A Message to the church: Most Millennials don't go to church

Millennials are those born between 1980-2000. It has been widely documented that this is the largest generation. In August of 2009 LifeWay conducted a survey of 1,200 adults born during this time, the findings are the " basis for the upcoming book "The Millennials: Connecting to America’s Largest Generation" by Dr. Thom Rainer and his son Jess Rainer." as the article on LifeWay's website states.


I wont go through all the findings since you can click here and read what they have posted yourself. Yet there are at least two main points that stood out to me. Although 65% of Millennials consider themselves Christian:

• 67% of them say they rarely or never read the Bible (or any other sacred text).
• 66% (2 out of 3) never visit a church, synagogue, mosque or temple.

Yet with the above two points the article does mention that 70% of Millennials (strongly or somewhat) agree that "Christian churches are still relevant in America today."

No doubt that reaching this generation is a challenge, they are very diverse in their understanding of spirituality/religion and as Ed Stetzer president of LifeWay Research puts it, " the poll shows the so-called "Oprah effect" on religion, where faith becomes another technique for self-improvement."

It's difficult though when people (of any generation for that matter) aren't reading their Bibles or attending church regularly (at least 1x per week). When these two happen (or don't happen) usually people's rationale seems to diverge into different arenas and all roads don't lead to Rome.


It's becoming clear that the greatest mission field isn't necessarily overseas but right here in America. Just as I wrote this post (i came back, edited and re-posted in case you may get this twice:-), I read this blog post by Dr. Rainer himself on the 5 major trends in the churches of America, it's worth the short read. 

So what say you? How do we reach this 'Millennial' generation?

Javi

image by [powerpointsermons]