A Millennials Perspective On Church

[Damien50]

http://faithit.com/12-reasons-millennials-over-church-sam-eaton/

I can agree with everything and I have no urge to attend what I am unable to trust. I know many of the Christians here are older than I, 24, so I ponder the relevancy of this article. I always found church in Acts and etc to be a mystical and magical connection to God but I connect harder with God on forums than I ever have in church.

It will be interesting to gain the perspectives of the older Christians and maybe even ex Christians or uninterested that have all but abandoned God and his word due to the abuse and misuse by these previous generations that had no concern for posterity and all but ruined church for me and others. Though before anyone says that we have some responsibility or another that we push aside to complain and bemoan the church because of whatever reasons I'd be interested to read your perspectives on my, Millennial, generation.

 

[JoChris]

As a Gen Xer I will give my opinion and perspective.

1. Nobody's listening to us - join the club! It would be especially challenging for young people attending very huge megachurches. e.g.The size would make it next to impossible to have easy access to church leaders without appointments.
But young people - the church is not a club or social group. Ideally it should become a form of extended family. The church's primary purpose is to honour God and serve Him. A sign of that is through serving each other.

In stable families the roles are clearly determined. The parents lead, the children follow. The parents teach, the children learn. As they mature the children should be given more responsibility and opportunities to voice opinions on how things could be done better. Mature parents have no problems with that constructive feedback and so parents and children can learn and grow closer as they grow up too.

Brand new babes in Christ should be cared for much more carefully on an individual level, just like babies need so much 24/7 care at first. They should also realise just because they have a fine pair of lungs they do not have the right to express opinions at every opportunity. There needs to be a balance.

Young people who are not even Christians themselves are deluded if they think they still have the right to tell a church how they should do things better. It is not a social club. It is not your family.

2. Sick of Values and Mission Statements - there is a need for them but a far greater need that the beliefs stated are actually lived out. Actions speak louder than words.

3. Helping poor isn't a priority - helping the disadvantaged should be a goal of the church but not THE goal. Jesus said to his disciples they were go out into the world and preach the Gospel. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+28:18-20&version=KJV
If a church is substituting good works for preaching they are not following the above commandment. Taken to the extreme it becomes another gospel- the social Gospel. http://www.bibletruths.net/Archives/BTAR283.htm

4. Tired of you blaming the culture - Absolutely agree 100%. Stop blaming the world for the church's failings and call it what it is - SIN. Expose sin for what it is and give us the remedy, Christ.

5. The you can't sit with us effect - another 100%. One weakness that some Christians who have been brought up in Christian families is they don't realise how different we outsiders feel to them. We already feel unsure and self-conscious - when no indication of interest in us is given we question even more if we should be there. There are no easy answers to this one - some megachurches might appear more welcoming to strangers than tiny ones (or vice versa) due to *the people themselves* in the church.

Personally I try to be friendly to newcomers as I know how hard it can be to even turn up it is from moving around so much and being so introverted myself.

6. Distrust and misallocation - another 100%. People have a right to know their money is being used responsibly. Even corporations have to show their investors their books, what makes some churches think they should be exempt?

7. Mentored, not preached at - should be "mentored AND preached at". Probably the point where the author sounded most immature. Preaching's purpose is inform listeners about God/ the bible, not your felt needs.
Mentoring should be done outside the church service timeslot.

8. We want to feel valued - as does everyone else. Encouragement is a powerful motivating tool.

9. We want to hear about controversial issues - that has it be done with great care. A pastor has to think of all age groups who will be listening to him. Some subjects would be better covered in youth groups or young adult bible studies.

In my opinion this is an area where the internet can be a great tool IF used wisely in the church ministry. e.g. The pastor Jason Cooley covers this area well. "Pornography is mind control". http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=32915183402

10. Public perception - the one area I disagree. The Seeker-Sensitive approach has backfired big-time. No matter how hard Christians try we will be hated by some people BECAUSE we are Christians.
Do public good deeds for GOD, not positive feedback from outsiders. Love your neighbour to show love for God.

11. Stop talking about us - agree. The preacher should be talking about God first.
Christians should be helping people who are weak or immature too.

12. You're failing to adapt- has priorities wrong. Preachers doing their job will keep doing the same and preaching the same message. JESUS hasn't changed. The bible hasn't changed. Preachers need to learn Millennials' worldview though and to get on their wavelength.

 

[JoChris]

Now my additions to above as a mother of two Millennials-

If modern churches really want to encourage young seekers to try church and then remain there - be REAL.
Not act real, not feel real, not look real - stop all the advertising and stupid stunts that older less media-savvy church attendees fell for back in their day, decades ago. Young people have grown up with their eyes on websites, they can tell marketing and fake CGI immediately. They won't fall for it. It is an insult to their intelligence.

Same for the content you preach. Stop oversimplifying everything - you are insulting their intelligence. They want to know WHY God chose to do what He did. At the same time you need to formulate a Google translate for Christianese. Most of us don't have Christian families, and those who do still won't be familiar with them unless their family is very devout.

Protect Millennials by teaching about cults, false religions, dangerous trends in the world when relevant to the bible text you are preaching from. They are (mentally) living in the big bad world already unless they are living in a Christian compound with no internet access, never speak to a non-Christian and so on.

 

[Red Sky at Morning]

I have been a Christian for perhaps 35 years, but have had several periods of my life where I have not been involved with Christian fellowship. I have also had times when doing "my thing, my way" have been the overriding pull. This condition is frequently called "backsliding", and none of us are immune from it as we continue in our spiritual journey.

Many of the times when I have "left the path", God has allowed me to do so. At the same time, I have known in my spirit that this has been stepping out of Gods Will for my life. I am old enough now to have learned from this silly process and I can spot the core of it (cartainly for me).

When we are first saved, we might make the easy mistake of thinking it was the powerful preaching, denomination or the kinds of people you associate with that initial encounter with Jesus. This can soon become something that you can long to 'recreate'. I grew up seeing healings, miraculous insight from speakers etc etc.

None of these things will bring sustained growth or fruit. Beyond the church, it is your relationship with the Lord that is at the heart of everything, the conversation you have when you are in the car, mowing a lawn or looking out of the train window. If you look to church to be what it is not, you will come away disappointed.

It took me years to see this!

If you are not careful, you can become passive and expect that a church should in some ways 'meet your needs'. Certainly it should be somewhere where you grow, but sometimes you can grow by seeing the needs of others in a fellowship and doing what you can to meet them!

 

[rainerann]

So I had to look up the timeframe for the milleniel generation group. I guess I just miss it because I was born a few years before 1990. I have never really followed these categories.

Either way, from reading this article, I can see that these people are not really seeing what has happened to the church.

When I started going to church in the year 2000 I still lived in a rather small town and was the only one within the age range of 17-39ish that was going. 75% of the church were grandparents. There were a couple older ladies that had even been my Sunday school teachers and had known me all my life.

These women became mentors to me basically and so I would spend a lot of time thinking about how they applied their faith throughout their lives. They had lived through the great depression, and the 2nd world war. Their generation defined the church culture that this article is complaining about. Most of the hymms we sing in church were written around the turn of the century. These people had made a mark. They weren't a generation of followers. They were people who were vested in defining an age and culture of the church that is unique and endured major historical challenges to come out the other side and still be the ones sitting in the pews while the millenials with cell phones and every conveinance find this too much of something and choose to avoid.

When I moved to a bigger city and found a new church, I went to all the Bible studies where there would be a group of people from this generation to try to learn everything I could from them while they are still around. Many of them have passed at this point unfortunately.

So I disagree with just about every point in this article. I have never been to a church where I didn't see a pastor make financial sacrifices or not heard the stories of a pastors wife who gets creative. This one pastor's wife was making beans and greens for days because that was all they could afford. Contrary to popular belief, most pastors don't live in the lap of luxary like the Joel Osteen types. There are many who have given up knowing they will have any kind of consistent income at all and may have months where this fluctuates and they eat beans and greens for days like this family did.

The church I go to now has a free dinner every week, open invitation. The pastor actually doesn't take a salary from the congregation because we are small and works a second job even.

We also have homeless shelters that were started by church members within the community. I wonder how much real research even went into this article.

This also isn't taking into consideration the countless free classes my children have enjoyed with other kids over the years. The summer camp fun days that were free to anyone and paid for by the church. For all the classes my children have taken I would probably have paid at least 10, 000 dollars by now that these people have provided for free.

There is a church around the corner that does regular food drives and will collect extra food from their church and give it to the homeless people in the area. It seems to me that the person who wrote the article wants to see things a certain way; or, more than this, maybe they want to be given a torch and make their own stamp like the former generation I mentioned. The former generation who made these boring mission statements and all that didn't copy them from the Pilgrims. They clearly felt they had the freedom to create this without needing an example of how it should be made.

Although, this new generation grew up in secular schools and I do think that what is actually contributing to this complaint is a lack of understanding of spiritual things.

"Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith in God,"(Hebrews 5:12).

I don't know that many millenials realize how much they still need to learn to go onto greater spiritual maturity. They think they are automatically more spiritual if they start talking about Christians helping the poor and have know idea what it means to apply Christian teachings to all areas of our lives and how truly difficult it is and can make your life.

There is also no rule that says that the church has to continue the way it exists presently. These people who created this culture themselves from nothing that existed before this, are not going to force anyone to continue the same way. They will have to pass a torch of some kind because they will not be able to live forever. This new generation can take it if they want and create something unique with it, but they will only be able to do this if they learn to stop complaining I think.

There was an older lady who was speaking to the congregation one day, and this was a larger church I was in that day. She said something very plain and blunt about not being like those who complained in the wilderness to the audience. I will never forget this.