Millennials and Religion: Will a Lost Generation Ever Be Found?

In John Chapter 6 Jesus asks Peter, “Do you want to leave too?” and, Peter says, “Where else would I go, Lord…?” In this chapter, it seems clear, that Peter was definitely not a millennial[1].

It’s estimated that 8,000-10,000 churches will close their doors this year. I’m assuming that has something to do with the whopping 80% of the US adult cohort opting out of attending Church. This 80% includes many of our parents, which presumably has greatly impacted the lack of attendance seen in their children, the 18 to 32-year-olds. You know, the ones supposed to take the reigns from the 16,000 Baby Boomers retiring annually…

It seems that the old is going and well, the new isn’t even showing up.

Millennials.

A generation said to be narcissistic, overconfident, entitled, lazy adults, suffering from extended adolescents [thank you TIME, we feel the love]. I myself am a Millennial – I don’t know if I’m the stuff listed above, totally debatable. But here’s the thing, we don’t want to go to your church. Well, about 60% of us don’t. To most of us, this is old news, so the question is no longer, “What is happening?” but “How do we deal with the reality of what’s happening?”

I think that this is a great question, though more importantly, I think before we talk about the in’s and out’s of how we must understand the “why”:

“Why did we [Millennials] leave in the first place?”

There seems to be a major generational disconnect between what Millennials want and what the past generations have done.

Here are five reasons we don’t want to go to your church: