Bridging the Gap Between the Church and Millennials
Somebody call Will.I.Am. We need to start bridging the gap.
USA Today came out with a shocking-but-not-unexpected article concerning the religious habits of Millennials.
As I said, the results are unsurprising:
- Young adults today are less church-connected than prior generations were when they were in their 20s.
- Millennials are just about as spiritual as their parents and grandparents were at those ages.
- Millennials are significantly more likely than young adults in earlier generations to say they don’t identify with any religious group.
My question isn’t, “Is this true?” (it is), but “What do we do about this?” (Although stubborn, hard-heads in Christendom are no doubt plugging their ears and saying, “LALALALA! If I don’t hear it, it won’t be true!”) Those of us “on the ground” know this to be true. Most people in the know realize there is a significant gap between the Church and Millennials.
Christians have a responsibility to reach out to all people, regardless or race, color, religion …. or age. Millennials, largely, are not connecting with the “product” that we’re pushing out.
I find this problematic.
Also troubling:
Worship attendance is sliding steadily, too: 18% of Millennials say they attend worship nearly every week or more often, vs. 21% of Gen Xers when they were in their 20s and 26% of Boomers at those ages.
At some point, you have to push past the religious language that we like to use to explain this phenomenon away: “The Holy Spirit will draw them back to the Church,” “We just need to pray harder,” “If we keep doing what we do with excellence, we’ll be fine.”
Incorrect.
Millennials have drawn back the covers on the Church and they don’t like what they see. Eesh. At this point, it seems a change–even a drastic change–needs to be made in the North American church’s way of doing ministry.
So instead of dwelling and stewing in this unflattering reality, how do we move forward?
Our solution was to leave the church.
Ok, not leave the church church, but we left the church building to start a house church with other believers
.
We're able to be more involved with the lives of everyone in our group. We can expand or shrink depending on number of people, our money goes to where it's needed (as opposed to paying for a building that might sit empty), we don't have to deal with church politics.
Of course, you're more vulnerable in this situation, and you'll still have problems from time to time, but I argue it's much closer to the way the first believers did church and a great model to follow.
Frank Viola has written 5 books on what he calls organic church. They'll change your opinion on what church really is.
Ultimately, the Church (all believers), is what's important, not church attendance, and numbers, and all the other corporate/business measurements.
Whatever happens, if the Holy Spirit is present, you won't stop it from doin' what it gonna do.
All we have to do is care about reaching those we have driven away. We need to care about reconciling people to God and to each other.
We have to care about this more than we care about our systems, institutions, behavior modification and legalism. We have to care more about people than we care about them acting like we want them to.
But we don't. So you see what happens.
Our solution was to leave the church.
Ok, not leave the church church, but we left the church building to start a house church with other believers
.
We're able to be more involved with the lives of everyone in our group. We can expand or shrink depending on number of people, our money goes to where it's needed (as opposed to paying for a building that might sit empty), we don't have to deal with church politics.
Of course, you're more vulnerable in this situation, and you'll still have problems from time to time, but I argue it's much closer to the way the first believers did church and a great model to follow.
Frank Viola has written 5 books on what he calls organic church. They'll change your opinion on what church really is.
Ultimately, the Church (all believers), is what's important, not church attendance, and numbers, and all the other corporate/business measurements.
Whatever happens, if the Holy Spirit is present, you won't stop it from doin' what it gonna do.
All we have to do is care about reaching those we have driven away. We need to care about reconciling people to God and to each other.
We have to care about this more than we care about our systems, institutions, behavior modification and legalism. We have to care more about people than we care about them acting like we want them to.
But we don't. So you see what happens.