Is Your Synagogue Complacent?
from RJ.org blog:
… The issue at hand is the possibility of not providing anything of meaning in our congregations. So I guess this is a challenge that must go back to our leaders. Stop trying to tweet to us. I don’t need to be your friend on Facebook and the “turn off your cell phone” jokes at the beginning of services were never funny. Teach me something. Make me think. Make me repent. Don’t play to our collective weaknesses, play to our strengths and make us stronger. Then I will come back to your services and even read your blog. But first, be my rabbi, cantor or teacher.
For there to be meaning there must be substance. My generation has grown up in a time of instant information and somewhat lackluster content. Our religious experience should be more than just a Jewish version of what we get elsewhere. I want to be challenged. I want to learn. I want to be made to feel a part of something ONLY if I work at it. The problem isn’t why 20s or 30s aren’t joining congregations; the problem is the lack of substance, content and meaning in our congregations that results in Reform Jews of all ages staying out of congregational life.