The unchurched kids laughed at the Bible studies based on television shows or songs of the moment. They weren't impressed at all by the video clips provided by the denomination's publisher, or by the knock-off Christian boy bands crooning about the hotness of sexual purity. What riveted their attention wasn't what was relatable to them but what wasn't.

An evangelical is one who says to a liberal, 'I'll call you a Christian if you call me a scholar.

An evangelical is one who says to a liberal: I'll call you a Christian if you call me a scholar.

The Christian catacombs represent simplicity and earthiness; the cathedrals, transcendence and wonder.

As an evangelical Christian, I come to this discussion with motivations aboutthe common good and human flourishing, but beyond these merely natural goods toan even deeper concern for what I believe to be the purpose of the entire cosmos: thegospel of Jesus Christ.