The Challenge, Part 3

This is the third and final installment on the challenge of the church today. I began by listing the five different generations within the church today, each with distinct beliefs, morals, and world views. I then shared with you how the responsibility of the church is to reach, train, and unleash the next generation, knowing that each current generation will eventually die and a new generation will rise up.

The next generation of the church is called “The Millennials.” Their ages are 18-30. If we hope to understand how to reach, train, and unleash them to influence their generation, we need to ask five questions as a church.

Two questions were asked and answered in the last issue: Is First Free relevant? Is First Free clear in our visual messaging? The third question to ask is: Is First Free a place of action or rest? Most church buildings today are places of action, not rest, and space to ‘do’ rather than to ‘be.’ Millennials have a great desire and need for respite.

Most churches have excellent areas set aside for corporate worship, group learning, and community, but nothing when it comes to personal reflection and prayer. Millennials say nature helps them connect with God. Does First Free provide this kind of space?

Question Four: Is our church being Jesus? Millennials don’t want to sit on the sidelines and observe. If they’re going to be part of a church, it must have value and meaning. In generations like the Boomers, people attend church out of some moral obligation to do so. Millennials won’t have any of that.

If First Free doesn’t provide meaning and value to them, they won’t participate. They’ll go and find something that does have meaning and value. They want to talk about real things, difficult messages, and explore the application. We must keep our message ‘real.’

The last question we need to ask is: Is First Free helping Millennials find mentors? Millennials don’t feel the same sense of obligation to attend church that previous generations may have. But those who are involved in a local church after their teen years are twice as likely to stay involved if they have a close personal friendship with an older adult in their faith community.

The golden opportunity for First Free is learning how to tap into all the financial, intellectual, professional, and relational capital of prior generations (especially the Boomers) and leverage it to equip the next generation (the Millennials) in the church.

Effective ministry to Millennials means helping them discover their own mission in the world, letting them teach us how to navigate life in this digital age. Mentoring Millennials isn’t just teaching and training them but also them training and teaching us.

At the end of the day, we don’t have anyone to hand-off the church to if we don’t have Millennials (18-30) at First Free. That’s the challenge of ministry today.

Blessings,
Mark
P.S. If you were God, don’t you think you could come up with a better world, a better plan? This Sunday we begin a new series that will add some questions we know people wrestle with. See you at 9:15 or 11:00!