Playwright and former minister, Craig Wright drew inspiration from his past in penning Greenleaf.
“I was born Jewish and went to synagogue and Hebrew school every week. My mother died when I was seven, and once she was gone I wasn’t as exposed to Judaism as I had been. When I was 14, I became a Born-Again Christian. That ended when I was about 20. I started writing plays when I was 21. When I was 29, I decided to go to seminary. So I went to United Theological Seminary in the Twin Cities to get a Master of Divinity degree, I thought I was going to be a minister.”
Wright was earning his Master in Divinity degree when his career as a writer took off. He later met Oprah Winfrey and after talking they decided that this sounded like a great series idea.
Americans are attending church less, and more people—particularly Millennials—are experiencing and practicing their faith outside of its four walls. Based on a large pool of data from this year, the Barna Group-an evangelical Christian polling firm—conducted analysis on the state of the church, looking closely at affiliation, attendance and practice to determine the overall health of Christ’s Body in America.
Not only do most Americans identify as Christian, but a similar percentage (73%) also agree that religious faith is very important in their life (52% strongly agree and 21% somewhat agree).
“It’s encouraging to see how many Christians still feel optimistic about the positive role their faith can play in society today,” says David Kinnaman, president of Barna Group. “So it makes sense that Christians feel frustrated when they possess something they feel is so good for the world, that ends up being marginalized.”
“We see an inclination among Christians to either respond by forcing their beliefs or shrinking back from offering them, but living with good faith is the true way forward into an uncertain future,” continues Kinnaman. “This means being the people of God who, through the power of the Holy Spirit at work in us, help the world and the people in it to flourish.”
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Brittany Winkfield is editor and publisher of the online millennial faith platform Back2Basics Magazine.
