Making Space for Millennials

Introduction

The Church needs Millennials to continue Christ’s mission of redemption, restoration and reconciliation in the world. And Millennials need communion with Christ and his Body to bring wholeness and meaning to their fractured, frenzied lives.

Four design areas are critical for making space for Millennials: culture, ministry, leadership and facilities.

In making space for Millennials the question should be asked: How can we create transformational space for and with Millennials? 

There are five major reasons Millennials stay connected to a Christian community:

  • Cultural discernment
  • Life-shaping relationships
  • A firsthand experience of Jesus
  • Reverse mentoring
  • Vocational discipleship

Culture

Culture is a reflection of worldview: the values, assumptions and allegiances shared among a group. Watershed cultural shifts taking place as Millennials emerge into adulthood are significantly changing their worldview from the perspective shared by older generations. These changes can be broadly categorized in terms of access, alienation and authority.

Instant, almost unlimited access – which Millennials have had since they began their journey into adulthood – has shaped how they learn, the ways they relate to and interact with the world, and their expectations for church and Christianity.

Millennials have seen corruption at all levels of leadership in almost every type of institution.

Modularity

In a modular world, everything can be taken apart and reassembled in a new pattern. The top down, highly organized studio system has given way to a freelance system. This cultural expression is modularity, and it is the new way our lives – from work to education to relationships – are organized.

What does this mean for the community of faith?

First, it means people’s needs are changing.

Second, if modularity is changing what people need from churches, it is also changing how people engage with churches. As in the realms of family and work, people are piecing together “church” according to their preferences and experiences.

In our modular world, we can get great Bible teaching from a John Piper or Beth Moore podcast, fellowship on Facebook or Skype, an opportunity to serve at the crisis pregnancy center and worship on the I Heart Radio app.

The challenge for faith communities is to help young adults identify what pieces of “church” are inadequate, misshapen or missing in their modular lives and then help them rebuild or fill the gaps.

The calling is not to compete with the other pieces but to make space to help Millennials make sense of them all.

Home, Family & Work

The church has a role to play as a welcoming, stabilizing community for those who are struggling to find their place to belong.

Many Millennials have an idyllic concept of “home”, but the reality is that they are far from it.

  • geographically
  • socially
  • culturally
  • spiritually

While a traditional view of family stil makes a strong showing. the cultural expression of friends as de facto family is as popular as the 90’s sitcom.

In God’s family, teens and young adults are our younger siblings and deserve a place at the family table – and not the little kids table, either! Too ofter we treat young people as troublesome children, rather than as heirs with us of God’s glory (see Romans 8:17).

The Christian community can cast a vision for becoming a wife or husband, mother or father, and help young adults connect that vision to their fragmented lives.

Millennials are drawn to the great outdoors. How could you adapt your communal space to help young adults reconnect “work” with the rest of life?

Cross-cultural Communication

If your standard Bible-teaching method is a 30-45 minute sermon delivered once a week by one leader on a stage at the front of your worship space, you may find it difficult not only to pass on rich Bible knowledge but merely to hold Millennials attention.

Few Millennials need more information, from churches or anyone else. They have access to more knowledge than any generation in history. What they need is wisdom – spiritual understanding that allows them to put knowledge into practice.

Is your community of faith equipping Millennials to be wise about digital tools?

Many Millennials are seeking a more holistic, cohesive approach to tech – an approach that is fully integrated with the Christian understanding of what it means to be created in God’s image.

Wisdom, guided by God’s Spirit, is what allows us to connect right attitude with right action. But teaching young disciples what to think and what to do will not impart wisdom. We must train them (and relearn for ourselves) how to think and act like Jesus – to discern the right way to go and then to get going.

Kingdom culture

Not Jewish culture. Not Gentile culture. Kingdom culture.

Paul wrote: “There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). In a similar way, the Jesus community today is called to transcend, with the Spirit’s help, our generational values, allegiances and assumptions and adopt a shared Kingdom culture.

Ministry

When we conceive of our faith community as a religious services industry, even unconsciously, we understand our difficulty appealing to Millennials as a failure to create brand loyalty – a failure whose solution is a better product and/or better marketing.

If a ministry is successful, we assume, the people whom we serve will gradually become more deeply involved (that is, more loyal to our brand). For instance, if 200 children from the neighborhood attend Vacation Bible School but none of the kids or their parents comes to a church service after VBS is done, we would question whether VBS is an effective ministry. And it’s a valid question – we should assess our ministry effectiveness early and often.

Should the goal of our programs and ministries always be more people actively engaged in our programs and ministries? Is our mission to expand market share and brand loyalty?

Like it or not, consumer culture has shaped what people expect of church.

Millennials are hyperaware and deeply suspicious of the intersection of church and consumer culture.

Closed Doors

What do Millennials think about church? Why have so many closed the door on church involvement? Why, even among those who grew up in church, have nearly six in ten dropped out at some point? Why have more than half been absent from church for the past six months? Why do three in ten Millennials say church is not at all important while an additional four in ten feel ambivalent, saying church is either somewhat important of somewhat not important?

Among those who say church is not important, most are split between two reasons: Two in five say church isn’t important because they can find God elsewhere (39%), and one-third say it’s because church is not personally relevant to them (35%). One in three simply find church boring (31%) and one in five day it feels like God is missing from church (20%). Only 8% say they don’t attend because church is “out of date”, undercutting the notion that all we need to do for Millennials is to make church “cooler”.

A significant number of young adults perceive a lack of relational generosity within the Christian community. 52% of respondents view present-day Christianity as aggressive and critical.

Open Windows

What do Millennials find valuable in church? Their answers can give us insight for what to prioritize in ministry and with Millennials.

A plurality say they attend church to be closer to God (44%) and nearly three in ten go to learn more about God (27%). Getting outside the humdrum of their everyday lives to experience transcendence – in worship, in prayer, in teaching – is a key desire for many Millennials when it comes to church.

Millennials are, on the whole, skeptical about the role churches play in society. This is the closed door. But their hope for the role churches could play? That is an open window.

Respect and Respond

There is one universal when it comes to social status: The person of higher status sets the terms of the relationship, and the person of lower status respects and responds to the boundaries set by the higher-status person.

As a rule, Millennials are not terribly status-conscious, but they are keenly aware that information is power.

The only piece of information a sizable majority of Millennials is comfortable sharing with your church is their first name (82%). Only half are willing to give their last names (53%). Just one-third are comfortable sharing their email address (33%).

Only one in five Millennials are comfortable handing over their physical address (19%), and even fewer their phone number (12%). A mere 6% are willing to grant you access on social media, such as friending on Facebook or following on Twitter or Instagram.

When Millennials visit your faith community, are they welcomed and respected, or harassed and put on the spot? Are they cornered into conversation or physical contact? Are they peppered with requests for personal information? Or are they free to set the boundaries of the relationship, as they feel comfortable?

Life-shaping Relationships

If Jesus’ discipling style is any indication, consistent, deepening friendship over a long period of time and through life’s hills and valleys is an (if not the) essential element of lasting spiritual formation within the community of faith.

Are friendships flourishing that can sustain younger and older adults during seasons of spiritual dryness? Do people of all generations serve together, blessing their community with God’s abundant grace and unconditional love?

Two-thirds of U.S. adults agree strongly or somewhat that Christians should play a
strong role in alleviating poverty (66%). The proportion of practicing Christians under 40 who agree is even higher: nearly nine in 10 (86%).

Millennials have a reputation for being concerned about social justice, even though their record as effective, long-haul activists is spotty thus far. They share an expectation that communities of faith should lead the charge on justice issues like poverty. And when a church’s resources are channeled inward instead of outward, they don’t hesitate to criticize.

To Millennials, sacrificial generosity is non-negotiable when it comes to communities that claim to follow Jesus.
There is an aspirational element involved in this high standard—and isn’t that a good thing? Many in the younger generation express a desire to make the world a better place. Their desire is a faint echo of God’s intention to remake the heavens and the earth into a whole, healed place where he will dwell forever with his people (see Rev. 2:1-5). What would it look like for your church to mentor Millennials to live in the new creation? If young adults aspire to be sacrificially generous but don’t know how, their mentoring friendships should incorporate clear teaching on and rigorous practice of the Christian virtue of charity.

More of Jesus

The fact remains that eight out of ten young adults say growing to or learning about God are the two most important reasons to attend church.

Leadership

There are four factors that emerge as essential to developing the next generation of spiritual leaders:

  • authenticity
  • significance
  • reverse mentoring
  • vocational discipleship

Authenticity

What does it look like to “be authentic”?

It means being true to who you are. Don’t represent yourself as something you’re not.

Many of the institutions previous generations respected as pillars of a healthy society have been disgraced by scandals during Millennials’ formative years. Corruption has been exposed within trusted institutions like government, big corporations, national sports teams and organized religion. From President Clinton to Lance Armstrong, from Tiger Woods to the Catholic church, from the NSA to Martha Stewart, Millennials have plenty of reasons to be skeptical.

Young adults aren’t looking for perfect leaders. What they are looking for is leaders willing to admit they’re not perfect. Hypocrisy is one of the biggest criticisms Millennials have of Christians. A full two-thirds of Millennials believe American churchgoers are a lot or somewhat hypocritical.

Instead, lead from your strengths and be honest about your weaknesses.

Significance

Millennials want to make an impact. Barna research for 20 and Something shows that Millennials want passion for their job (42%) even more than a job that helps them become financially secure (34%) or that provides enough money to enjoy life (24%).

As a generation, they have an undeserved reputation for a lack of loyalty. As a rule, however, this is inaccurate. While it’s true that Millennials do not generally demonstrate loyalty to organizations or institutions, most are extremely loyal to causes and people.

Reverse Mentoring

They’re not interested in earning their way to the top so much as they want to put their gifts and skills to work for the local church in the present—not future—tense.

More than six in 10 Millennials like that they know more about technology than older adults. And, the truth is, the church needs the next generation’s help to navigate digital terrains. Aside from a fluency in technology, you might look to your Millennials to “mentor” you in the following areas:

  • Global perspective
  • Sustainability ideas
  • Social concern
  • Optimism
  • Entrepreneurial spirit

Vocational Discipleship

Nearly half of Millennials (48%) think God is calling them to a different work, but haven’t yet been willing to make the change.

This is where vocational discipleship comes in. Because Millennials are so concerned about the significance of what they do, older Christians who are also established professionals or tradespeople can help them

  • 1) identify their life’s work, and
  • 2) help them connect it to their identity as a Christian.

More than one-third of Christian Millennials (37%) do not have an older mentor who
gives them advice about work. Almost two-thirds of all churched adults (63%) say that, in the past three years, they have not received any teachings or information that helped shape or challenge their views on work and career.

Helping young adults connect the dots between faith and work makes a difference to their lifelong pursuit of Jesus.

Working and Leading Together

In the not-too-distant past, the most common method of career training was apprenticeship. An unskilled worker who showed promise was apprenticed to a master craftsperson, training under his or her guidance until the apprentice could carry out first the basic and, eventually, the highly skilled aspects of the craft. Even from the very beginning, although she didn’t yet have the knowledge or skill to work on her own, the apprentice was right in the thick of it, in the shop alongside the master and other apprentices of varying skill levels, learning the rhythms of the craft and offering her brute strength and boundless enthusiasm to the shop’s success.

Facilities

What is your favorite place to connect with God? To connect with others? How about the best place to spend time in personal reflection?

Most of our modern churches have excellent areas set aside for corporate worship, group learning and community-building. But they leave something to be desired when it comes to personal reflection and prayer.

Overall, the “un-churchy” atmosphere of the space, which had more of a corporate vibe than a holy feeling, and the absence of Christian symbols failed to suggest transcendence.

First, cathedral-style churches seem to Millennials like fine china compared to the everyday dishware of the modern churches.

Second, we talked with the field groups about Starbucks versus the independent coffee shop, and many participants agreed that, while they might aspire to the ambiance, community and authenticity of the indie coffee house, they usually find themselves at Starbucks.

Visual Clarity

On the whole, Millennials have a strong preference for unambiguous visual clarity. Practically speaking, field group participants expressed appreciation for clear signage and directions for how and where to find information. More philosophically, Millennials want to be able to answer the questions “Where am I?” and “What’s expected of me?” by looking for cues in their surroundings. Cathedrals and traditional churches have such cues in spades, yet modern churches are often designed expressly to be ambiguous.

Millennials want a church to be open and honest about what it is and about what it is trying to accomplish.

Religious iconography connects people to the traditions and history of Christianity.

Respite

Our churches are places of action, not places of rest; spaces to do rather than spaces to be. The activities, of course, are designed to connect people with God and each other—and some Millennials hope for that, too—but many just want an opportunity to explore spiritual life on their own terms, free to decide for themselves when to stay on the edges of a church experience and when to fully enter in.

Is it a wonder we see an uptick in Millennials seeking out liturgical forms of worship? Or that Millennials who know about Lent are more likely than their parents to practice it?

Many Millennials connect their desire for peace directly to their expectations or hopes for church.

Your church. It it a place of energy and activity? Where do Millennials go to experience Jesus’s invitation, “Come unto me, all ye who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest”?

Nature

Our findings reveal two core questions churches should ask about their facilities.

  • First, how do we bring the outside in?
  • Second, how do we bring the inside out?

Instead of using landscaping simply as a frame for the building, could we use it as a legitimate ministry space – a sacred place in its own right?

Building for the Whole Body

Again and again, we have circled back to five reasons Millennials stay connected to a faith community: cultural discernment, mentoring, vocational discipleship and life-shaping relationships with God and other people.

There is no cookie-cutter, mass-production solution for welcoming Millennials to your
space, but there are questions your community can keep in mind as you build to include the whole church body:

  • How do our facilities present visual cues? Can people easily answer the questions “Where am I?” and “What is expected of me?”
  • How do our facilities offer respite from the outside world? Can people find a place of peace that is accessible and comfortable?
  • How do our facilities connect to Christian history and traditions? What symbols or design elements evoke a sense of the sacred and tell the story of God’s actions in the world?
  • How do our facilities integrate elements of nature? How can we bring the outside in and take the inside out?

Cultural discernment, intergenerational friendships, reverse mentoring, vocational discipleship, and an experience of and connection with Jesus are five reasons Millennials go to and stay in church. How well do your facilities, inside and out, allow you to facilitate these important outcomes?

 

For more information feel free to go and buy the book Making Space for Millennials from the Barna Institute at https://resources.barna.org/products/making-space-for-millennials

A Secular Age, by Charles Taylor

Introduction

Taylor begin sy inleiding deur te noem dat ‘n sekulere samelewing ‘n samelewing is waarin jy voluit kan deelneem sonder om deel te neem aan enige religieuse praktyke. Christendom bv, is heeltemal verwyder van die publieke sphere na die private sphere. Religie en/of die afwesigheid daarvan is ‘n totale private saak.

Daar word ook genoem dat die maniere wat ons gebruik om te funksioneer binne enige publieke spheer, hetsy, ekonomies, politiek, kultureel, pedagogies, professioneel, of self rekreasioneel gestroop is van Goddelike argumentasie.

Die bg staan in skrille kontras met die vroeere opvattinge rondom die samelewing waar die kerk juis al hierdie publieke sphere voorgeskryf het hoe om te handel en God sentraal was tot die gemeenskap waar dit vandag heeltemal van enige transendente verwyder is.

Hierdie is die eerste definisie en ook die mees algemene deffinisie van sekularisasie, dat dit dit is wat gestroop is van God. Dat dit ‘n wêreld is wat sonder ‘n transendente krag/mag funksioneer.

Die tweede deffinisie is meer gemik op die persoon as die samelewing en wil noem dat sekularisasie dit is as die mens homself wegdraai van God. Mense wat nie meer kerk toe gaan nie is ‘n goeie uitbeelding van hierdie deffinisie.

Die derde moontlike deffinisie is die een wat Taylor wil ondersoek en hy defineer dit as volg; As die wêreld/werklikheid waar religie bloot nog ‘n opsie is tot sleutel tot die verstaan van die werklikheid. Waar geloof bloot nog ‘n opsie is om by te voeg tot die vele dimensies waaruit ‘n persoon bestaan, soos wat nog ‘n app op ‘n selfoon die selfoon beter of slegter maak, so word religie gesien, verskoon die oorvereenvoudigde voorbeeld.

Die ervaringe wat ons as mense beleef bepaal hoe ons ons lewens asseseer op vlakke van aktualisasie en dit help ons ook om ‘n raamwerk saam te stel om te bepaal wat tel en wat nie. Hierdie ervaringe dien dan ‘n stuurkrag op ons paaie na die spirituele en morele leefstyl. Hierdie ervaringe orienteer ons deur op ‘n manier iets te gee van hul essense, iets te gee van hulself, hetsy dit God is, die stem van die natuur, of die krag wat deur alles vloei. Hierdie ervaringe het dit ook in hulle om partymal ontwrigtend te wees.

Hierdie transendente kan ons help om lewe te definieer, maar kan ook ‘n negatiewe kant uitlig aan ons lewens, dat daardie verwesenliking altyd iewers sal wees en ons nooit daarby sal kan uitkom nie, en dit altyd in spanning sal staan teenoor die self. Dit kan beskryf word as ‘n afwesigheid van mag, ‘n deurmekaar gevoel, of selfs as melankolie. Hierdie onvermoe om die self te verwesenlik skep ‘n middelgrond waar meeste stilstaan en die lot aanvaar, waar die huidige omstandighede tot ‘n mate ontsnap word maar ook nie ten volle nie. Daar word vrede gemaak met hierdie middelgrond, gewoonlik deur roetiene wat betekenis gee aan die self se lewe, en waar ‘n gevoel van verwesenliking ervaar word deur bevrediging deur middel van die roetiene wat gevolg word. ‘n Tipiese voorbeeld sal wees, om gelukkig getroud te wees met kinders, terwyl ‘n beroep beoefen word wat betekenis gee aan die self, en wat ook ‘n bedrae maak tot die groter samelewing.

Die crux van die saak is dat hierdie middelgrond vir party mense juis dit is. Dat dit hulle als is en hulle hoogste vorm van verwesenliking, dat dit al is wat die menslike kondisie bied. Vanuit hierdie perspektief sal besef word dat hierdie middelgrond gladnie ‘n klein ding is vir hierdie mense nie, en om te glo dat daar iets groters as hierdie middelgrond is is om weg te hardloop van die juiste soeke na betekenis in die mens, in die immanente.

Die onderskeid wat hier getref word tussen die gelowige en die ongelowige is dat die gelowige sy plek van verwesenliking koppel aan God en sonder God kan ware volle verwesenliking nie plaasvind nie, waar die ongelowige weer sy verwesenliking in die hier en nou plaas en aanvoer dat hy homself ten volle kan verwesenlik en geluk ten volle kan ervaar vanuit die self.

Hierdie fokus op die self het die gevolg dat die self later sy eie morele kompas raak wat oorspoel na morele relativisme.

Die rede is vir die moderne ongelowige mens die naaste ding aan ‘n ervaring van volheid, dit is ook heeltemal intern, en word ook vanuit die self gegenereer, wat gesien word as ‘n helde dade.

Redelike mense moet hulle denke open vir iets diepers, iets voller. Hierdie iets is (wel gedeeltelik) intern. Diepe gevoelens in instinkte speel ook ‘n rol in die mens se verwesenliking, nie net die rede nie. Daar moet weer ‘n brug gebou word tussen die rede en emosies, tussen instink en intuisie.

In Buddisme sowel as in die Christendom is daar ‘n ooreenkoms ten spyte van verskille in dogma. Die ooreenkoms is dat beide op die persoon ‘n aanspraak maak om homself te breek met die dinge van die wêreld en die eise wat deur die wêreld aan die persoon gestel word. Die self word tot ‘n mate van uitwissing geneem waar alle verwesenliking plaasvind in die diens van God.

Dus kom daar ‘n paradoksale spanning na vore, wat weer in gesprek tree met die middelgrond, tussen die verwesenliking van die mens terwyl hy/sy alle wêreldse verwesenliking afbreek. Om te strewe is goed, doelgerigte lewe. En selfs as die mens sy wêreldse doelgerigte lewe afwys wys hy dit ook aan omdat hy/sy God se wil gehoorsaam om ‘n kanaal na Hom te wees vir ander, en uiteindelik vir almal. Paradoksaal. Erg.

Met moderne sekularisasie is die mens vir die eerste keer outonomie gegee oor sy lewe, en dat hy/sy die self kan verwesenlik. Die mens word vir die eerste keer aanvaar as heeltemal self onderhoudend en het geen eksterne kragte of magte nodig om hom of die aarde te onderhou nie. Die mens is die begin en die einde, die toppunt van alles. Die moderne era het geboorte gegee aan die Humanisme!

The Disciplinary Revolution: Social Disciplining in Comparative Perspective

The Debate about Discipline: Arguments and Evidence

Die regte agent van verandering was nie die Protistantisme nie, maar Humanisme.

Religie was verseker ‘n baie kragtige vorm van dissipliene in die vroee moderne era, maar defnitief nie die enigste vorm daarvan nie.

Ecclesiastical Discipline: Lutheran, Catholic, and Calvinist

In die gereformeerde kringe was die sosiale strukture baie meer gedissiplineerd omdat dit baie meer omvattend, geografies asook sosiaal. Die strukture wat die kerk in plek gestel het, het hiervoor gesorg wat sinspeel op die vroere genoem word van sosiale dissiplinering.

Calvinistiese dissiplinering in kontras met Katolieke dissiplinering het baie meer gefokus op sosiale dissiplinering as wat daar gefokus was op toorkuns en uitsprake teen die kerk deur die Katolieke. Die Calviniste dissiplinering het gefokus op sosiale onderwerpe; seks, aanranding, dronkenskap, bankrotskap, ens.

Daar is ‘n groeiende liggaam van akademiese navorsing wat bewys dat kommunale vorme van dissiplinering meer effektief is as die hirargiese tiepe, omdat daar meer oe oor die mense gehou word en dit ook dieper/meer effektief/in waarheid na die mense gekyk kan word.

Social Discipline: Religion, the Reformation, and the Restructuring of Poor-Relief

Vir Luther was sy siening van armoede verligting gegrond in sy verstaan van genade, wat ook sy teologie ander gemaak het as die van die Katolieke Kerk. Omdat ‘n gelowige gered word deur geloof eerder as deur werke het Luther geargumenteer dat om in armoede te leef nie ‘n teken is dat jy nie ‘n gelowige is nie, en ook dat as jy vir die armes gee dit ook nie jou kanse tot die hemel gaan vermeerder nie.

Die armoede verligting wat geinstitusionaliseer geraak het met tye het gevra dat elkeen wat gehelp word deur die institusie ‘n spesiale balkie moet dra sodat identifikasie deur die instansie makliker sal kan geskied. Die gevolg daarvan is dat die instansie die wat arm is daar hou deur hulle deur die samelewing te kontrolleer en te brandmerk in effek dat die samelewing hulle as arm sien en nooit as meer as dit sal sien nie.

Wat interessant is, is dat in 1523 het die staat van Frankfurt vereis dat alle bedelary gestaak word en dit onwettig verklaar word. Die kerk het dit dan ook so teologies verdedig om saam te stem met die besluit van die staat. Die interessante deel is die dat die kerk saam met die staat gestem het, maar ook uit hul eie uit ‘n gemeenskaplike fonds gestig het om te help met die armoedeverligting. Dus so kon die staat niks teen die kerk hou nie, want hy het saam met hom gestem en die verligting het buite die kerk geskied deur inisiatief van binne die kerk. Die dubbelsinnigheid is duidelik sigbaar.

Daar was ook “skole” gestig ook “hospitale” genoem, waar haweloses, prostitute, en bedelaars ingeneem is. Hulle is dan na omgesien, maar hulle is ook geforseer om werk te verrig vir die omsien wat hulle ontvang het, wat deel uitmaak van ‘n morele en spirituele hervorming. Die vraag kan gevra word of die kerk ‘n groter saak gehad het om die ‘unruly’ van die samelewing te dissiplineer, of om die armoede te verlig.

Pullen is van mening dat die ware fors agter die sosiale hervorming ‘n ekonomiese krises en seviele humanisme was, eerder as religie.

Conclusion

p115: opgesom in een woord. Dissipliene.