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

by David Kinnaman, Mark Matlock, Aly Hawkins

Overview

Discover What's Working and Find Hope
Negative perceptions. Church dropouts. Prodigals and nomads. It's easy to get discouraged by all that's going wrong when it comes to Christianity and the emerging generation. Yet what's going right? In fact, signs of hope are springing up all around. In Faith for Exiles, the author of unChristian and You Lost Me unveils major new Barna research that uncovers what's working—five practices that contribute to resilience. Enter the world of resilient young adult Christians and learn how they are sustaining faith. Finally, you can find hope in all that God is doing among young disciples today.

Caught Between Cultures
In a world where always-connected smart devices and search algorithms educate and entertain, digital Babylon is the new context for discipleship. Faith for Exiles reveals findings from a groundbreaking three-year research study of young Christians whose faith remains resilient even in exile. Barna president David Kinnaman teams up with former executive director of Youth Specialties Mark Matlock to help you:

• Make sense of chaotic cultural changes and respond with compassion to the next generation of believers
• Recognize the biblical concept of exile as an essential framework for following Christ today
• Discover five research-based practices that cultivate faithfulness in digital Babylon
• Prepare young Christians to be on mission with Jesus in the world
• Empower Jesus followers of all ages to thrive in our current exile

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801013157
Publisher:	Baker Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/03/2019
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	650,630
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.60(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

David Kinnaman is coauthor of unChristian, You Lost Me, and Good Faith. He is president of Barna Group, a leading research and communications company that works with churches, nonprofits, and businesses ranging from film studios to financial services. Since 1995, David has directed interviews with more than one million individuals and overseen hundreds of U.S. and global research studies. He and his wife live in California with their three children.

Mark Matlock has been working with youth pastors, students, and parents for more than two decades. He is the principal at WisdomWorks a consulting firm dedicated to helping individuals, churches and faith-centered organizations leverage the transforming power of wisdom to accomplish their mission. Mark is the former executive director for Youth Specialties (YS) and creator of the PlanetWisdom student conferences. He has written more than twenty books for teens and for parents. In addition, Mark serves as a teaching pastor at Irving Bible Church. Mark and his family live in Texas.

Table of Contents

Start Here: Digital Babylon and Resilient Exiles 13

Practice 1 To form a resilient identity, experience intimacy with Jesus 39

Practice 2 In a complex and anxious age, develop the muscles of cultural discernment 69

Practice 3 When isolation and mistrust are the norms, forge meaningful, intergenerational relationships 109

Practice 4 To ground and motivate an ambitious generation, train for vocational discipleship 143

Practice 5 Curb entitlement and self-centered tendencies by engaging in countercultural mission 175

What's Next: Finding Hope in Exiles 205

Acknowledgments 217

About the Research 221

Notes 225