Millennials & the Church

Meet the Millennials. Born between 1981 and 2000, the Millennial generation is the most recent to hit adulthood, and make up one third of all Americans.

The most technologically literate generation yet, Millennials practically emerged from the womb texting on their mobile devices. They tend to be liberal in their politics, skeptical of institutions, and global in their worldview. On top of all this, Millennials have a strong need that can be summed up in one word: authenticity. They’re not interested in slick, airbrushed, or “new and improved.” They want real. They want organic. They want genuine. Whatever it is, they need it to be authentic.

Millennials are also leaving the church…in droves.

In fact, the American church is experiencing what author Dave Kinnaman calls a “dropout phenomenon” among an entire generation of people in their 20s and 30s. Studies indicate that the majority rarely or never attend church. So is the American church teetering on the brink of irrelevancy? The situation is actually better than it appears.

Louie Giglio
Photo credit: Huffington Post

In an interview with the Christian Post this week, Passion founder Louie Giglio said that many young Americans are hungry for the gospel. “They may be leaving a more traditional church,” he said, “but I don't think they're walking completely away from Jesus. I think a lot of students right now, young people are walking toward Jesus.” (He said some other good stuff, too…Read the full interview here.)

I was so pleased to read Giglio’s words, because they described my own experience with Millennials. It seems to me that many are searching for spiritual depth and intimacy with the person of Jesus. There is a desire to experience God’s power and presence, and these things seem to be lacking in their local church. In its place are what they perceive to be shallow programs and slick productions that run counter to the raw authenticity that Millennials crave. In a recent article, “Why Millennials Are Leaving the Church,” CNN blogger (and Christian Millennial) Rachel Held Evans wrote, “We’re not leaving the church because we don’t find the cool factor there; we’re leaving the church because we don’t find Jesus there...We want to be challenged to live lives of holiness.”  Likewise, in a recent survey conducted by Kinnaman, literally millions of young adults answered that they agreed with the statement, “God seems missing from my experience of church.”

Perhaps Millennials’ innate drive for authenticity is a God-ordained instrument designed to help the church return to the authentic roots of the Christian faith, including greater intimacy with God that combines Biblical truth with the power and presence of God. And the plot thickens as we take a look at where we are in history: every 500 years, the church goes through a massive reformation, and we are right on schedule for the next one!

Could it be that Millennials are actually the revolutionaries of our age, those who God is raising up to be the next reformation generation? Time will tell, but I believe they are.