May 14, 2026

Today the church is asking whether modern life has made genuine formation impossible — and whether the church has the courage to say so plainly. Mere Orthodoxy ran a piece on sociologist Hartmut Rosa's diagnosis: acceleration isn't just a pace problem, it's a spiritual crisis. The world moves so fast that nothing can take root. Lifeway Research says most Christians can't stay in Scripture consistently — busyness is the reason given, which is probably true and almost certainly incomplete. The Aquila Report's treatment of Sabbath cuts closer: you are not your output. Capitalism won't tell you that. The fourth commandment will. Russell Moore told Christianity Today that teaching Hebrews twice, two decades apart, changed what he heard in the text — the kind of slow, repeated attention that almost nothing in contemporary life rewards. That question hasn't gone away — on March 30 several writers were already asking whether our minds are even capable of wanting the right things.

Christianity Today says evangelicals are currently choosing between two versions of the church and getting both wrong — the abstract, idealized version you can love without cost, and the brittle, tribal version you defend without question. Neither is the body of Christ. Relevant Magazine frames foster care collapse as the test case: the church keeps saying it cares about children, and the foster system keeps running short of families. Abstract love doesn't show up on a Tuesday with a car seat. Meanwhile Christianity Today's piece on Gen Z and theodicy is quietly alarming — not that young people are asking hard questions about evil and suffering, but that they've apparently stopped asking. Relevant adds another layer: this is a generation that craves intimacy and won't risk vulnerability. The church can't disciple people out of that posture with programs. It takes exactly the kind of slow, embodied presence that acceleration has made costly.