By: Bob Hetzler
Change. There’s a good word for you. Like when you go to the movies, you hand the girl $10 for a ticket, and you actually receive change back. Or when winter changes into that warm feeling of spring. Now, that’s a nice change. But when change means moving away from the norm of life to the unknown, we usually balk at that. In fact, most of us resent anything new in our life that messes with the status quo. “Leave it alone.” “Why do we need to do it differently?” I hear those comments a lot, especially from anyone over the age of 40. Now, before you get offended, I’m one of those over 40. I don’t mind change but only at a certain pace, like a slow moving glacier. I have a theory that there’s something in the atmosphere that speeds everything up to a hyper-leap. “Didn’t we just have a weekend?” “Wasn’t my birthday 3 months ago?” I’ve talked with those that are in their twenties, and they don’t have a clue what I’m talking about. Nice to be young.
I’ve noticed lately that many churches are struggling with change. The battle seems especially strong and the gap especially wide between the twenty-somethings' and those past their thirties (pretty much anyone possessing grey hair). Do you feel it? It’s this transitional thing that has been hovering around the Church for a few decades and seems to have recently exploded on us. I’m not just talking about the style of music in worship but a whole upheaval of what it means to be the Church. No one is immune to it; even mega-churches are struggling with connecting 18-25 year olds to the rest of the congregation. It’s one of the concerns that most pastors who are involved in college-age ministry are sharing with me. Why the problem? How do we help 18-25 year olds (or those in their twenties) feel like a part of the church? What can we do to communicate to leadership that this age group is important to the future of Christianity? Here are a few of those hurdles that trip us up when trying to bring the Gospel to a Millennial generation.
The Hurdles
• Change Comes. When you’re young, you don’t realize that the world around you is changing, because you’re a part of that change. But for those of us who are older, we want things to remain relatively the same. Young people drive change in our society, but older adults tend to resist change. Change comes, and every older generation struggles with new ideas and different perspectives, even in the Church.
• Different Worldviews. If you compare 18-25 year olds with those who are mid to late thirties, you’ll discover that they see the world from two drastic view points. I don’t have enough room to go into details, but I can simplify my point by contrasting these two groups’ mindsets. The older group, the “Modernists,” tend to be governed by the “mind,” finding truth by reasoning, while the younger group, the “Post-Modernists,” tend to be governed by the “heart,” finding truth (if there is such a thing as truth) through experience (i.e. “that may be true for your community but we’ve experienced something different).
• Relevance. The Church has made the Gospel message irrelevant for so many younger people because of the “packaging” of the Message. That’s why some well known mega-churches have a separate service for college-age and twenty-something adults. The main service no longer connects with them. Some of these twenty-something services have splintered off from their church’s main body to start their own ministry. It’s not just the church service that they don’t connect with but more so how their “parents church” no longer fits into their view of what the Church should be.
• Leadership. Most young adults would love to be a part of their church’s decision-making leadership but never get the opportunity to do so. They feel isolated because they don’t have the voice in the church’s decision-making process, so they feel blocked from participating in church life. The available options for them are either to leave the church (never to return) or to leave the church ( for some, the church they grew up attending) to begin their own church.
What does this mean for the Church? Well, for starters, we have to recognize that change happens and that the Church needs to be culturally relevant without weakening the Message. Some think that to be relevant means to compromise your standards. I am not suggesting that we water down the message of God. We need to communicate His Word in ways that a new generation will understand. We can do this by staying informed of our world around us. There are plenty of websites, magazines, TV programs, music, and other media outlets that can give you insight into this Millennial culture. One of the best ways I have found to stay relevant is to sit down with a group of college-age people and ask questions about how they see themselves. Ask them how they see their peers and what significance the Church has in theirs and their peers’ lives. Listening and observing can be a tremendous way to understand any group, especially young people.
Second, if we fail to deliver the Message in culturally relevant ways to this generation, we’ll lose them. That means those of this age group who are in the Church need to be given opportunities to voice their thoughts. They need to be in leadership positions with real responsibilities and authority. It’s funny, but most of my Boomer friends think that mega-churches with big rock band, multiplex screens, and the precise programming of a Broadway show will connect with this generation, but they don’t. That’s why many of these huge churches have college-age church services. The college group may meet on Saturday night or on a weeknight, but they won’t attend their parents’ church. That’s not who they are as a generation. That’s also why many college groups are starting their own ministries; many of the ministries in their parents’ church are inward, self-help ministries, and college-age are more focused on the world around them. Some of the fastest growing churches in America are populated by twenty-somethings (check out magazines such as Outreach for the latest on growing churches).
So what can be done? Here are a few thoughts and insights to help your church clear some of those hurdles to reach a younger generation.
Clearing the Fence
• Evaluate Cultural Trends. Be aware of the cultural changes that are happening around you. If you desire to reach this younger generation, you need to know a little bit about their world. Over the centuries the Church’s “packaging” of the Gospel has changed (albeit slowly), but the Message remains the same (for college-age ministries websites, materials, etc…see www.collegeleader.com).
• Meet With Your Young Leaders. One church pastor met with leaders under the age of thirty in their church to ask them questions about how they felt about their church. He took notes and asked follow up questions, listening to how they perceived their ministry. He wanted to hear from them without correcting or defending a position. It’s a good start to drawing in your young leaders.
• Consider Change. I know that’s a hard one, but you need to consider it. Some cultural studies have estimated that our culture changes every 10-15 years (how we raise families, the work place, moral values, etc…). Change is essential for any group, organization, or industry to staying connected to a fast moving world, but it’s especially true for the Church.
Finally, many books out there tell us of the coming demise of the Church. It is true that many young people are leaving the Church and that if something isn’t done, then what has happened in Europe will eventually happen to us here in the States. But I have hope. The Church has been around for a long time, and the Lord has helped us through the ever-changing scope of His world. I do believe these are crucial times for Christianity in America. I can’t tell you if we are heading towards a post-modern way of living or if our country will abandon Christianity altogether, but I do know that the Message of God will always have a remnant. We’ve heard it a million times but it still rings true: the message of the Gospel never changes but how we present it must. Will we be able to connect the Truth of God for this generation of young people? I think we will. God is all about cultural relevancy without denying Himself, and that’s good to know.
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