The Danger of the Aesop’s Fables Bible

I was pretty much born in Sunday School with a Bible in hand. My dad has been a senior pastor since 1998, and before that, he was ministering in youth and assistant pastoring roles at various congregations. As…

We Must Never Forget Moralistic Therapeutic Deism

Over a decade ago, Christian Smith published a groundbreaking study about the religious and spiritual lives of American teenagers. The researchers coined the terminology, moralistic therapeutic deism (MTD), which became a buzzword in youth ministry circles for several…

Ministry Across America: American South

1.) Please describe the context in which you minister (geographically, ethnically, socio-economically, etc.) I serve in the American South in a suburban context in Birmingham, AL. My students are almost entirely white and upper-middle class to affluent. Attending…

Less “god”, More Jesus

This is our final post in our series on the cultural trend coined “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism”. Check out the rest of the posts in the series.   Moralistic Therapeutic Deism (MTD) has become the “de facto dominant religion…