The Millennials in your church are those people between the ages of 13 and 34. To be included, they were born between the years 1980 and 2000. Maybe you recall all the fuss that was made over the Baby Boomers (those born between 1946 and ’64). There were 75.9 million Boomers. Would you believe there are 77.9 million Millennials?
Millennials are on track to becoming America’s most educated generation. They are also the most tech-savvy. Then Millennials desire close relationships, and they just may be the ones to bring the family back together. But they are looking less and less to religion as being important in their lives.
For the church in America to lose the Millennials in the numbers predicted would be catastrophic. It would leave the U.S. looking much like Europe in terms of church involvement.
If I were still pastoring, I would invite a group of my older Millennials to help me either prepare my sermons or to evaluate them after they were preached. If I didn’t have any Millennials in the church, I would ask the board to allow me to hire some on a several-hour-a-week basis to fill that role. This shouldn’t be that hard, because many in their 20’s are looking for work. The church could certainly afford to pay a couple of them $12 an hour to act as unskilled consultants.
I’m quite serious about this. I have already read a number of books about this age group. I also meet every week with five Millennials to discuss this specific problem. I am attempting to rethink how churches need to adjust to keep this age group interested.
For the sake of the future we need to begin thinking NOW about how to reach this Millennial generation.
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Please click here to visit David Mains’ Sermon-Coach.com website.
You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Please click here.
