Here's an article to consider:
I can personally attest to this.
Why millennials are leaving the church CNN Belief Blog - CNN.com Blogs
What are millennial people? I never hear of them either. I never know what all these names of categories are, whether ists, or isms and now ials
Generation Y, also known as the Millennial Generation,[1] is the demographic cohort following Generation X. There are no precise dates for when Generation Y starts and ends. Commentators use beginning birth dates from the early 1980s to the early 2000s.
A few of my theories are:
- The Church is trying to compete against other forms of both entertainment and knowledge. Why go to church when you can stream a lot of services online? Plus, a lot of younger people today have pathetically short attention spans, and sitting in chairs for 60 minutes listening to someone talk doesn't grab their attention enough.
- People in the past were afraid to question *anything* for fear of being reprimanded by their parents. But now, since we're expanding our knowledge, developing newer technology, more and more young people are starting to question varying aspects of the Christian faith when it comes to scientific discoveries and knowledge. More and more, the answer "The Bible says so" just doesn't cut it.
Completely agree. Excellent post. The church is competing against other forms of entertainment, so in order to compete they often attempt to turn their services into entertainment as well.
Or they could do it the Biblical way, and stop "talking" and "preaching" and start doing.
Who wouldn't want to join a place that was feeding the poor, for a lame, quick, example.
Yeah, and I need a miracle so someone step forth here
Lets see what chu got
It would also help if they could heal the sick, as they are supposed to be able to do in James 4:14-15, for example. Or be able to perform miracles, raise the dead, etc. These things seem to have gone out of the church completely for some reason. Ideas?
It would also help if they could heal the sick, as they are supposed to be able to do in James 4:14-15, for example. Or be able to perform miracles, raise the dead, etc. These things seem to have gone out of the church completely for some reason. Ideas?
Well, I am not in your physical proximity, so that may be a problem
Unless we could do the thing that Paul did, where handkerchiefs were taken from him to various sick people and they were healed:
"11 And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul:
12 So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them." Ac. 19:11-12
Maybe people today would be completely freaked out if they suddenly saw a clinically-dead person rise to life or to see massive tumors vanish before their eyes.
Churches didn't do themselves any favor in this regard as some 'churches' would falsify miracle healing or have people drop to the ground and roll around out of control and call it something like 'in the spirit'...or something. It was just put on as a 'show'..and no actual miracle took place.
This is my theory as to why miracle healings aren't really shown in church..it's because of past show-boating and fake healings.
In my parish church there's a lot of young kids, a lot of early teens, a lot of 30 something people, and lots of ages from 40 up. The 20 something people seem to go to university and then find a job in a distant place, and some seem to fall out of the church for a while - maybe because marriage and babies - but there is a fairly steady stream of new 30 something people coming in so maybe they are the 20 something people from other places coming to my parish when they're more settled in their life.
It would also help if they could heal the sick, as they are supposed to be able to do in James 4:14-15, for example. Or be able to perform miracles, raise the dead, etc. These things seem to have gone out of the church completely for some reason. Ideas?
While getting off topic on another thread, it was brought to my attention that we may be losing our young folks in the Church. I'm not seeing it but I've been outside America and Western civilization for a good while. since returning to the States i've heard of this but haven't really seen it.that's not saying that I don't notice a change in America's youth but rather not seeing an exodus. Am I out of touch?
Matter of fact I was keeping up with that. My heart isn't too troubled as the statement that we are losing our youth is as old as the Church and even older.You didn't happen to catch World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro did you?
Do not let your heart be troubled. It's not as bad as you think.
So is this an issue that evangelicals are having more than us? Or is it that some individual congregations are having troubles? I notice that a Baptist church here locally has an oddly young congregation. I mean the congregation is over 60% teen. I know the pastor and have been to a few services there. I was expecting a youth geared ministry with a lot of innovative ideas. Nope. Just plain old Baptists with a 60 something pastor. Music isn't contemporary but basic baptist hymnal. But I did notice one thing. The pastor is a no nonsense type that shoots pretty strait and seems to buck heads with the Southern Baptist Conference on his theology as he doesn't preach rapture or tow the line on a few slogans.
The loss of 20-something year old may be more of an issue for evangelicals than it is for Catholics. The 30-something year olds who have joined my local parish in the past little while are about 1/3 from evangelical church backgrounds. The other 2/3 would work out at about 1/2 Catholics returning to the faith and about 1/6 non-Christians joining. The proportions are very approximate.
I am confident that up-to-date-music and youth-oriented-preaching doesn't impress 20-something year olds. Would it impress you if you were that age and able to google theological information in a second?
I reckon that your Baptist minister acquaintance has it right if he preaches what he believes and means what he preaches. That kind of honest belief counts for something and if he is also willing to explain why he believes as he does and lives it too then that will just about clinch it as far as attractive-to-young-folk church goes.
When one's congregation is equipped with tablet computers and smart phones that they use for fact-checking it is better to be honest.
It would also help if they could heal the sick, as they are supposed to be able to do in James 4:14-15, for example. Or be able to perform miracles, raise the dead, etc. These things seem to have gone out of the church completely for some reason. Ideas?
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