Millennials and the Church

[Archivist]

The fact is that the Church is loosing Millennials. This articles offers some possible solutions: 12 Reasons Millennials are OVER Church.

Thoughts?

 

[Andrewofthetribe]

I think it's fairly obvious really, they are bored with been preached at and many churches still teach their congregations distrust of anyone that does not share their beliefs.
They hear the preachers saying we are right and you are wrong Young people associate this with a kind of racism and would rather meet someone as a person than a faith.
One big consolation.....they are not as stupid as we are they have learnt and are learning to question authority. This rebellion has been going on for quite a few generations but people choose not to see it, it's seen within the undercurrent of the commonfolk in general.

 

[Tree of Life]

The fact is that the Church is loosing Millennials. This articles offers some possible solutions: 12 Reasons Millennials are OVER Church.

Thoughts?

I'm 29 years old, soon to be 30. So I suppose I'm a millennial. Also, I was not raised in the church. I came to faith through some para-church ministries and was myself pretty dismissive of "the institutional church" for many years.

With that as background, my opinion is that this article is stupid. He may have a few interesting points (a few bits of salt). One that sticks out is the value of relationships and mentoring due to an overwhelming abundance of preaching available through media. But this is nothing new. Relationships and mentoring have always been important. But he's not doing himself any favors in this article. His bits of truth are difficult to swallow because they're mixed in with a bunch of bitterness, gall, and immaturity. He wants to be "listened to" and "heard" by an older generation. But he's not showing them any honor. So why would they listen to him?

In sum I think this article is a neat picture of everything that's wrong with my generation. We're always like: "DO THIS, CHURCH. THEN I'LL THINK YOU'RE COOL." Whatever happened to shutting your mouth, honoring your elders, and doing for others what you wish they'd do for you?

 

[RDKirk]

I think all but the first point are important. I don't really think Millennials would worry about the first point if the rest were heeded.

Very importantly, Millennials have two important church-views that Boomers decidedly do not have: Group-based communication and group-based resource sharing...two things that were most important to the early church. We Boomers are deep into the cult of individuality and the cult of individual ownership. Millennials are a step back from that. When Millennials share what they had for breakfast, share emoticons, share what they look like that morning, that isn't narcissism, that's staying intimately connected--a 1st Century Church characteristic.

I think they also escape the single worst factor that is basic to Boomer self-validation: One's organization does not have to be big. Boomers validate our associations by their sizes. Membership in a vast, loose organization (which will be loose because we still have our cult of individualism) is better than membership in a small, close organization. "When we got down to Woodstock, we were half a million strong..." Even the Boomer counter-culture measured its validity by its numbers.

Boomers are essentially anti-1st Century Church, but Millennials share some important characteristics of the 1st Century Church.

 

[dzheremi]

Very importantly, Millennials have two important church-views that Boomers decidedly do not have: Group-based communication and group-based resource sharing...two things that were most important to the early church. We Boomers are deep into the cult of individuality and the cult of individual ownership. Millennials are a step back from that. When Millennials share what they had for breakfast, share emoticons, share what they look like that morning, that isn't narcissism, that's staying intimately connected--a 1st Century Church characteristic.

I agree with the point about community, but I'm not sure how exactly someone sharing what they had for breakfast on social media or whatever is in line with the first century church. Can you explain?

Boomers are essentially anti-1st Century Church, but Millennials share some important characteristics of the 1st Century Church.

Ehh...I'm a millennial, according to the definition of the article (I'm 34), and I wouldn't be nearly so self-congratulatory. I thought the article was really silly and explains well enough why my generation is mostly not interested in participating in a certain kind of church, but all of the ideas of how to fix it were very self-/generation-centered, which to my mind contradicts rather flagrantly the Biblical wisdom of "I must decrease, but He must increase."

I think Tree of Life made a good point about millennials with this bit:

We're always like: "DO THIS, CHURCH. THEN I'LL THINK YOU'RE COOL." Whatever happened to shutting your mouth, honoring your elders, and doing for others what you wish they'd do for you?

It's not to my own or my generation's credit, but the Church to which I belong is undoubtedly of first-century vintage (established c. AD 51 by St. Mark, the writer of the gospel of the same name), and we do not have this problem. Granted, we are mostly still in Egypt (~8 million vs. ~2 million in the nebulous 'diaspora'), but even the young people I have met here in the USA who were born here have a mostly very positive image of the Church, even though we don't have 'youth pastors' or bowling or whatever. I dunno. Maybe certain types of Christianity will die for a while, to be replaced by others whose youth are not so jaded by being part of a kind of 'church establishment' (associated, in U.S. terms, with political conservatism, 'the culture war', and other things that are mostly anathema to young people)?

 

[Sultan Of Swing]

Preach the word faithfully and leave the rest to God.

My church does so and we have a large student population. Not that I'm saying it is guaranteed, but God will do as He pleases.

Jesus healed the sick, and did miraculous signs, but did those signs convert people? Sure, people welcomed them and enjoyed seeing them, but Jesus "knew their hearts". How trendy we are, or our tactics and social justice priorities won't change a person's heart from stone to flesh. It won't stop them loving the darkness and hating the light.

We should always be compassionate to all, but if the public perception sours because of our beliefs, we cannot compromise them in the vain belief it will attract the next generation. When Paul was in prison I wonder how much he was thinking about public perception. We should be grateful that we have the freedoms we have at the moment, to preach in the first place.

 

[Archivist]

I'm 29 years old, soon to be 30. So I suppose I'm a millennial. Also, I was not raised in the church. I came to faith through some para-church ministries and was myself pretty dismissive of "the institutional church" for many years.

With that as background, my opinion is that this article is stupid. He may have a few interesting points (a few bits of salt). One that sticks out is the value of relationships and mentoring due to an overwhelming abundance of preaching available through media. But this is nothing new. Relationships and mentoring have always been important. But he's not doing himself any favors in this article. His bits of truth are difficult to swallow because they're mixed in with a bunch of bitterness, gall, and immaturity. He wants to be "listened to" and "heard" by an older generation. But he's not showing them any honor. So why would they listen to him?

In sum I think this article is a neat picture of everything that's wrong with my generation. We're always like: "DO THIS, CHURCH. THEN I'LL THINK YOU'RE COOL." Whatever happened to shutting your mouth, honoring your elders, and doing for others what you wish they'd do for you?

Is that what Calvin, Luther and the other reformers should have done--shut their mouths and honored their elders?

I think that article makes some good points. An example: Several years ago the pipe organ in my church died. As you may know, pipe organs are very expensive. Several younger members asked why we needed an organ. We had a piano that would have worked just fine. Why not take the thousands that a replacement organ would cost and put it into improving the community food bank at the church instead? However, the older members insisted that we had always had an organ and couldn't get by without one. Now we have a great organ, but many hungry people in the community could have been fed with that money. Exactly how is wanting something different not respecting our elders?

 

[dzheremi]

Because old people were fussy about having a wasteful organ, young people should be given some kind of leadership role they haven't earned but by the power of their complaining that nobody ever listens to them? (Which in itself is rich...who wrote the article that we're all discussing? In fact, who writes all these types of articles? So far as I have seen, it's always millennials.)

 

[RDKirk]

I agree with the point about community, but I'm not sure how exactly someone sharing what they had for breakfast on social media or whatever is in line with the first century church. Can you explain?

All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had....
And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all 34 that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales 35 and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need. -- Acts4

Needs have to be commonly known in order to be commonly met.

I would point out, though, that this article really only applies to the US and perhaps certain other Western nations. I've been around to some other nations where "Christian" is not the default religion, and those I've visited tend to be more like the 1st Century church than American congregations.

 

[RDKirk]

Is that what Calvin, Luther and the other reformers should have done--shut their mouths and honored their elders?

I think that article makes some good points. An example: Several years ago the pipe organ in my church died. As you may know, pipe organs are very expensive. Several younger members asked why we needed an organ. We had a piano that would have worked just fine. Why not take the thousands that a replacement organ would cost and put it into improving the community food bank at the church instead? However, the older members insisted that we had always had an organ and couldn't get by without one. Now we have a great organ, but many hungry people in the community could have been fed with that money. Exactly how is wanting something different not respecting our elders?

I was a member for a while in a wealthy church in which the pastor had stated previously, "Our mission is outreach to the unchurched wealthy of this community."

At one point, they had a visiting pastor from India, who during his sermon mentioned a church which boasted a $50,000 chandelier. He mentioned that the average Protestant congregation in India got by on a $1,000 per year budget. My thought, hearing that, was "Whoa! I could support a whole congregation all by myself!"

I had thought that surely that pastor's words would have had an impact on the congregation. But very soon afterward, the congregation decided to build an adjoining "Starbucks-like" coffee shot atrium with a $2,000,000 (that's two million dollar) indoor water feature...so the unchurched wealthy would feel comfortable.

 

[Archivist]

Because old people were fussy about having a wasteful organ, young people should be given some kind of leadership role they haven't earned but by the power of their complaining that nobody ever listens to them? (Which in itself is rich...who wrote the article that we're all discussing? In fact, who writes all these types of articles? So far as I have seen, it's always millennials.)

What "power of complaining"? These young people offered a reasonable suggestion that was shot down on the grounds that "we have always done it that way."

 

[Gxg (G²)]

The fact is that the Church is loosing Millennials. This articles offers some possible solutions: 12 Reasons Millennials are OVER Church.

Thoughts?

I'm always curious as to which Millennials we're discussing since there are many variations...

 

[Steve Petersen]

What do you do when your religious mythology doesn't keep up with (or contradicts) what you know to be true?

 

[Archivist]

I'm always curious as to which Millennials we're discussing since there are many variations...

There is no exact date range, but I usually assume that Millennials are those born between about 1980 and 2000. There is no agreement on cutoff dates for any generation--I consider myself to be Gen X although some would say that I'm a late Boomer.

 

[Steve Petersen]

I understood that a Millenial was anyone coming of age near the Millenium. This would put birth years around 1982, or around 34 now.

 

[RDKirk]

I understood that a Millenial was anyone coming of age near the Millenium. This would put birth years around 1982, or around 34 now.

Thirty-four is lower X-gen.

Of course, babies are born every day. Socially speaking, a particular "generation" is marked by a particular great shared experience in their formative years--or a group of experiences--that makes them react generally differently from previous or succeeding cohorts in identifiable ways.

The Great Depression and then WWII is a couplet of massive shared experiences that shaped those who were children and then young adults during those years.

Often you can point to very specific events as convenient markers for a "generation." You might say, for instance, that a War Generation person is one who is old enough to distinctly remember hearing of the Pearl Harbor attack but too young to distinctly remember the Stock Market Crash of 1929. The wars that shaped them were WWII and the Korean War.

Boomers can remember JFK's assassination. The wars that shaped them were Vietnam and the Cold War.

Considering "Gen X" is why "generation" in this social context is not directly a reference to a particular span of years, but rather broad shared experiences that define a particular birth cohort. Gen Xers represent a transition affected probably most definitively by sexual and racial revolutions of the 60s and 70s.

In this context, a Millennial has been described as someone too young to remember a world before the World Wide Web, but old enough to have had his life plans diverted by the Great Recession of 2008. Their war has been what will probably be called by future historians the Middle East War.

 

[Steve Petersen]

This: Millennials - Wikipedia

 

[RDKirk]

This: Millennials - Wikipedia

So what do you think it says? And what do you think it says differently from what I said?

 

[HighwayMan]

For me, it's two main reasons:

1) Churches have been failing the people. In many different ways. The Catholic Church and the sex scandals are big, but an obvious one. Someone above mentioned another big problem - how isolationist many churches are. Yes, they might actually preach about acceptance and diversity etc., but the model of weekly sermons in an enclosed four-walled church, with little outreach and community involvement beyond that, just no longer works in the 21st century. And there's no reversing that. If church doesn't somehow expand to involve and include and interact with the whole community, which I know is easier said that done, but without that, it will keep declining. The old model might have worked for many centuries, but we live in a new world now.

2) Materialism. It's quite simple. The love of possessions, comforts, distractions has reached incredible levels, to the point where people can just jump from one obsession to another without ever even thinking about God or spiritual matters. Yes in one way or another this has always been present, but materialism, which is the fruit of capitalism and corporatism, keeps growing, and taking in more adherents. People surrender to the delusions of materialism and forget about eternity. That is both their own fault, but also of wider society, and the forces, such as politics, that govern society. I include myself in the category, it is a struggle, I know.

 

[Archivist]

This: Millennials - Wikipedia

That's pretty much what I said.