Many of us have retweeted, posted, or pinned the articles below over the last couple of weeks. Perhaps it's time to dig a little deeper and find out how God can use conversations like these to spark something among our movement. Let's share our thoughts and ideas with one another as we pray and believe that God will equip the IPHC to truly become a place of hope to all generations... Millennials included.
The first article by Evans of CNN was published July 27th and the following 3 are responses from various media outlets.
Why millenials are leaving the church by Rachel Held Evans (CNN Belief Blog)
How to keep millenials in the church by Brett McCracken (The Washington Post)
The church failed millenials, just not in... by Derek Rishmawy (Churchleaders.com)
The millennial exodus and consumer church by Nate Pyle (Pastor of Christ Community Church)
By Max Barroso
Bandwagons are as predictable as public transportation—you can board one every fifteen minutes.
ReplyDeleteThe recent flurry of media attention given to millenials and their church-attendance (or lack thereof) has generated predictable responses from two sides of the discussion; according to the wide syndication of the Evans blog across social media, a large population of millenials gave hearty “amens” to her scathing assessment of the state of the church. Oppositely, the rebuttals surfacing shortly thereafter (also quickly gaining a wide audience) offered a “Hey-not-so-fast” attempt to balance the public perception of the church and reign in her squirrely critics.
In my own reflection, I’ve observed several possible responses to this story…
1) Jump on the bandwagon with those who publically excoriate the beloved Bride of Christ for not being perfect,
2) Blow the whistle with the other “referees,” and throw a flag for “unnecessary roughness” on the part of the millennial generation for pointing out the flaws of the church without offering to be part of the solution,
3) Hike to the even-higher ground of “this-is-the-same-argument-each-generation-has-with-its’-parents, so-why-bother” and wait there for the next controversial blog-post, or
4) Pass over the issue completely and ignore the waning influence of the church in the generations that are to come…
I think the truth is found in some balance of the first three approaches.
Delete1) There is still the need for prophetic voices to sound the alarm about the complacency of the church. We have been a silent observer of too many cultural, political, and spiritual conversations that have taken place over the last few decades. In the conversations we did join, we have far too often retreated to defensive postures and “pet-issues,” allowing ourselves to become known for what we’re against rather than what we celebrate and affirm. We seem to be content operating on the fringe of culture, choosing to react rather than inspire.
2) In his article, “The Church is a Harlot, But I Love Her,” Kevin Emmert compares the recent flurry of articles on millenials to inviting a friend over to your house and then allowing him to openly and caustically criticize your wife in front of you. His point? Even though we agree that the church isn’t perfect, we should not allow her to be subjected to open ridicule among unbelievers. As a Gen-X Associate Pastor, I’ll be the first to admit my dissatisfaction and frustration with the church… But instead of throwing stones and pointing fingers, I’ve chosen to be a part of the solution, to expend my energy working alongside other Kingdom-minded people with a vision to see the church changed from the inside-out—believing that God will preserve a faithful remnant from an otherwise-complacent bride through whom He will establish His reign on this earth.
3) This generation is not the first to decry the previous generation’s lack of relevancy… I’m actually old enough to remember this same discussion happening among journalists in the early 2000’s, when church leaders were concerned about Gen-X’ers and the church’s authority. Every generation has been guilty of what C.S. Lewis in his book “Surprised by Joy” called “chronological snobbery,” or “the uncritical acceptance of the intellectual climate common to our own age and the assumption that whatever has gone out of date is on that account discredited.” For those of us with a healthy skeptical streak, this whole discussion could appear to be yet another predictable wave of contrived-controversy.
In David Kinnaman’s book, “You Lost Me,” Kinnaman attempted through years of surveys and interviews to get into the heads of 16-29 year-olds and discover the common variables and patterns that affect their church attendance (or the lack thereof). His book paints a picture of the millennial perception of the church—and the image is not always pleasant. It is indicting and often embarrassing to those of us who’ve committed our lives to serving her. Yet, while his observations and conclusions are wounding, his approach is redemptive. Kinnaman obviously realized that as imperfect as the church may be, she would continue to be imperfect until the day of Christ’s appearing. Pointing out her flaws in a public forum, and thereby giving more ammunition to an already-hostile culture would not serve to increase her influence. Rather, he calls the church to acknowledge our failures, learn from our mistakes, especially as it relates to this new generation, and set our trajectory towards winning the lost—from within and without. Thus, faithful indeed are the wounds of a friend. (Proverbs 27:6)
DeleteI suppose I’ve hitched a ride on each of the first three bandwagons at some point for some distance over the last few days… Each has taken me to a different destination, each with its own different passengers. In retrospect, I guess I needed to visit those places, and deal with the realities present at each one, in order to continue forward in this ministry-journey. I want to see the Kingdom expanded… I want to see souls saved and lives restored. I don’t want to ever stop moving, as opposed to that fourth option. That bandwagon isn’t going anywhere.
I am a millennial. That's a strange claim to make because above that I'm a person with my own thoughts, feelings, emotions, wrestles, struggles, brokenness, joys, passions, & peeves. I find the cultural attempt to paint millions and millions of people with the same brush sometimes futile and amusing. Yet I also can't ignore the pervasiveness of the culture around me that sometimes gets IN me and comes THROUGH me. So who knows, maybe I really AM a millennial.
ReplyDeleteI'm also a millennial that enjoyed the Rachel Held Evans article. And I'm also a millennial that posted, tweeted, retweeted, shared, & told others to do the same (typical right?), as well as the same with other responsive articles.
This is such a complex discussion that I'm actually having trouble organizing my thoughts around the issues. But maybe this is the best thing for us: a discussion about church that actually causes us to wrestle, balk, kick, & scream a bit in the midst of healthy debate and conversation. Perhaps what we need most is a thoughtful struggle that ends in embrace with the bride of Christ, the Church. Not another bitter critique over late night dorm coffee. Not another "let's quit this thing and do it like in Acts" (as if they didn't have problems too). WE NEED THE WRESTLE. And it can't stop once the hype of this article calms down. We need to consistently think about and wrestle with the theology of the church, because if we don't we'll fall prey to the BIGGEST reason why millennials are leaving the church.
Apathy.
From what I have experienced, the best way to reach out to someone, especially teenagers and young adults, it to care. We all want to share our lives, our experiences with someone that we can trust. We, as individuals in the church, have to build that trust with this generation. This trust must be sought after with persistence. We need to chase them down with the love of God, without judging, without condemning, but rather empowered by the love of God. This effort is not a general goal to strive for as a church, but a specific goal for every individual. The indifference we are met with by the younger generation, including myself, will melt away to reveal the desperateness it is hiding when we reach out. We must ask for our eyes and hearts to be opened to this generation. We need to be as stubborn, persistent and loving with them as Jesus is with us
DeleteI couldn't agree more Rebecca!
DeleteThe attitude has shifted. It's not "They Like Jesus, but Not the Church" (a popular book even 5 years ago). It's "they don't care much about either." We've falsely assumed that millennials around us have a contentious attitude, vehemently against all things church and ready to enter an argument. But I think a much more dangerous attitude is present: MOST MILLENNIALS SIMPLY DON'T CARE. In fact, I'm curious as to the demographic of folks that actually shared this article 170,000 times (mostly Gen-Xers & Baby Boomers?), because if it was a millennial, it was probably a young pastor or leader that is invested in the church. But when I think of students in my ministry or young people in my city, this conversation probably isn't even on their radar. Why? Not because of hostility, but indifference. And the answer isn't to try to CONVINCE this generation, but to ask God to AWAKEN this generation.
ReplyDeleteThis article from Carey Niewouf is helpful: http://careynieuwhof.com/2013/05/how-to-reach-unchurched-people-who-dont-think-they-need-god/#more-6884
To quote him at length:
"People are learning to live comfortably without God. Want to see where this might be heading? Go to Western Europe, where people have very comfortable lives and only a splinter regularly attend church. They just don’t see their need for God. Rather than being met with a wall of hostility, Christians are mostly being met with a wall of indifference and perceived irrelevance. I believe that means a massive shift in attitude and approach for those of us in leadership in the local church. Much of the church’s outreach over the last 60 years has been based on a few assumptions that are less and less true every year: 1) Young adults will return to church when they have kids. 2) People will turn to God when they hit a crisis. 3) Most people will come back to what they left when they were young. 4) When people have spiritual needs, they will look to the church to fulfill them.
Instead, here’s what I see as increasingly true among unchurched people who are learning to live comfortably without God: 1) Affluence (even many of our poor are affluent from a global perspective) has left people with a sense they have all they need to face life. 2) People don’t always turn to God in a crisis; they honestly don’t think the church can help. 3) You can only come back to something you knew; when you are on your second or third generation of ‘unchurched’, there is nothing to come back to for many people. 4) Personalized, google-able spirituality doesn’t demand the assistance of anyone or anything else."
I'm convinced that better marketing, sexier graphics, & cooler music isn't going to make the difference. That's the wrong approach, because if what Niewouf is saying is true, all of that is icing on a cake that millennials aren't buying. And who said you could make the gospel cool anyway? I'm sorry, but the bloodied cross isn't marketable. We can sterilize, hipsterize, & sanitize all we want, but at that point, the cross isn't the cross anymore. The gospel is messy, sweaty, bloody, & unneat. At the core of what we're doing and who we are as the church is to be a voice in the wilderness, a prophetic voice not at arms length, but at lover's face, calling our people to discover their God-made identities. Worship and church and the gospel will never be marketable. They are subversive in their very nature. The church should be a place where millennials can be free from consumerism & put down their guards of suspicion that they've built up from someone always trying to sell them something. Shame on us if we try to sell Jesus too.
ReplyDeleteMy conviction is that the everyday wrestle and lover's quarrel with church & culture is how we are to effectively engage this generation. We are called to provoke, not prove ourselves. As we are continually & GENUINELY FORMED by the gospel, transformation in culture is a natural byproduct. I'll leave it with one final quote from Marva Dawn's "Reaching Out Without Dumbing Down" (written in 1995, but every bit as relevant today):
"The Church cannot save the culture --- but Christians could be the best thinkers in the world. Because our relationship with God frees us from having to justify our own existence, we do not have to prove our importance, fit in with our peers, mimic the politically correct, or think according to the current ideologies or idolatries. Our minds are captive only to Christ's lordship..."
May that be true in this generation and for generations to come.
I’m sure that most of us can agree that with each new generation, there are new complaints about what the previous generations are doing. Ways to do it better, ways to make it more appealing, ways to make it more convenient. The Church has definitely not been free from those arguments. However, she has always survived.
ReplyDeleteThe question isn’t necessarily what can we do to make church more trendy. Instead we should be asking, what can we do to reach out and show this generation that the Church is alive. Jesus is real and his saving power is never ending.
In a time where everything is so easily accessible and nearly everything is instant, from our internet connection to the food that we eat, it’s time to make it clearly know that Jesus is even more easily accessible.
I do believe that in order to reach the Millennials as well as all the generations, we don’t have to make incredibly drastic, unrecognizable changes. But we have to go back to the simplicity of the Gospel. We have to be like Jesus. Yes, easier said than done. But we have to teach people how to love each other again. The divides in the Church don’t come from a lack of a coffee bar or the presence of music that is contemporary. The divide comes from the lack of relational communing among the generations. Our church should consider taking a break from segregating our members by age and sex. Yes, a young women’s ministry that meets a couple times a month is fun, but I’m going to know who those people are naturally because I can relate to them. We automatically attract one another. Our church should try focusing on ways to mix the generations. How can we allow the generations to grow together and learn from each other?
Just because my grandparents are 60 years older than me and have never heard of Coldplay or TobyMac doesn’t mean that I love them any less. Instead, I find common ground with them. I go out of my way to find things to talk about with them and show them that I care. The Church should be the same way. Jesus was.
I also agree with the idea that the Church has stayed away from being as “real” as she can be. I don’t think that a desire for real preaching, teaching and loving applies only to the Millennials. I know that those longings reach across generations. It is time that all the branches of the Church address real issues on more than a surface level. Talk to us about sex. But don’t just tell us that it’s wrong to do before marriage. Telling us to “just say no” doesn’t prepare us for the real world pressure that exists beyond the church walls. Help us to understand the reason that it is so important. Help us to understand the value that Jesus has placed on our lives and how sex goes beyond my physical “purity” but it extends to what Jesus says about us and has in store for us.
The same goes for addiction.
The same goes for relationships.
In a time where people are hungry and starving for information, we want to KNOW more about Jesus. We want to be taught who He is.
This is not by any means the “be all, end all” solution to how to keep all the generations in the Church, but I know that from my personal experiences, these solutions could help.
I want to know that I’m cared about.
I want to give and recieve mutual respect across the generations.
I want to learn about REAL, right now, not sugar coated issues and I want help in learning how to overcome them. Hold me accountable.