Not all Millennials are averse to serving in leadership roles in established churches. But many of them are. And our churches are approaching a tipping point where many are unable to attract Millennial members or leaders. It will likely soon be a crisis.
What is it about established churches that push away Millennials? Let’s examine that question first, and then let’s look at some possible solutions.
- Millennials perceive established churches to have values that are entrenched in non-missional traditions. Millennials have values that focus on community, cooperation, and service to others. They see established churches as barriers to those values, institutions that are more concerned about maintaining the status quo rather than making a missional difference.
- They perceive that much time in established churches is wasted catering to members’ personal preferences. For a number of Millennials, the established church feels more like a religious country club rather than an outwardly-focused organization. Budgets, ministries, and activities seem to be focused on preferences of members rather than reaching out to others.
- Many established churches are denominationally loyal; but many Millennials see denominations as antiquated organizations. If a church is affiliated with a denomination, this younger generation views both the church and the denomination as anachronisms. They don’t see either as effective or relevant.
- Millennials don’t see established churches as community-centric. The men and women of this generation typically have a heart for their community. Many have become key to the revitalization of urban communities and other locales. But they see most established churches with a minimal focus at best on the community in which they are located
- Millennials see church planting as a far superior alternative. To use a well-worn phrase, they would rather have babies than raise the dead. They see futility in wasting precious resources of people, time, and money on churches that will not likely budge or change.
As a reminder, the Millennials are almost 80 million in number. While Christians comprise only about 15 percent of this generation, they still are an influential force in our churches. And, to this generation’s credit and defense, many of their concerns are valid.
But here is a dose of reality. There are about 350,000 established churches in America alone. They represent untold resources of people and time, not to mention billions of dollars in property. It would be a shame to abandon those churches at such a pivotal time in our world.
My plea to Millennials is not to abandon established churches. Not all of them are as bad as many think. Consider yourself to be a part of the solution.
Above all, look at these churches as mission fields just as you would a ministry in a distant continent. We need Millennials in established churches. Your present and future leadership is vital. Granted, church revitalization is messy and not easy. It is often slow, methodical, and frustrating.
But God loves the members of established churches just as He loves the members of new works. Prayerfully consider, my Millennial friends, if God might be calling you to this ministry. It might just become the mission field where you can make a huge difference.
Let me hear from you.
photo credit: Thomas Hawk via photopin cc
Posted on November 15, 2014
With nearly 40 years of ministry experience, Thom Rainer has spent a lifetime committed to the growth and health of local churches across North America.
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150 Comments
As a millennial, and a 18 year old worship pastors daughter, I agree with both parts of this blog. I am frustrated with the current state of the church, and truly struggle with feeling accepted and valued from the current church body. I will admit, I am struggling with God on the issue of being called into worship ministry, because I fear I will lose any impact on other people my age because the pastor title is intimidating. I sometimes wonder if it’s just time to try a different type of ‘church’ altogether.. Just deep life groups, and a service with worship only? I don’t know what the Lord has in store for the millennials, or the current church. I do know, however, that I do feel more accepted, loved, and valued by some of my Starbucks customers, than members of the church. Millennials may be ‘one latte away from saving Christianity’, but maybe we’re not one latte away at all? Maybe we don’t want to save Christianity, we want to find Jesus? We’re not about religion, we’re about healing, recovery, actual, visual, impact on peoples lives through the love of Jesus Christ. I have served on worship teams for Sunday morning at adult service, led worship for our youth group Sunday nights, and led worship for Celebrate Recovery monday nights for the past 4 years, and the people I find comfort in the midst of? Recovering addicts; Authentic, real, simple, Jesus loving addicts. Not because I am an addict, but because we both know religion didn’t save us, Jesus did.
So maybe Millennials don’t want to be part of the current church body, we will still step up and follow the calling with joy in our hearts nonetheless. But please, let’s not forget, that this is not a problem we caused, but a problem caused through time, that we are reacting to.
I’m a millennial. This is a great artical. The concerns and anger of my generation are well described. And I will myself, and encourage others to consider the latter challenge of the article to join with and seek to be a part of the solution within traditional churches. However, I don’t believe that we will collectively do this without demanding and requiring great change. I think this change will be more than earlier generations are comfortable with. So I humbly have a challenge to all above generations: to prayerfully consider the degree to which you are willing to be obedient to God within your churches, and work on your own heart in preperation for the changes that take place during our partnership.
I also believe that while many churches say they want things like male leadership or millennial leadership, they don’t really want or take the neccessary steps for this to happen. They don’t create environments where men or millennials feel comfortable or encouraged to lead. That being said I think for this to happen you have to both pray for rain and tangibly prepare for it to happen. I think you would have to be pretty upfront, honest, and intentional about making millennials feel welcome and making sure they know you want them to lead. It’s a big sacrifice, but we’re all working for the same thing right? God-willing I think it can happen. Peace to all. To God be the glory
As a current seminary student, I would like to add that “established” churches don’t look appealing at times because the larger churches with all their resources don’t help pay for formal educations. It is often required that leaders have formal training that we must pay for ourselves. We incur debt at the rate of $530 per credit for 97 credits. I’ve been apart of 2 churches in the last 10 years (volunteering in both) and neither one offered any financial assistance when I asked. It seems to me the church doesn’t have a long term strategy to develop and keep leaders within the local church body. I rarely reply to blogs like this, but money is a real need for students at seminary. I’m not asking for a full ride, just help. I’m currently about half way through. I have around $32,000 in debt. My personal thought is that if you are asking Millennials to be leaders, but are not helping them equip themselves in thir formal education, then it sounds like Church’s are treating their leadership positions just like any other company would treat a job position and that seems a little scary to me. If these leadership positions are simply a job, then the millennials will see these positions as just jobs and will choose the position that gives them the most benefits.
There are two sides to every issue. As a Millennial, my observation has been that many Millennials don’t have the choice of trying to help an established church. I consider myself very fortunate to have been given such an opportunity. The church I pastor was established in 1837 and traditionalism has very much been set in stone for many. I can very much relate to this list. The problem with some of these established churches is that the churches don’t always want to be revitalized. It even goes so far that the attitudes I’ve personally heard were that we are in the last days and just need to hang on til Jesus returns. No love for the lost, no desire to help others, no sense of community, as many have already expressed. The other part of this problem is that many established churches have no interest in hiring a Millennial to minister in their church and community. I can’t believe how many churches under the 30-40 range are looking for a man between age 40-50 with a Master of Divinity degree, must be funny, a people person, skilled in 86 different trades, and be willing to work for free. It’s a problem that needs to be addressed if we are truly going to see many of these churches revitalized. It truly breaks my heart to see so many so called Christians so set in one frame of mind that the majority of people age 40 and below have now either never set foot inside a church building or haven’t gone since early childhood. In an area like mine, I see the younger generations very eager to learn the truth and come to Christ, but zero interest in going back to churches that shun them because their parents got a divorce or because they don’t have the same standards. Truly heartbreaking. I can honestly see why many Millennials believe church planting is far superior as an option. I’ve honestly considered it myself as well.
I’m a couple years too old to be considered a Millennial, but I felt a lot of those same things when I chose to plant a church several years ago. When it didn’t work out, I began looking to pastor an established church. When I did, I had a lot of people try to talk me out of it–again, with many of the things that you mentioned in the article. But I think that you make a great point about the how much of a waste it would be to give up on established churches. This is especially true in rural areas and small towns, like where I ended up. We are in an increasingly urban/suburban country, but there are millions and millions of people who live in the villages of the U.S. Many times, these areas don’t have the culture or population base that make a church plant feasible, but they do have “core groups” in small churches. These people mostly want to please the Lord and reach their communities, but are stuck in old paradigms. Unfortunately, over the past couple of decades, these churches have been treated as pastures for pastors headed to retirement or resume-filler for guys fresh out of seminary. They get used to guys only staying a couple of years and then “moving up” or retiring, so they are resistant to some young dude coming in and trying to change everything, when they will have to carry on without them in a couple of years. We need passionate young men to answer God’s call to the rural areas and villages of America and commit to building their lives there for 7-10 years or more. If people continue to avoid these types of churches, the church will wither in rural America.
As a millennial–and recent seminary grad–I would affirm most of the list, with perhaps a few points of clarification/tweaking. “Millennials have values that focus on community, cooperation, and service to others.” Is that not a significant part of what the Body is supposed to be? Granted, the Body is also supposed to be just as much about one gathered organism worshiping their creator each time they meet. And they’re also supposed to be about building each other up, so if my fellow millennials are heavy on the former to the detriment of the latter two, well, that is problematic as well.
I also agree with the second point, but I’ll add something that may be unexpected as well: I perceive that established churches (and denominations) waste too much time catering to the personal preferences of the lost and “seekers.” Quite honestly, it really doesn’t matter whether we’re talking about current, holy members or the “seeking” quasi-members or future prospective members (the latter two, I am fairly positive actually get trained into this “religious country club” mentality), it seems like the people are busy picking out how best the Church as an organism can serve them.
I do not believe #3, but I also am fairly disappointed in denominations. In my own personal journey in settling into a denomination, I can’t help not being able to get over the glaring weaknesses/flaws of each one. And thus, I’m left coveting an Acts church that doesn’t exist. Perhaps that is the similar for other millennials, except they throw the baby out with the bathwater.
I completely agree with #4 and #5. To comment more on church planting as a far superior alternative, a lot of that, for me, stems from not feeling that I would be a good fit for the churches. Churches/denominations have gotten away from a Biblical foundation that if I expected from them what Jesus says God expects from us, I’m sure I wouldn’t last long. In fact, I’m skeptical of how far I can make it through interviews within some denominations.
During one phone interview, I was 1) asked what my 2 and 5 year vision for the church was (wait, isn’t it God’s church? Doesn’t His Word contain His vision?? I’m not a CEO. I am a weak and humble called servant, who is prayerfully dependent on God, but you expect me to map everything out using my own wisdom?–I think this is a lot of what us millennials rebel against. All human-made, human-powered, pragmatic, non-biblically-based modern organizational philosophies). 2) When I shared a (biblical) vision of members each having disciplistic relationships and evangelizing by word or deed, I was asked what I would do if I had a mostly older congregation. I knew any chance of getting that job went out the window the moment I earnestly began my reply, “John Wesley was doing it in his old age.” It’s that feeling–that people don’t really want to have changed hearts/people have physically advantaged into an elderly state without a changed heart–that would make me rather plant a church. That makes me not want to spend time and energy on people who are physically, mentally, and spiritually “retired,” and are just lingering around at their country club.
I know that that is a generalization, but so is the list. I’ve been blessed to see some great older folks who have been wonderful Christ-like examples. They’ve played a huge role in my discipleship. But I’ve also attended and preached at churches that were mostly old, and they had no intention of having a vibrant, growing, fruitful relationship with God, nor any type of ministry for His glory.
Thom I absolutely agree with you. About a year and a half ago I decided to create a ministry (along with a group of pastors and lay leaders, from different traditions & expressions, in our city) that specifically reaches young professionals (Millennials) in my region. We are the second largest city in Illinois (2nd to Chicago). Our purpose is the Church helping churches reach Millennials. Our goal is not to plant a church but to reach this demographic with the ultimate purpose of helping churches create better pathways in assimilating this generation back into the local church. There’s more to us but this ministry is known as GenerationONE.
Thanks for writing this article! This reinforces what We’re doing!!
I am a pastor of a church that has been around since 1855 and I am 28 years old. I agree with your article and this door was not the one I wanted to walk through, but I knew I needed to because God was calling my family and I there. As someone who sees these observations in the church, I think the challenge for this generation of pastors is two fold; to get established churches to focus outside the church walls instead of inside and to also tap into the wisdom of the older generation. We need to realize that with age comes wisdom and with that, use their wisdom to better equip the next generation of church leaders. Many times we choose to plant a church because we want the freedom to do what we want. By making this choice we may be missing opportunities to join other generations and cultures to display the diversity and unity of the body of Christ!
The Church itself is a mission field. I’ve been serving for four years in a church established in 1805, and trust me, some of them are far worse than you think. I’m currently still serving there, while also serving in a neighboring church founded in 1809 – and while there are similarities, they are also night and day. Not too many pastors purposefully run churches into the ground, but I’ve met congregations that are proud of ruining pastors. The established church is a mission field; one no-one wants to support.
As a Millenial myself, I relate well to the frustrations and concerns listed in the article, especially in the past few years since I’ve been off to college and experienced more than just the small town life that I came from. I remember a time when I was dead set on finding a new church where I didn’t feel like taking people by the shoulders and shaking them and telling them to get it together already. For some reason though, I could never bring myself to leave. So I spent Sunday service after service stewing in the pew thinking that there wasn’t anything I could do to change it. Then I found 1 Timothy 4:12, and realized that I could do something to effect change. I’m still only a college student, with no calling to be a minister IN the church. But my hopeless frustrations are now burdens that I’m praying for and letting God handle, and maybe he’ll use me to effect change one day. I loved the encouragement you gave to millinials at the end of this article. Thanks so much for not giving up hope in my generation.
I am a Millennial that serves at an established church in St. Louis. However I have come alongside the Senior Pastor to help them replant the church in the community to reach the changing demographics of our community. I have a great love for the local church and want the blessing of an established church. It is a gift to have the support of the older generation and have their wisdom in the new generation our church is beginning to reach. We are seeing many new families.
I am thankful that my generation has a heart to plant churches but would love to see this take place in the blessing and with the support of the older generation. Would love to hear your thoughts on this method as a way for Millennials to engage in church planting but in serving the established local church?
Another challenge for Millenials (and others) genuinely interested in the hard work of revitalization is that the resources available for it seldom include financial resources. Many churches in need of revitalization are in areas of population stagnation or decline. Often those churches want a pastor and his family for full-time for a salary that would have been low in 1988. And, though the church owns assets outright, the offerings are such that they cannot compensate the pastor appropriately. The problem is compounded by a lack of jobs in these areas making bivocational an increasingly difficult option (if the church would allow that). Finally, in many of these areas, there are often 10 or more very small churches where 1-2 churches of 150+ would be better able to have a strong pastoral team who can devote their lives to that community and still fulfill their responsibility to provide for their families. This is a big challenge, but if we took it on with as much strategic emphasis and focus as reaching booming urban metropolises, much progress could be made and entire communities transformed as churches came together. These sorts of churches are those that largely built the SBC, and many could benefit greatly from such assistance.