Are Millennials Leaving The Church...Or Just Searching For Authentic Faith?

Photo Credit: worldstreetphotos.com

There is a perception that seems to be pervasive in American evangelical churches that Millennials (i.e. those born in the early 1980s to the early 2000s) are leaving the Christian faith in droves. Some studies (such as this one from the Pew Research Center several years ago) helps to demonstrate that this might not be the case.

In fact, having worked in ministry with young people for twenty years, it's my opinion that those of Generation Y are mostly looking for an authentic expression of Christianity. They are tired of the fake religiosity that many of them have experienced personally or only know through negative portrayals of Christians in the media.

This does not mean, however, that there are not Millennials that were raised in the Church and have left. There are. But I think it's unfair to single out this generation as somehow having abandoned its faith in ways that haven't also been true of my generation (Gen X), my parents' generation (Boomers) and others before that.

As a member of this Gen Y, Barnabas Piper offers some helpful insights on the belief that Millennials are abandoning the Church in greater numbers than previous generations:

"In decades past America was a traditionally churched, religious nation. A significant portion of society was religiously involved, and church was a cultural centerpiece. Those who grew up in explicitly religious families and contexts attended church out of habit. It was expected that come Sunday morning they would scrub behind their ears, put on their nice trousers and tie, and off to church they'd go. The power of cultural expectations was enormous. In entire swaths of the country a person was a pariah if he wasn’t a churchgoer. But no more. Sure, the Bible belt still exists, but the cultural pressure to be in church week in and week out has waned to near zero. 

Along with waning cultural pressure, the respect for institutions has diminished among young people, and with it the respect for institutional leaders. While the good Reverend McGillicuddy might once have been a community icon and an authority figure in people's personal lives he is no longer. Neither are churches community hubs (at least in white communities). Young people don't look to institutions or their heads for instruction. The trust isn't there. 

And there is a reason trust is missing for the institutional church. For decades a gospel of moralism and legalism was taught in numerous churches. People attended because it was the "right thing to do" and a way to "get right with God." 

The expectations placed on members were a particular brand of morality built around which things we don't do (drink, cuss, smoke, watch certain movies, listen to certain music, etc.). It was a burdensome law, one nobody could keep. Many didn't even try though they acted like it on Sundays. And while everyone knew it they kept on doing it. Except now young people won't pretend any more or follow an institution so full of fakery. They don't trust the hypocrisy and they reject the moralism. 

So what is it young people are leaving behind? In many cases they are leaving a faux godliness. Millions of lost people, people hanging their hat on morality or mere attendance, populated the pews of the church in previous generations. They were just a lot harder to pick out than those who brazenly walk out the door, so hard we can't even be sure how many there were."

To read the rest of Piper's post Are Millennials Less Godly than Previous Generations? please click here.

Both Social Justice & Evangelism On The Rise For Millennials

Photo Credit: Merrimack College

According to recent research from the Barna Group, the perception that Christian Millennials (those born in the early 1980's through the early 2000's) are big on social justice but wary of evangelism might not be accurate. Here is what Barna found:

"They've been called "the social justice generation," and for good reason—Millennials are actively taking up the cause of the poor, the oppressed, the orphan and the widow. Yet the most common critique leveled at this surge in social compassion is that it comes at a great expense. Sure, skeptics argue, they might feed the hungry and free the captives in this life, but what about the next? According to this view, Millennials are elevating physical needs over spiritual needs and forgoing evangelism altogether. 

Yet the latest Barna research reveals this is not the case. 

In fact, in answer to the question of evangelism on the rise or in decline, Millennials are a rare case indeed. While the evangelistic practices of all other generations have either declined or remained static in the past few years, Millennials are the only generation among whom evangelism is significantly on the rise. Their faith-sharing practices have escalated from 56% in 2010 to 65% in 2013. 

Not only that, but born again Millennials share their faith more than any other generation today. Nearly two-thirds (65%) have presented the Gospel to another within the past year, in contrast to the national average of about half (52%) of born again Christians. 

Since tracking began in 1996, the data show born again Busters, who are currently in their thirties and forties (63%), were evangelizing at an all-time high in 1998. However, evangelism practice among Busters is down to 48% today. Among the Boomer generation (born between 1946 and 1964), nearly two-thirds of born again Boomers (65%) shared their faith in 2007, but today, this has dropped to less than half (49%). The outreach efforts of born again Elders (ages 68 and older), on the other hand, have remained fairly steady over the past several decades. Today, Elders (53%) share their faith just about as much as the average born again Christian (52%)."

I'm thankful that I have the privilege to invest in the lives of this generation of young people.

To read the rest of the findings please click here.

How Will The Next Generation Be Known?

Photo Credit: San Jose Library

My parents' generation is known as the Baby Boomers. I'm a member of Generation X. Those that came after me are called the Millennials. But how will my children's generation be referred?

From USA Today:

"But exactly what do you call a generation of techno-junkies? How about Generation Wii — after the wildly popular home video game console? Or, perhaps, the iGeneration — with a wink and nod to Apple's iPod and iPhone? Both are in the running. So are a bunch of other tech-drenched monikers, including Gen Tech, Digital Natives and, of course, Net Gen.

"Everyone wants to be the first to come up with the name," says Cheryl Russell, dubbed the goddess of demography at New Strategist Publications, who is one of several with claims to have coined the term iGeneration, which she says she created three years ago. "It's cool — and you gain credibility."

The more important question: What does one generation have to gain — or lose — from the name with which it's tagged? Certainly, no one wants to be linked to a generation of deadbeats or lowlifes. Little wonder those names have never risen to the top of any generational list. None officially dubbed Pathetic Generation — at least, not yet. But some might call Gen Z — a term still in-the-running for the next generation — rather off-putting. If Boomers felt a sense of common strength, Millennials may have felt a sense of shared destination. Ultimately, a generational name reflects its hope or pessimism. 

"Generational labels don't always reflect reality," says psychology professor and generational writer Jean Twenge. "Often, they reflect the hopes of what people want a generation to be."

The world that my children is growing up in is much different than the reality in which I was raised. Technology plays a much more important role as access to information and the ability to communicate much more readily has dramatically affected our lifestyles and choices. In addition, the increasing ethnic diversity and religious pluralism greatly influences how we view our world and those different from ourselves.

My hope for my children (and those of their generation) is that they are able to leverage technology to make a difference in the world and not merely for vain pursuits. My desire is that the diversity that surrounds them would enable them to relate to others in a more compassionate manner than those of us of earlier eras often have.

My dream is that they would become known as a generation of people that selflessly give of themselves so that others would be able to find a life that can't be attained merely through advanced technology or fancy gadgets. It is a life that is discovered through an encounter with our Creator. And all of the things that this next generation will be known for -- a strong sense of community,  a desire for service to others, technological adeptness -- can be used for God's glory. That brings me great hope -- no matter what they may end up being called.

Report Says Young People Do Not View U.S. As Post-Racial

Photo Credit: Mighty mighty bigmac

From theGrio.com:

"Is racism interpersonal or systemic? If you were born after 1980, you may very well believe the former. A new report from the Applied Research Center takes a fresh look at the racial attitudes of the Millenials, as they're called, that up-and-coming generation of people ages 18 to 30. And their thoughts on race, like all matters of race in America, are a complicated mixed bag.

Most of all, in the age of Obama, this study throws cold water on the notion that we live in a post-racial, colorblind society -- that the president is the fulfillment of Dr. King's dream and we can all breathe a sigh of relief. In other words, race actually still matters.

In one sense, the results of the study are encouraging. A majority of young people understand that race continues to play a significant role in education, the criminal justice system, immigration, employment and other sectors of society.

For example, only 10 percent believe race is not a factor in the criminal justice system. "Why is it that over 90 percent of prison inmates are people of color? Rates of black men in prison versus rates of black men in college -- obviously, there's something going on that's wrong," said Margarita, 22, a Filipina-American and part-time program coordinator who participated in the study.

"The whole war on drugs is a war on black and brown folks. So what happens to a white person with a drug problem, right? Rich celebrities in rehab on television vs. people I know who face jail time for marijuana charges."

However, this is not to say that all Millenials, the nation's largest and most diverse generation of all time, think alike. Among members of the focus group -- which included blacks, Latinos, Asian-Americans and whites between 18 and 25 years -- young people of color were able to make more of a connection between race and disparities in opportunity and resources. Many whites, on the other hand, had more of a problem connecting the dots."

To read the complete article please click here.

(h/t to News One for the link)

Generation Y: A Tethered Generation

Photo Credit: llona1

They are often referred to as Generation Y, Millennials, Echo Boomers or GenNext. However we may label them (by the way, they hate labels), individuals born approximately between 1978 and 1998 are changing how we view the workforce.

As one who was born in the middle of Generation X, I have some understanding of Millennials, but there is much I just don't get. I grew up playing video games and remember the excitement of playing basic games like Pong and then Pitfall on Atari. Many belonging to Gen Y have never seen an original Nintendo game and are used to dropping fifty bucks for a single game and spending hundreds of dollars for a system.

I got my first cell phone at the age of 27. Nowadays, it is not at all uncommon for elementary aged kids to have their own phone. And I may have grown up watching MTV, but at least they used to play music videos back then! I do consider myself fairly Internet and computer savvy, but I didn't own my first computer until I was out of college and got my first e-mail account as a fourth year college student. My kids already knew how to play video games, dial a cell phone and use a computer -- all before starting school.

Since I serve, work alongside of and lead mostly those of Generation Y, I am in a continual learning process about their values, work styles and world views. The Tethered Generation, a great article in the May 2007 of HR Magazine, addresses the realities that young people face today and highlight some of the strengths and drawbacks of how they interact with one another and the world. You can read the whole article here, but I've highlighted the Good News and the Bad News of "The Tethered Generation":

Good News... 

Millennials have a lot of skills and enthusiasm to offer companies. Experts say they are:

• Techno-savvy. “They’re enormous consumers of information and can locate details about anything within seconds,” says Jeanne Achille, CEO of The Devon Group and mother of two millennials. “We employ millennials to help with research because they can find in-depth data through sources we older employees don’t even know exist.” (The flip side is training millennials to adequately vet the research they find on the Internet.)
• Adept at global and diversity issues. “Millennials’ world is far more expansive than previous generations’ because, through online social networks, they can reach well beyond the confines of geography and establish relationships with others. They’re ideally positioned to support our global workplaces, and HR people should tap their skills accordingly,” says Achille.
• Team-oriented. With Millennials, “decisions are made in a team environment,” says futurist Jim Taylor. “They measure themselves by their peers. They will form communal tribes and communicate astonishing amounts.”
• Multitaskers. “For today’s young people, multitasking is as natural as eating,” says Robert Epstein, visiting scholar at the University of California in San Diego, and West Coast editor of Psychology Today.

Bad News...

According to experts, the millennial generation as a whole lacks the following traits:

• Discretion. “If you give up your privacy on MySpace about everything from your musical preferences to your sexual hang-ups, it is harder to” understand others’ concern for privacy invasions, says Sherry Turkle, a licensed clinical psychologist and MIT professor. “They get the idea one’s privacy is dispensable.”  Clearly, this lack of confidentiality can have dramatic repercussions in the workplace. “There will be no secrets,” futurist Jim Taylor warns. “A conversation that would normally be judged as a private discussion between a boss and subordinate” will become public.
• Independence. “Because parents over-scheduled their lives, they don’t know what to do next. They will need more direction” in the workplace, says Jean M. Twenge, associate professor of psychology at San Diego State University and author of Generation Me: Why Today’s Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled—and More Miserable Than Ever Before (Free Press, 2006).  Claire Raines, author of Generations at Work (AMACOM, 2000), says millennials may look to managers to “take on that ‘mom role’ in some ways. We have to show that we really care about the person, know what their goals are and help them with their career paths,” she says.
• Realistic expectations. Barbara Dwyer, CEO of The Job Journey, a soft-skills training firm, notes this generation believes they can change the world on the first day of work. “The problem is that they don’t have the track record to support these statements. When they’re told their entire lives how wonderful they are, and then they’re challenged in the business environment, they are crushed,” she says.
• Patience. “They’re used to instant gratification. They tend to be impatient and want things yesterday. From an HR perspective, the advantage is that, in their impatience, they may become more efficient, but the disadvantage is that they may not have the patience to work through a complex problem,” says Twenge.
• Work ethic. When asked how the work ethic of today’s young professionals compared to that of previous generations, 49 percent of executives polled by Korn/Ferry indicated that it was worse.  “One problem HR professionals are already facing is many young people entering the workforce have unrealistic expectations about what it means to work,” says Robert Epstein, West Coast editor of Psychology Today. “Many are unwilling to work hard or make personal sacrifices to get ahead.”
• Soft skills and the basics. “Students’ grammar may suffer from an over-reliance on computer programs that correct language errors, which will perpetuate poor written communication skills. E-mail and instant messaging reduces the opportunity for face-to-face interpersonal interaction. The lack of strong interpersonal skills impacts other soft skills, such as conflict resolution,” says Stephen P. Seaward, director of career development for Saint Joseph College in West Hartford, Conn.

I find these finding amazingly accurate. For those of my age and older that lead and supervise those who are Millennials, we are most likely nodding our heads in agreement when reading these comments. I'm curious... Have you found these things to be true? And what of those of you who are members of Generation Y. Do you feel like the characterization of your generation is fair? I'm interested to hear your thoughts.