# Next Sunday ![rw-book-cover](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/811IrLYlWgL._SY160.jpg) ## Metadata - Author: [[Nancy Beach and Samantha Beach Kiley]] - Full Title: Next Sunday - Category: #books ## Highlights - This book largely reflects those family conversations. We suspect that we are not alone and that many other families—from grandparents down to teenagers—share their assumptions, disappointments, suspicions, memories, apathy, and, yes, their hopes for the future of the church. ([Location 39](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09NF7KFSL&location=39)) - In the “Great Opportunity” report, which was commissioned by Pinetops Foundation, we learned that half the people who grew up in church have already left. Churches, for the most part, are up against a culture increasingly filled with Nones—people with no religious affiliation. ([Location 43](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09NF7KFSL&location=43)) - This book includes two distinct voices—with a section from both of us on all seven subjects. Nancy brings her baby boomer perspective and experience on a team that built one of the most influential churches in the past forty years. Samantha is a millennial child of the megachurch and VeggieTales. ([Location 51](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09NF7KFSL&location=51)) - I think I faked it pretty well until I heard this statement: “Our generation highly values community. In fact, it’s most important to us above the experience of Sunday morning.” All I heard was what they did not say directly—you boomers don’t value community as much as we do. ([Location 87](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09NF7KFSL&location=87)) - Yet since the 1960s the trend has dramatically reversed. Putnam writes, “In greater numbers than ever before, Americans seem to have stopped believing that we are all in this together.” Participation in almost every communal activity from unions to the PTA to Rotary Clubs is down. This cultural trend has had a huge impact on local churches. Baby boomers have memories of the We society but have also contributed to the decline back toward the I culture. ([Location 133](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09NF7KFSL&location=133)) - I realize it’s not possible for every team that comes together for a task to also include an hour or more of sharing our lives with one another. Unless a small group is formed expressly for that purpose alone, it’s just not realistic for most of us to carve out that time. However, I think there’s a middle ground, a step that does not require major amounts of time but opens the door to volunteers feeling known and seen. ([Location 151](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09NF7KFSL&location=151)) - Since we were last together, what was a high point in your life? And what was a low point? To avoid stories getting too long and detailed, tell them they each have a total of a minute (or two if you’re feeling generous) to share their high and low. As a leader you have introduced a sense of connection before the work begins. People can choose to follow up on what they hear at a later time, but every individual has a chance to speak a part of their story. And as a group we can rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn. ([Location 158](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09NF7KFSL&location=158)) - The second option works well at the close of the meeting or task time. Circle up, standing so that everyone knows this won’t be long. Ask each person for one way we can specifically pray for them this next week. Tell them to say it in a sentence or two. Also encourage everyone to pay close attention to what the person on their left says because in a moment they will offer a short prayer for that person. In this way, during the brief prayer time, each person gets prayed for and each person prays for someone else. ([Location 162](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09NF7KFSL&location=162)) - I believe that what has drawn many people to the local church in the past, and what will become even more essential going forward, is the desire to be a part of a genuine community. There is a mighty power in the telling and hearing of stories. Every single person in a church has a story, and we must create the opportunity for us to share those stories in safe settings, listening to one another: ■ understanding where we came from, ■ what energizes us and what empties us, ■ what delights us and what defeats us, and ■ what we are ashamed of and what we aspire to. ([Location 168](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09NF7KFSL&location=168)) - To varying degrees every human must fight the desires to isolate, hide, and battle life alone—and be willing to become part of the We. ([Location 213](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09NF7KFSL&location=213)) - I was both empowered by independence and depressed by my anonymity. ([Location 232](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09NF7KFSL&location=232)) - At the Brooklyn church I had the most open of open faces as I turned in circles looking for someone to connect with. But Sunday after Sunday, people swarmed to greet the people they knew. It was more of a beeline and greet. Once all the smaller circles had formed I would aimlessly check my phone and wish that the service would get on with itself already. I grew to hate this part of the service and how it reminded me of my exclusion from what C. S. Lewis calls “the Inner Ring.” ([Location 243](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09NF7KFSL&location=243)) - A 2019 poll by YouGov verified that millennials have surpassed Generation X and baby boomers as the loneliest generation. And that was before the global pandemic that forced the not-yet-marrieds and not-yet-settled to hunker down in isolation for a year and counting. The Cigna Loneliness Index survey released in 2020 found 71 percent of millennials and nearly 79 percent of Generation Z report feeling lonely—a significant uptick from previous generations. ([Location 291](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09NF7KFSL&location=291)) - Millennials are changing residences more than any other generation (every two years, on average, according to a study from Porch). ([Location 300](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09NF7KFSL&location=300)) - I believe the intergenerational aspect of church community is deeply undervalued. Most churches siphon off community groups according to age and season of life. But where else can folks my age find a Don? ([Location 314](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B09NF7KFSL&location=314))