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July 27th, 2013
08:33 AM ET
Why millennials are leaving the church
(CNN) - At 32, I barely qualify as a millennial. I wrote my first essay with a pen and paper, but by the time I graduated from college, I owned a cell phone and used Google as a verb. I still remember the home phone numbers of my old high school friends, but don’t ask me to recite my husband’s without checking my contacts first. I own mix tapes that include selections from Nirvana and Pearl Jam, but I’ve never planned a trip without Travelocity. Despite having one foot in Generation X, I tend to identify most strongly with the attitudes and the ethos of the millennial generation, and because of this, I’m often asked to speak to my fellow evangelical leaders about why millennials are leaving the church. Armed with the latest surveys, along with personal testimonies from friends and readers, I explain how young adults perceive evangelical Christianity to be too political, too exclusive, old-fashioned, unconcerned with social justice and hostile to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. I point to research that shows young evangelicals often feel they have to choose between their intellectual integrity and their faith, between science and Christianity, between compassion and holiness. I talk about how the evangelical obsession with sex can make Christian living seem like little more than sticking to a list of rules, and how millennials long for faith communities in which they are safe asking tough questions and wrestling with doubt. Invariably, after I’ve finished my presentation and opened the floor to questions, a pastor raises his hand and says, “So what you’re saying is we need hipper worship bands. …” And I proceed to bang my head against the podium. Time and again, the assumption among Christian leaders, and evangelical leaders in particular, is that the key to drawing twenty-somethings back to church is simply to make a few style updates - edgier music, more casual services, a coffee shop in the fellowship hall, a pastor who wears skinny jeans, an updated Web site that includes online giving. But here’s the thing: Having been advertised to our whole lives, we millennials have highly sensitive BS meters, and we’re not easily impressed with consumerism or performances. In fact, I would argue that church-as-performance is just one more thing driving us away from the church, and evangelicalism in particular. Many of us, myself included, are finding ourselves increasingly drawn to high church traditions - Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, the Episcopal Church, etc. - precisely because the ancient forms of liturgy seem so unpretentious, so unconcerned with being “cool,” and we find that refreshingly authentic. What millennials really want from the church is not a change in style but a change in substance. We want an end to the culture wars. We want a truce between science and faith. We want to be known for what we stand for, not what we are against. We want to ask questions that don’t have predetermined answers. We want churches that emphasize an allegiance to the kingdom of God over an allegiance to a single political party or a single nation. We want our LGBT friends to feel truly welcome in our faith communities. We want to be challenged to live lives of holiness, not only when it comes to sex, but also when it comes to living simply, caring for the poor and oppressed, pursuing reconciliation, engaging in creation care and becoming peacemakers. You can’t hand us a latte and then go about business as usual and expect us to stick around. We’re not leaving the church because we don’t find the cool factor there; we’re leaving the church because we don’t find Jesus there. Like every generation before ours and every generation after, deep down, we long for Jesus. Now these trends are obviously true not only for millennials but also for many folks from other generations. Whenever I write about this topic, I hear from forty-somethings and grandmothers, Generation Xers and retirees, who send me messages in all caps that read “ME TOO!” So I don’t want to portray the divide as wider than it is. But I would encourage church leaders eager to win millennials back to sit down and really talk with them about what they’re looking for and what they would like to contribute to a faith community. Their answers might surprise you. Rachel Held Evans is the author of "Evolving in Monkey Town" and "A Year of Biblical Womanhood." She blogs at rachelheldevans.com. The views expressed in this column belong to Rachel Held Evans. soundoff (9,864 Responses)« Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 Next »
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Opinion by Rachel Held Evans, Special to CNN
The leaders of the conservative, evangelical churches, like the Republican party to which many of them belong, truly seem to believe that better marketing (social media, etc.) is the answer to win back younger people. They just can't quite seem to accept that it is their dogma itself that is the source of this problem. Until they truly come to grips with that reality, they will never even begin to objectively analyze what the problem is, and what they can do to fix it. And lets also remember that there are lots of moneyed interests who greatly benefit from the status quo both in their church and in the GOP.
... let them be.
While they're spinning their wheels, the rest of us will work to improve children's education to inoculate them against the future assaults.
hitler was a lead christian.
the crusaders were ordained by new testament scripture.
As a child, I attended Quaker meeting every Sunday. (Religious Society of Friends) No pastor, everyone sitting together silently, listening for the still, small voice within. If one felt moved, one stood up and spoke. Living simply & treating others as one would want to be treated oneself were their tenets.
A very spiritual Christianity, socially active & scientifically inquisitive. I remember one lady standing up in the silence of one meeting. Asking if others had considered that being too strident in ones beliefs might not create negative reactions. For example, had Quakers ever considered that their extreme antislavery efforts might have helped precipitate the civil war?
Quakerism is scientifically inquisitive? Seriously? The very nature of Christianity is anti-science.
we thrive on satans bad apples and raise them up as satanic victory, an exploitation of Jesus who is allready been killed.
we are not finished.
Here's what I'd like of the "faith community:" keep it to yourselves and quit trying to insert your religion into politics and thus impose its tenets on those of us who have no use for religion of any sort.
That goes double for me!!
claim hitler and the crusaders were ordained in the new testament.
I am a millennial and couldn't disagree more with this article. My generation wants to have their cake and eat it too. People want to pick and choose what's convenient from the bible and turn Christianity into what they want it to be not what God intended. We are all sinners and have our own struggles, it's for God to judge but if your not following the word your following yourself. Only Jesus was without sin.
As a child, I attended Quaker meeting every Sunday. No pastor, everyone sitting together silently, listening for the still, small voice within. If one felt moved, one stood up and spoke. Living simply & treating others as one would want to be treated oneself were their tenets.
A very spiritual Christianity, socially active & scientifically inquisitive. I remember one lady standing up in the silence of one meeting. Asking if others had considered that being too strident in ones beliefs might not create negative reactions. For example, had Quakers ever considered that their extreme antislavery efforts might have helped precipitate the civil war?
Quakerism is scientifically inquisitive? Seriously? The very nature of Christianity is anti-science.
1 John 4:1-6
4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
Psalm 137:9 – Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.
Thanks for the heads up.
Acts 20:29-31
Verse Concepts
I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish everyone with tears.
Timothy 3:13-17
while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.
I came just for the comments.
I came for the free donuts.
that reminds me. i just made coffee.
I'll be right over.
Stop watering down "god's word".
do with it as you wish. everyone else does.
"Like every generation before ours and every generation after, deep down, we long for Jesus."
HAHAHAHAHA. This is so wrong it's funny.
Trust me, soem of us want NOTHING to do with this bloodthirsty desert cult.
Also, every generation before ours? Looks like someone forgot that this particular cult has not always existed.
We want We want We want..if that doesnt summarize this generation I don't know what does. your parents lied: you're not that special and the world doesn't revolve you around you...you're just spoiled. Don't be surprised when you learn that lesson the hard way: living the reality and seeing all of the well-raised kids you hate succeed while you sit back wondering what went wrong.
Stop watering down "god's word".
apostacy and antichrist imposters included.
But...but...but...didn't gawd create the universe just for me? Doesn't he watch over me every second and listen to me ask for stuff all day long? Didn't he rape a girl and get her pregnant with himself so he could sacrifice himself to himself to mollify himself because a mud man and rib woman sought knowledge from a talking serpent just for me?
If you want to cast blame you may wanna look in the mirror. The "want" generation as you so eloquently put it was raised by yours. Oh and we want because we are more educated than you.
If you are tired of all the phoniness and nonsense in religion today and long for the real thing but don't know where to find it, go to mormon.org. The people there are non paid volunteers who only seek to serve and will point out the way to a spiritual awakening that you had no idea existed. Try it! You have absolutely nothing to lose..
Phony like Joseph Smith who placed stones in a hat and put his face in it go get the mormon bible. There is nothing more phony than the mormon religion, exept the jehova's witnesses.
Just "come and see". That is all I ask. What can it hurt?
"...young evangelicals often feel they have to choose between their intellectual integrity and their faith, between science and Christianity, between compassion and holiness..."
The problem, anymore, is identifying "Evangelical Christianity" as if it's mainstream Christianity. It's so full of hatred, biblical distortion, etc. that it's heretical to mainstream Christian thinking. For example, the VAST majority of Christians belong to denominations who believe that evolution is the method God chose to arrive at modern Earth. These Evangelical Neanderthals are convinced, despite overwhelming evidence, that the earth is 7000 years old and species were created as they are now. To anyone seriously educated, this is like thinking lightning and thunder are caused by the god Thor or that the Sun revolves around the earth.
There is no excuse for worshiping a man. Worshiping a corpse is as sad, pathetic and primitive as those chimpanzee mothers who clutch their dead infants until their baby's skeletons fall apart.
Jehovah's Kingdom is not a democracy. I have not read a thing in this article, nor in the comments, from anyone who has any real understanding of the life and teachings of Jesus. It's all politics and showing off of human wisdom that all here seem to crave. But God is making the wisdom of the wise ones perish and for those of us living to see it there will be a period of judgement along with those who have died in ignorance.
none of what you wrote is true.
After reading your post, Your second sentence still applies.
RIGHT! Nowhere in the Bible do God, Jesus, or the Prophets advocate: 1) Democracy 2) consent of the governed 3) government by the people and for the people 4) the right to vote and choose our representatives, etc. etc.THESE human rights were won by BRAVE SECULAR FORCES that tore down and broke up the POWER OF THE CHURCH to rule our lives and oppress us. YOU seem to be suggesting that these modern concepts of human rights are leading us away from God and to hell, a belief that makes you a perfect example of why more and more people are rejecting Christianity!
"I have not read a thing in this article, nor in the comments, from anyone who has any real understanding of the life and teachings of Jesus."
But, of course, you do.
I have never liked worship bands.....can't hold a candle to the Wesley tunes.
I call it church of the band where they worship musical instruments.
Ah, you've never been to an African American church...
Many of them are filled with lively music.