Not too long ago, I received a poignant and powerful email from a member of that generation which profoundly impacted my understanding of the challenge millennials present to the American church. S/He has understanding of my walk through reading this blog.
S/He has a connection to the denomination that I am a member of. Despite the considerable difference in age between us we share many beliefs.
One thing that impressed me about the email is the passion this person has for the faith tradition we have in common.
S/He expressed love for our tradition similar to my love for the denomination that I mention here frequently.
The fact is, however, that s/he hasn't been able to find a place in the body despite actively pursuing ministry opportunities.
As I mentioned, we share many beliefs. Unsubstantiated rumor has it that I have been defrocked by my body and my much younger friend can't find a place in it despite the fact that s/he has considerable gifts.
Here's a conclusion I am reaching about my body and millennials based on its treatment of me and my millennial ways and the fact that my very gifted millennial friend can't find a comfortable place to land here:
My body wants people between the ages of 18 and 40 but only if they are clones of their 60something and 70something parents and grandparents.
The truth is, however, if the church wants to be relevant, it is going to have to empower people who are of the coming generations to live out and proclaim the gospel to those generations. The people who lead us, even the youngest of them, are geezers and out of touch with those generations.
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My tradition is declining because it, in effect, won't allow people who are passionate about and committed to Jesus but are millennials to be millennials.
We must repent.
My guess is that the powers that be in my tradition would say that they do hope to reach millennials and that millennials are invited to any of our churches but, beyond that, the reason that we invest as much energy and money in church planting is to reach younger adults.
ReplyDeleteI wonder, though, if a church plant isn't, itself, a geezerly way of thinking about extending the reach of the Kingdom to millennials.
Despite what the institutionalized church sees in the Book of Acts and in the New Testament Epistles, the early apostles didn't travel around on church planting tours. They went from place to place proclaiming and planting the gospel, the message of the cross, the truth about Jesus.
In those days, the goal was not to create more flocks. It was to make new disciples.
I suspect that we need a fresh way of thinking that doesn't come from minds able to think of Christianity in institutional, and flock-based, terms.
Remember that three of the four Gospels don't even contain the word, church.