by Alan Langstaff

Odds and Ends are letters covering important topics that do not require a whole article.

YOUNG ADULTS & CHURCH ATTENDANCE

“A surprising shift is challenging long-held assumptions about younger generations and churchgoing.

This article pointed to an unexpected and compelling finding: recent increases in church attendance are being driven largely by young adults. After years of decline, Barna’s data reveals a reversal that complicates familiar narratives about disengagement among Millennials and Gen Z, and invites closer examination of what’s drawing younger adults back into congregational life.

Rather than signaling a simple return to “business as usual,” the findings suggest a more nuanced reengagement, shaped by questions of belonging, meaning and spiritual exploration.

Key data point:
 Millennial and Gen Z Christians are attending church more frequently than before—and more often than older generations. The typical Gen Z churchgoer now attends 1.9 weekends per month, while Millennial churchgoers average 1.8 times, representing the highest attendance levels among young Christians since Barna began tracking them.”

(By barna.com)

PEOPLE AT PROTESTS IN USA

Psychotherapist Jonathan Alpert said that for “No Kings” protests in Washington, D.C. was made up mostly of educated white women in their 40s who learned about the protest through friends or social media.

(Read more foxnews.com)

A PROPHETIC WARNING THAT CONTINUES TO UNFOLD

“More than 50 years ago, famed pastor and evangelist David Wilkerson shared what he described as a terrifying vision from the Lord about the future of America and the world.

First revealed publicly in the early 1970s, the vision was widely dismissed at the time as extreme and implausible. Yet decades later, many of Wilkerson’s warnings appear strikingly aligned with present-day realities, from moral collapse and economic instability to cultural hostility toward biblical Christianity.

Wilkerson said the vision came with an “awesome sense of calamity” and centered on five major judgments he believed were approaching as a result of rampant sin and spiritual rebellion.”

The five major judgements were:

1) A Worldwide Economic Collapse
2) Natural Disasters as ‘Labor Pains’
3) A Flood of Filth and Moral Collapse
4) A Persecution Madness Against True Believers
5) The Rise of a ‘Super World Church’

“Despite the sobering nature of his message, Wilkerson ended on a hopeful note, insisting that God remains entirely in control.

“No matter how things look in this drunken world, all things are still working together for good to everyone who loves God,” he said. “Look up and rejoice.”

(By James Lasher, mycharisma.com)

2026 – THE YEAR AHEAD

“Christian author and speaker Lance Wallnau says 2026 will not be a passive or neutral year for believers. In a recent broadcast, Wallnau described the coming year as one marked by sharp division, deeper unity and consequential choices that will shape both spiritual direction and physical well-being for years to come.

“This is going to be a wild year,” Wallnau said near the close of the program. “The decisions you make are going to have lasting impact for the next decade.”

Wallnau also said “he sees as a coming convergence between generations. “The older are going to have the zeal of their youth back on them,” he said. “And the young people are going to start aging into maturity rapidly.”

He described it as a baton-passing moment. “Two generations running together,” Wallnau said, “and then the old handing off all they can to accelerate the next generation.”

As he signed off, Wallnau framed 2026 as a year that will reward intentionality and punish passivity. “It’s the year of decisions,” he said. “It’s the year of discerning. And it’s the year of unprecedented unity.”

(By mycharisma.com)

AMERICANS & THEIR BELIEF IN THE BIBLE

“While significant majorities of Evangelicals, black Protestants and Americans in the South continue to hold fast to literal belief in Scripture, a new study has found that nearly half of American adults see the Bible as a collection of helpful but “ancient myths” that are “not literally true.”

A majority of Americans also believe worshiping at home alone or with their family is an acceptable replacement for attending church services, while significant minorities don’t believe in the resurrection or that Jesus is even God.

The findings of the study are reflected in The Ligonier State of Theology 2025 report conducted by Lifeway Research. Some 3,001 American adults were surveyed between Jan. 6-15, with a 95% confidence that the sampling error from the survey does not exceed +1.9%.

Their responses revealed more nuanced and syncretic beliefs about God than previous generations, most of whom viewed the Bible as the literal Word of God.”

(By Leonardo Blair, christianpost.com)

CLIMATE CHANGE

“This Nature study claiming future economic damage published in 2024 received a lot of media attention. However, it is being retracted by the journal because the data and assumptions made from it have proven to be wrong. Now, the same major media outlets that once touted this study can’t ignore this retraction. The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, among others, have walked back the study and the claims.”

“A widely-referenced 2024 study that predicted massive global economic damages due to climate change has now been retracted, The New York Times (NYT) reported on Wednesday.

Nature, widely considered to be a prestigious scientific journal, published an article titled “The economic commitment of climate change” in April 2024, which detailed how global gross domestic product (GDP) could be roughly 62% lower by 2100 due to climate change. The journal’s decision to retract the study on Wednesday came after some economists’ discovery that data issues in one country, Uzbekistan, had heavily distorted the results, according to the NYT.

When the team of economists recalculated the results excluding Uzbekistan, the projected climate change damages were similar to previous research, and showed that instead of a projected 62% decrease in global economic output by 2100 due to continuing carbon emissions, global GDP would actually have a 23% reduction, the NYT reported.” (by Ireland Owens from The Daily Caller)