If you were born between 1980 and 2000 (give or take a few years), you are considered a Millennial – a trendy term used to describe the largest generation of Americans in history. There are 77.9 million Millennials (for comparison, the Boomer Generation [1946-1964] consisted of 75.9 million people). Millennials are seen as highly educated, relatively affluent, and skeptical of tradition and worldviews that they perceive as narrow or old-fashioned. When you look around the auditorium at most churches in our country, you notice that the Millennial generation is strikingly under-represented. According to the Barna Group, 59 percent of Millennials who grew up attending church (any denomination) have now left. My anecdotal experience among God’s people has only confirmed this statistic in my own mind. So where did they all go? And what did their parents and elders do or teach that might have contributed to this mass exodus?

Every single one of us has had experience with this problem: friends from childhood, young people who are converted and quit after a few months, or even our own children. The answer we seek is to the following question: why are we losing a particular generation of potential Christians?

A generation that does not know God…

Ephesians 1:15-17 says, “For this I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you, and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers.” In the year 62 AD, which is about the time this epistle was written, Paul could not cease praising the Christians in Ephesus for their faith and devotion to the Gospel. About thirty years, later, the membership and spirit of the Ephesian church had changed dramatically. Of this congregation, the Lord says in Revelation 2:4-5, “But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you, and will remove your lampstand out of its place – unless you repent.” In only one generation, around thirty years, the church at Ephesus had lost their first love – they had forgotten about the difficult labors of their parents in establishing the congregation and standing strong for the Gospel. They had forgotten what it meant to be strong in the faith and to love the Lord with all their hearts! Do we ever find this happening to us? It can seem so distant, at times, to think about the toils of the previous generation. I sometimes find myself taking for granted the hard work that our parents and grandparents did to strengthen the church and draw a line in the sand. I know many Millennials who either do not know how hard it was to be a Christian in times past, or who simply mock or belittle the strong stand that our spiritual forefathers took. I forget that at some point, a forefather of mine split from a denomination or a worldly path and took up his cross amongst the true believers (John 4:23-24).

An example of this same second generation mentality is found in Judges 2:7-10. In fact, one can read through the entire book of Judges and find examples of this concept! “And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who survived Joshua, who had seen all the great work of the Lord which He had done for Israel… And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers; and there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord, nor yet the work which He had done for Israel. Then the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord…” In only one generation, the people had degenerated from a God-fearing nation to a home of idols. Of course, the reason for this change is given in plain terms: that generation did not know the Lord or His works. Who failed here? Was it the parents for not teaching? Or the kids for not listening? One component of the puzzle is the lack of strong, contemporary leadership – After Joshua, who took up the mantle of leadership?

Failure to hear powerful preaching

One of the greatest struggles we have in keeping young people interested and educated is in how we preach the Truth. There is no way to get around the reality of our time: young people have an attention span of less than 15 minutes. If a point cannot be made in that amount of time, then it is likely no point will be learned. But many preachers very naively forget this and fail to deliver messages from the pulpit that actually affect the lives of hearers – especially the younger souls.

 

  • Along these same lines, I think most would agree with me when I say that “issue-oriented” preaching does not affect young people the way we wish it would. Millennials are not convinced anymore by sermons that parade around all the ways we are NOT like the denominations. One writer said, “We get dangerously close to replacing the Body with the Head when our primary confidence lies in how we do not worship, how we are not organized, and how we do not raise funds. When this happens, we are no different than the Pharisee who thanked God “that he was not like other men” (Luke 18:11). We must first love Jesus, then we will keep His commandments (John 14:15). Not vice versa” (“Have We Finally Restored New Testament Christianity?”, Ben Giselbach, plainsimplefaith.com). Truth will always win over falsehood if we begin from the right starting point: loving Christ above all else. Many Millennials are not convinced that this is the case, so all of our doctrine, to them, is easily dismissed. It is important to show each other that the driving force behind all of our activities is devotion to God. Do our young people see Colossians 3:17ff actually at work in our lives? I am not saying minimize the difference between truth and error – just show that truth is always motivated by love (Ephesians 4:15).

Preachers must preach Jesus (1 Corinthians 1:23). Preachers are sent to “preach the Gospel, not in cleverness of speech, that the cross of Christ should not be made void” (1 Corinthians 1:17). This means that we have an obligation to teach things related to God and the Bible, not the world. To preach Jesus is to teach the entire counsel of God (Acts 20:27), which means helping the young people see how God affects every aspect of their lives:

 

  • Millennials (really, all Christians) need to recognize God in the creation.
  • They need to see His hand in all of life’s events, good and bad (Ecclesiastes 7:14).
  • They need to involve God in decision-making, through prayer and study of the Bible.
  • The Bible will help decide what kind of person to marry, what kind of friends to have, what kind of employee to be, what kind of parents, etc.
  • Young people need to be taught how to search the scriptures on their own, making their faith special. Personal Bible study leads to conclusions that we “own”.
  • They need to be taught by example how joyful the worship service can be.
  • When the offer of the world seems so much better to a naïve young person, does not some of the blame fall on us for failing to preach the Gospel properly?

Living Up To The Challenge

Was the Millennial generation coddled? Spoiled? Was faith made a little too easy and convenient? Perhaps the primary reason this generation is falling away is because it was not properly challenged. We are, after all, a post-lunar-landing generation. The moon is mundane to us. When a generation has a “been there, done that” attitude about the moon, you know it has a yearning for some serious challenges! A lot of the blame, of course, has to be placed on Millennials themselves. It is not as if our parents, preachers, and elders were the only ones who held Bibles in their hands. But the lesson from Proverbs 22:6 cannot be minimized. The older generation has a responsibility to teach the younger. Deuteronomy 6:4-9 was spoken to adults, not kids! One writer sums up some of the symptoms of the problem:

 

  • We weren’t shown why we should be dedicated followers of Christ, as opposed to putting our faith in something else.
  • Our doubts and concerns were minimized and discouraged, instead of being thoroughly addressed and explained.
  • Our serious questions, if they were answered at all, were often answered with simple platitudes and insufficient clichés.
  • We weren’t taught the Bible. The last generation was good at proof-texting, but failed to demonstrate that the whole of God’s Word was “living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword” (Hebrews 4:12).  My generation, as a result, has very limited Bible knowledge. (“This Is Why My Generation Is Leaving The Church”, Ben Giselbach, plainsimplefaith.com).

While Millennials need to be careful not to play the blame game with their elders, I think the writer is correct in concluding that a failure to challenge has gone a long way toward the decimation of their faith. When I talk to young Christians or those who have left the church, the main complaint I encounter is that they were rarely pushed to achieve greatness in the demonstration of their faith. Evangelism became the “preacher’s job”, song leading was reserved for the most talented adults, a chronic cynicism developed over practicing charity, and social/school/extracurricular activities swallowed up so much time that mission trips and church activities were given the leftovers. Millennials are a generation yearning for a challenge – they (we) want to be given responsibilities and difficult endeavors.

When I read about the relationship between young and old believers in the New Testament, I see this idea of challenging faith all over the place. Remember that it is likely that most of Jesus’ apostles were around thirty years old – yet He expected them to face and conquer immense challenges (Acts 1:7-8, Matthew 10:16ff, John 14:12). The apostle Paul had great expectations for his young counterpart, Timothy (2 Timothy 2:15, 1 timothy 4:11-16). Older men and women are to take younger Christians by the hand and guide them, practically and consistently (Titus 2:1-8). We are without excuse, every one of us. Millennials need to take hold of their faith just as much as their elders need to present the truth in the right way. Only then can we “strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die” (Revelation 3:2).