7 Simple Ways to Engage Millennials at Your Church

In the previous post, we evaluated the church’s ability to capture the millennial generation.

It’s an ever-growing conversation among church leaders. Reaching the “young people” as a church has been a conversation since I was a young person. My guess is every generation of the church has struggled to reach the next generation on some level. But I wonder if it has less to do with their generational grouping and more to do with their stage of life. Certainly every generation has its unique qualities, and we would be foolish as church leaders to ignore these trends, but twenty-something’s of my generation behaved in many ways like the twenty-something’s of this generation. In fact, there might be more in common with twenty-something’s across each generation that we realized.

If my presumption is true, reaching the “young people” in the community is less about their generational intricacies and more about understanding a twenty-something. From where I sit, I don’t see this segment of adults fleeing the church in record numbers. What I see is these young adults behaving like I did when I was in my twenties. They aren’t lost — they’re just disconnected until they feel a tension to reconnect.

To that point, when these twenty-something’s marry and have children, many show back up to church. The reason is simple: They have a felt need for God and the church again. Felt need is what always drives us to God (and the church), whether it’s a felt need to feel less guilty or in this case a need to fix a marriage or learn how to raise a kid.

Holding Out to Reach Millennials at Church

Have you mastered reaching the millennial generation in your church?

If so, you need to start a blog and podcast to help the rest of us!

If not, I have some encouragement for you — and for me as a church leader.

Here it is. The full proof way to reach the millennial generation:

Wait until they are married with kids.

Boom. That’s the secret. Seriously, though, I’m beginning to believe reaching the millennial generation is not about market segmentation and generational characteristics. It’s not about becoming something new and unique, designing services and experiences just for them. It’s not about propping up your new social justice programs and using Instragram. Reaching millennials might be a waiting game — like a starring contest. Just wait them out.

Of course, I say this somewhat sarcastically, but there is some truth behind the sarcasm. When I consider my own story, and as you look back at yours, maybe there isn’t as much to worry about after all.

I grew up in the church. I joking say I’ve been in church nearly every Sunday since I was negative nine months old. And not just Sunday, but Wednesday nights, weekend retreats, and I even participated in Monday night visitation once (once is all it took for me to abandon that strategy). Church was a way of life for me — until I college. At the ripe old age of 18, I left home for Berry College. Berry is a relatively small liberal arts university. Like almost every private college, it has Christian roots, but it was certainly not an overt Christian college. I wasn’t forced to take biblical studies or anything like that. I was free to live out my faith as I wanted, and I did.

During these four years, I didn’t attend ONE church service. Not a one. For 18 years I went to church nearly every week, and then I stopped cold.

Why? Why didn’t I attend church in college when I had grown up attending church for the 18 years leading to college?

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