are a bunch of earnest Young PeopleTM shoving people’s faces into Episcopal-sounding bumper stickers. And since the homosexual thing isn’t going to pan out and since the Episcopal Organization has lost or is in the process of losing everybody else, what’s not to like about OWS considering that theAnglican Church in North America is doing it the old-fashioned way:
For decades young people have flocked to seeker-friendly churches that feature culturally relevant services and a casual environment.
Now, a new denomination that emphasizes tradition and centuries-old sacraments and practices is drawing them in.
The Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) officially began in 2009 with hundreds of congregations that severed ties with the Episcopal Church.
In Albany Park on Chicago’s north side, a group of college students and recent graduates have started one of the ACNA’s newest church plants.
They worship on Sunday afternoons, renting a church building that’s close to several university campuses.
Keep all this to yourselves.
While the congregants are casually dressed, the service has a more formal, liturgical feel and the students that CBN News spoke with say that’s exactly what they like.
“I love the emphasis on Scripture. I love that we read four long passages every Sunday so you really ingest a lot of scripture each Sunday,” said Andie Roeder, who studies at Moody Bible Institute.
“And I love the way it’s interactive so there’s a call and a response and you get to pray back and forth,” she said.
Deacon Mike Niebauer, who oversees both the Albany Park congregation and one at Northwestern University in Evanston, said the liturgy builds community and helps students who often long to be connected.
“I think it’s easy for so many people, especially young people, to feel like they’re not anchored anywhere, not rooted in anything, particularly people who are very mobile” he said.
I guess it has got to be a lot more enjoyable to worship God with actual Christians rather than with particularly vindictive universalists.
A possible reason for the growth is the authenticity. Many congregations in the new denomination gave up buildings and property in order to break from the Episcopal Church and its increasingly liberal theology.
One of the worst cases happened in Binghamton, N.Y., where the Episcopal Church evicted the Good Shepherd congregation and then sold its property to a mosque.
Rector Matt Kennedy found out about the new owner while he was driving by the old property and saw a crane taking down the steeple.
“It was very sad,” he said. “Because it is a place where generation after generation the gospel had been preached.”
“People have come to know Jesus Christ, people have been brought from darkness into light and now it has been sold to a group that promotes the darkness,” Kennedy added.
Don’t spread any of this around.
While property battles are still a reality for many congregations, ACNA leadership doesn’t want to focus on the courtroom drama.
Instead, the group is ambitiously planting new churches with a goal to double in size to 2,000 churches in five years.
The strategy involves combining Anglican tradition with modern church planting models from Africa.
“They’re actually following some of their southern and global Anglican churches in how they’re building churches using less trained leadership,” explained Lon Allison, evangelism expert and director of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College.
Because it would just kill guys like Jim Naughton.
Rev. William Beasley has overseen the planting of nine Anglican churches in and around college campuses there. He said he expects continued growth with students.
“I think we’re actually just beginning,” he said. “We’re at the very beginnings of something that’s perched to grow exponentially.”
What’s drawing young people to the Anglican Church is what many would not expect. It’s about sacraments, like weekly Communion and traditional prayers, that the entire congregation participates in reading.
“I like the fact that it’s something that Christians around the world are saying, and that they’ve been saying it for a long time,” said Wheaton College student Josh Melby who attends a church just off campus.
“I grew up in a Baptist church my whole life,” fellow student Michelle Nelson added. “So coming to an Anglican church where there’s liturgy and sacraments every week, I appreciate the tradition.”
Some call ‘em buildings. Some call ‘em millstones.
CBN News visited a worship service in Franklin Park, a northwest suburb of Chicago. Hispanics there and elsewhere appreciate the Anglican worship style, its reverence, and its community.
In the end, what may also be drawing young people, Latinos, and others is the integrity that comes from standing for one’s faith.
It’s a process that has profoundly shaped the character of the ACNA.
“Whenever you have to lose something for your faith, be it a pension or a building, whenever there’s a sacrifice, it’s also a moment you can choose to go forward, without bitterness, without rancor, and you become refined,” Rev. Beasley explained.
One of his congregations surrendered its building to the Episcopal church more than six years ago.
Today, that church has bought its own property and plans to move in next year.
Seriously. Not a word of this to anyone.
For decades young people have flocked to seeker-friendly churches that feature culturally relevant services and a casual environment.
Now, a new denomination that emphasizes tradition and centuries-old sacraments and practices is drawing them in.
The Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) officially began in 2009 with hundreds of congregations that severed ties with the Episcopal Church.
In Albany Park on Chicago’s north side, a group of college students and recent graduates have started one of the ACNA’s newest church plants.
They worship on Sunday afternoons, renting a church building that’s close to several university campuses.
Keep all this to yourselves.
While the congregants are casually dressed, the service has a more formal, liturgical feel and the students that CBN News spoke with say that’s exactly what they like.
“I love the emphasis on Scripture. I love that we read four long passages every Sunday so you really ingest a lot of scripture each Sunday,” said Andie Roeder, who studies at Moody Bible Institute.
“And I love the way it’s interactive so there’s a call and a response and you get to pray back and forth,” she said.
Deacon Mike Niebauer, who oversees both the Albany Park congregation and one at Northwestern University in Evanston, said the liturgy builds community and helps students who often long to be connected.
“I think it’s easy for so many people, especially young people, to feel like they’re not anchored anywhere, not rooted in anything, particularly people who are very mobile” he said.
I guess it has got to be a lot more enjoyable to worship God with actual Christians rather than with particularly vindictive universalists.
A possible reason for the growth is the authenticity. Many congregations in the new denomination gave up buildings and property in order to break from the Episcopal Church and its increasingly liberal theology.
One of the worst cases happened in Binghamton, N.Y., where the Episcopal Church evicted the Good Shepherd congregation and then sold its property to a mosque.
Rector Matt Kennedy found out about the new owner while he was driving by the old property and saw a crane taking down the steeple.
“It was very sad,” he said. “Because it is a place where generation after generation the gospel had been preached.”
“People have come to know Jesus Christ, people have been brought from darkness into light and now it has been sold to a group that promotes the darkness,” Kennedy added.
Don’t spread any of this around.
While property battles are still a reality for many congregations, ACNA leadership doesn’t want to focus on the courtroom drama.
Instead, the group is ambitiously planting new churches with a goal to double in size to 2,000 churches in five years.
The strategy involves combining Anglican tradition with modern church planting models from Africa.
“They’re actually following some of their southern and global Anglican churches in how they’re building churches using less trained leadership,” explained Lon Allison, evangelism expert and director of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College.
Because it would just kill guys like Jim Naughton.
Rev. William Beasley has overseen the planting of nine Anglican churches in and around college campuses there. He said he expects continued growth with students.
“I think we’re actually just beginning,” he said. “We’re at the very beginnings of something that’s perched to grow exponentially.”
What’s drawing young people to the Anglican Church is what many would not expect. It’s about sacraments, like weekly Communion and traditional prayers, that the entire congregation participates in reading.
“I like the fact that it’s something that Christians around the world are saying, and that they’ve been saying it for a long time,” said Wheaton College student Josh Melby who attends a church just off campus.
“I grew up in a Baptist church my whole life,” fellow student Michelle Nelson added. “So coming to an Anglican church where there’s liturgy and sacraments every week, I appreciate the tradition.”
Some call ‘em buildings. Some call ‘em millstones.
CBN News visited a worship service in Franklin Park, a northwest suburb of Chicago. Hispanics there and elsewhere appreciate the Anglican worship style, its reverence, and its community.
In the end, what may also be drawing young people, Latinos, and others is the integrity that comes from standing for one’s faith.
It’s a process that has profoundly shaped the character of the ACNA.
“Whenever you have to lose something for your faith, be it a pension or a building, whenever there’s a sacrifice, it’s also a moment you can choose to go forward, without bitterness, without rancor, and you become refined,” Rev. Beasley explained.
One of his congregations surrendered its building to the Episcopal church more than six years ago.
Today, that church has bought its own property and plans to move in next year.
Seriously. Not a word of this to anyone.
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