Why Won’t Those Pesky Millennials Stay Put?

by Reba Collins

Well, Pew Research Center delivers another reality check for American churches – we continue to become less religious.

The 2012 Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life, conducted jointly with the PBS television program Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly, finds “One-fifth of the U.S. public – and a third of adults under 30 – are religiously unaffiliated today, the highest percentages ever in Pew Research Center polling.” In other words, the Next Generation continues to shirk at participating in our church communities.

Now, this is not a new or hot topic for church leaders. Many leaders who dare to poke their heads out into the real world have seen this coming for some time now. There are even national conferences geared toward reaching the generation we are losing. This past year, I was fortunate enough to attend two such conferences, You Lost Me. Live! with David Kinnamon, President of the Barna Research Group, and  Exponential 2013 for church planters. Kinnamon provided much needed insights on the generation that is leaving the church at an alarming rate - like 70% of 20-somethings. Exponential 2013 offered practical, best practices for what’s working right now to reach the generation that seems all too eager to leave.  

Clearly, churches haven’t found the magic bullets to recapture those they’ve lost, let alone snag the interest of those who never were interested. But that doesn’t mean we should give up. In fact, just the opposite is true. We should be sharing all we can about the Next Generation and how to effectively reach them. I’ll go first with these three areas of awareness that concerned church leaders need to attend to:

1. Cultural conditions
2. Perceptions of “church”
3. What is a good church choice

Let’s start with some key cultural condition insights from the research:

• People live in a complicated world and Christianity doesn’t seem to answer complicated questions in a deep, thoughtful, or challenging way.
• The dream of Millennials includes social responsibility and impact.
• People, Christians included, know they don’t have to go to church to experience spirituality.
• The “church” is no longer the third place in people’s lives. It is not a place at all.
• Young people are being raised to create their own communities around sports, school, social media, and recreational activities.
• We live in the participant era.
• Millennials are marrying later (5-8 years) and having children outside of marriage more (41%).
• A cause is worth the sacrifice of time, money, and talent.
• Millennials are not a generation you can teach at; they want hard questions and discussions.
• Young people are bi-vocational; Young Christians want to be bi-vocational with faith, cause, and career.

These cultural issues clearly are spilling over into our church communities and perceptions of “church.” Here are some insights to consider:

• A “church” is now considered a group of people rather than a location.
• Young Christians may leave the institutional church, but are not leaving their faith in Christ.
• People are looking to access their spirituality not just on Sunday morning in a particular building, but Monday through Saturday everywhere they are.
• People want the challenge of daily discipleship, but not the weekly programs of discipleship.
• Young Christians know that church activities are NOT the gatekeepers to true community or spiritual growth.
• Christian community is the product of the people assembled, not the authority of the church.
• Young Christians are creating community wherever they are.

So what does this all look like in practical terms for church leaders who want to become good church choices for this generation and the next?

• Focus on what you want people to be and not what you want them to know. Experiential discipleship trumps educational discipleship.
•  “Love your neighbor as you love yourself” is the standard by which churches are measured. Know your neighbors and care for them -- ask nothing in return.
• Help people deploy their faith in their sphere of influence at work, home, and play.
• Relationships are the key to influence.
• Offer a vision that requires attention to someone else’s or some issue bigger than the church itself. The right actions really do speak louder than the right words or music.
• Be present for people and share yourselves – not your programs and activities – but yourselves. Christians who live an accessible life make Christ accessible to others.

The churches that come to grips with these, and other, cultural and spiritual shifts, have the best chances of becoming – or remaining – good church choices now and in the future. Today, behaviors overshadow beliefs. Relationships trump religious systems. In many ways, Millenials have turned the tables on people inside the church. They are asking churches: “Are you living like Jesus?” And if you are not, you will not be an acceptable partner on their faith journeys.

What can you share to help our church communities become good church choices for the Next Generation?