rooting for Millennials

There is so much being said and written about the “Millennial Generation”.  A lot of it has been quite negative.  Recently the whole issue of their need for “safe spaces” in the wake of the election results for those that couldn’t handle the outcome has been given a lot of attention.  

From Christians there has been a lot of alarmist voices – they are citing the statistics about them being unchurched and/or are leaving the church.   In 2015, CNN ran an article entitled “Millennials leaving Church in droves” (Source: http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/12/living/pew-religion-study/). Atheism is on the rise amongst Millennials.  As for those who are still identifying as Christians, there does seem to be a trend towards abandoning historic Christian doctrines and/or practices.  For example, the percentage who affirm the traditional understanding of marriage as only between a man and woman is on the decline amongst Millennials.  Other doctrines such as universalism and the rejection of the doctrine of hell are also being embraced.

All of these “trends” and the supporting statistics may in fact substantiate the truthfulness of the claims about many Millennials, but I have a different perspective.  First of all, to whatever extent Millennials are rejecting the Christian faith, is the fault of my generation for failing to bring them up in it.  I am a parent of two Millennials.  As a Christian parent, it is my responsibility to pass the faith onto my kids.  It is my responsibility to make sure my family has attended solid Churches that have been faithful to the historic Christian faith.  It has been my generation and the Church of my generation that dropped the ball.  There have been books written as to how we failed, but the fact that a generation today is as unchurched and is attending church at such a low rate is our fault.  It was our generation that invented the concept of the “seeker sensitive Church”.  I was actually saved in one of the pioneering churches in that movement and even attended Willow Creek Community Church for a while which many consider the church that was the originator of that movement.  Sadly many churches that embraced seeker sensitivity ended up watering down the Gospel, requiring less and less of their members.  A watered down Gospel however lacks the power of the true Gospel and to be honest, I think that countless Millennials who are hungry for authenticity are not interested in a powerless faith that doesn’t transform lives.

Another diabolical trend that many Christians in my generation embraced has been aspects and elements of so-called “Progressive Christianity” which amounts to a perversion of historic Christianity.  It is not “progressive” to allow the ever-changing conclusions of secular science to redefine our faith.  The number of Christians today that no longer believe in a literal Adam and Eve is astounding.  The same can be said about God being our creator due to the influence of materialistic Neo-Darwinian evolution.  Progressives have allowed other fields to redefine their faith.  Paul’s injunction to “be not conformed to this world…” has been turned on its head.  Progressives have been and continue to be be transformed by the world and are being conformed into its exact image.  I don’t blame many Millennials for wanting to abandon a Church that has continued to abandon the faith.  Again, the blame rests on my generation.  The heresies of Progressivism happened on “our shift”.  

There are some things about Millennials that I absolutely admire.  They are hungry for authenticity.  They aren’t easily fooled by slick marketing and dubious claims.  They have listened to the claims of Christians and they have looked at the lives of the claimants, they’ve seen the broken relationships/marriages in their parents’ generation.  They’ve seen the addictions, the hypocrisy.  They aren’t convinced and they are choosing to walk away.  I don’t blame them.  They are rejecting a Christianity that doesn’t work.

Another thing about Millennials that amazes me is that they have an incredible capacity for commitment.  You cannot explain the extreme sports phenomenon in any other way (rock climbing, skiing, surfing, motocross, skateboarding, and many many others).  My generation may have inaugurated extreme sports, but it is the Millennial generation that has taken it to unimaginable heights.  World records are falling all the time.  The commitment level of these extreme sports athletes in unlike anything we have ever seen.  It is Millennials that are willing to pay the price to achieve these feats.  Many have even lost their lives in their pursuit of their extreme sports.  The training, the pain, the single-minded devotion to reaching new heights, achieving things never done before.  It is inspirational!

I've also seen that Millennials are really into community.  They will go after the types of things I mentioned with extreme sports, but they want to do so "in community".  My generation idolized the individual achievements of men and women who did things all by themselves.  Millennials seem a lot wiser - they'll do the crazy stuff, but they wisely do those things with others.  

So what do Millennials want when it comes to faith?  I think they want something authentic that they can give their lives to.  I have seen this in the lives of radical Millennial Jesus followers who I know - they are traveling all over the world, often into extremely dangerous places, to bring the message of the love of Jesus and to demonstrate it practically.  I think that other Millennials, those who have yet to meet Christ, are looking for and and want to find something that they can passionately devote themselves to.  So let us forget this watered down version of Christianity that requires nothing and doesn’t work.  Let us invite Millennials to the same faith that Jesus invited His first disciples to – a faith to requires us to die to ourselves, and live completely for Jesus.  That is the ONLY Christianity anyway – all of the other versions are counterfeit.

I’m rooting for Millennials.  And I think they can and will put us all to shame as they follow Jesus in this way.  May they become "The Greatest Generation".