Sarah Taddeo

@sjtaddeo

Each week, hundreds of thousands of people attend Rochester-area houses of worship, weeknight groups and special events connected with their chosen faith.

But who are they and what keeps them coming back?

For many local religious groups, cultivating faith in the modern era means evolving to appeal to all generations — especially those just settling into adulthood.

But as some faith groups have changed their approaches to fellowship, teaching and dress code to stay relevant in today’s culture while retaining core values, they’re drawing the younger generation, which has been increasingly unaffiliated with organized religion in recent years.

Searching for authenticity

For millennials, picking a religion or a house of worship isn’t like picking a dry cleaner or a bar on Saturday night. They don’t choose a faith only because their parents did, and they can smell a religious marketing ploy from miles away.

In the age of critical thinking, many of today’s younger generation are looking for a simple faith that doesn’t shy away from life’s big questions or ignore suffering, said Kevin Maloney of Grace Road Church in Rochester.

“There’s an attraction to something that’s authentic and real — to a faith that’s not trying to sell them something,” said Maloney. “So many want to be able to figure it out for themselves, to be able to argue and push back. Trust is gained by telling the truth and telling it relentlessly.”

Grace Road Church didn’t set out to attract this age group, but to attract all age groups, he said. There are some traditional houses of worship that attract a younger membership base without changing their services, and others that try to bridge the gap between traditional and contemporary audiences through multiple services.

Grace Road met in a smaller auditorium on the upper floors of the Auditorium Center, but is moving to the downtown Temple Building on Easter morning.

The reason? The church is bursting at the seams. It's bringing in just over 1,000 regular attendees, with a 35 percent annual growth rate in recent years. And half of the seats in the auditorium on a Sunday morning are filled with millennials.

“People have a hunger for not just knowledge and gaining information but a personal relationship with Jesus,” said Dan Quirk, 34, of Rochester, who attends Grace Road with his wife, Yaroslava, 29.

The church’s approach to Christian teaching is straightforward and unapologetic, but church leaders also encourage attendees to learn about their faith on their own, said Maloney.

“With social media, I feel that I have to be ‘on,’ I have to be prepared to effectively communicate what I believe in and why,” said Deanna Spiotta, 29, of Irondequoit, who attends Northridge Church after growing up in a local Catholic parish.

“We appreciate not shying away from hard topics, and not sugarcoating things,” she said.

With every upcoming generation, there are those looking for a different, fresher take on faith and its expression. But today's young generation brings particular challenges to houses of worship, with technology and science having brought about a different set of priorities than in the past, said Muhammad Shafiq, executive director at Nazareth College's Hickey Center for Interfaith Studies and Dialogue.

Many college students have limited knowledge of faith in general, and may not value or identify with their cultural or familial faith, which makes older, relatively more religious generations concerned.

"There is a generational gap that is across religion, across culture, across ethnicities," said Shafiq. "You will hear the young generations say, 'Our parents do not understand what we are.' "

The growth of the religiously unaffiliated — a group labeled “the nones” because they described themselves as atheist, agnostic or "nothing in particular" — was pronounced within the past decade. While all generations seem to be moving away from declaring a religious affiliation, nobody outpaces the millennials, who comprise ages 20 to 35 in a recent Pew Research Center study — more than a third of them labeled themselves as “nones."

Over half of Monroe County's population was affiliated with a religious congregation in 2000, according to a U.S. Religion Census. That number fell to 46 percent by 2010. When compared to other American counties with similar populations, Rochester’s 2010 percentage of residents unaffiliated with a congregation, around 54 percent, fell somewhere in the middle.

“A lot of millennials left church because they weren’t getting the answers,” said Rev. James Cherry Jr. of Antioch Missionary Baptist Church in Rochester. “They have to know we understand their generation — that they are being heard.”

Where does that leave older generations hoping to connect with their younger counterparts? The solution lies in involvement in inter-generational activities inside and outside houses of worship, where millennials are exposed to the older generation's faith experiences through open discussion and friendship, said Shafiq.

It is the responsibility of clergy and congregation members to create welcoming religious atmospheres that encourage people to both ask questions and find solace. "People need some peace in their life, and that's the job of the place of worship," he said. "When you touch that person, the person will remember that and may become part of that place."

Drawing people in can be difficult because some will frequent a house of worship only on major holidays such as Easter or Rosh Hashana, which are often traditional church programs that may not showcase what typical services or activities are like, said Rabbi Peter Stein of Temple B’rith Kodesh in Brighton.

"All they're seeing is the formal, three-hour, big, long, classical kind of service — that's the only time of year I wear a robe, and the rest of the year I don't," he said. People coming to synagogue twice a year may consider coming on more upbeat holidays, such as Purim, where they'd get a different perspective of the Jewish faith, he said.

In Catholicism, some young people are returning to the roots of the faith after their parents raised them with spirituality that may not have included churchgoing or traditional Catholic values. But they aren’t just blindly following tradition — they want someone to explain it to them.

“Millennials involved in church are looking for identities in the old rituals,” said Sister Donna Del Santo of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Rochester. “I go to (Eucharistic) adoration because my grandparents did, but what does (adoration) actually mean?”

The majority of young people also want to see faith leaders discuss “gray areas,” or topics of uncertain or vague religious doctrine, in any religious group, rather than displaying every issue as black and white, she said.

Using religious "rules" to judge others can make them feel disconnected from faith and the larger religious community, said Maisie Orsillo, 22, of Fort Plain, Montgomery County, who is in Rochester completing a year of service at the St. Joseph's Neighborhood Center while living in community with the Sisters of St. Joseph.

That’s where an event series such as Theology on Tap, which is designed to bring millennials out to discuss various faith topics in community spaces such as bars or coffeehouses, comes in. The series, started by Renew International and sponsored locally by a department of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester, brings in different religious leaders or community experts to lead faith-related talks and answer questions in an informal, familiar atmosphere, which shows the church is willing to go outside its four walls to start conversations.

"Making people feel welcome should be our primary concern to ensure the future sustainability of our faith community," said Orsillo. She attends services associated with the Nazareth College Catholic community.

Meeting people where they are, physically and conceptually, is crucial to a successful approach to this age group inside and outside houses of worship.

“If they come and the ministry is not relevant, they’ll leave,” said Cherry of Antioch Missionary Baptist Church.

Staying relevant

Lights and haze. Retweets. T-shirts.

Many local houses of worship are trying to stay in tune with today’s culture, for the sake of creating an environment where attendees unfamiliar with that faith will feel comfortable.

Hence the cutting-edge technology — some services are full of video and music segments with lights and cameras — and a new take on the dress code. Some pastors will take the pulpit in a button down sans tie, jeans or sneakers.

This strategy naturally draws the younger generation, partly because that age group tends to be at the head of culture’s trend wave, said Joshua Horn, director of outreach at Northridge Church, based in Rochester. Nearly half of Northridge’s average auditorium attendance on a Sunday is between 15 and 35 years old.

At the Baitun Naseer Mosque — a local segment of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community — the youth group, which ranges in age from 16 to 40, pushes the group as a whole to be more progressive on social media, said Director of Faith Outreach Mubarak Bashir.

“Social media has become a big thing for us to get our voices heard,” said Bashir. “While the older generations say, ‘What is this Twitter that you talk about?’ ”

The Ahmadiyya community is active on social media all over the world, using Facebook and Twitter to discuss what they believe is the true application of Islamic teachings.

“We’ve all grown up with smartphones in our hands, so whenever you have a religious question, it’s within reach,” said Bilal Malik, 22, of Rochester, who attends the community’s local mosque when he’s home from college.

Many churches in the area have Facebook pages, Twitter feeds and Instagram handles, and may use them almost as often as a typical twentysomething. This aids church leaders in reaching out to this generation when email and church bulletins don’t work.

Millennials’ technological expertise and their desire to spend time in engaging, interesting environments raises the bar for religious organizations hoping to seem attractive to this age group.

“They’re not any less curious or interested. They still want high-quality things, they’re just approaching it in a different way,” said Stein of Temple B’rith Kodesh.

On the flip side, glitter and lights without a foundational belief system can be a turnoff — services can be modern without being showy, said Brittany Backus, 25, of Rochester, who attends Grace Road Church.

Circles are better than rows

In their search for genuine faith and fellowship, millennials can be picky about their religious activities. This means they may consistently attend two or more different houses of worship, usually within the same religious affiliation, to get the right combination of faith exposure.

“The church is supposed to do things together,” said Michael West, 28, of Rochester, who attends Joy Community Church on Sundays while also attending a Northridge “community group,” or a faith-based study of around eight to 15 people that meets once a week. “We’re not supposed to be islands in our community of churches.”

Joining a community group was “integral” to Spiotta’s growing knowledge about the Christian faith, as it helped her realize she wasn’t the only one struggling with real life issues — “Plus it’s like built-in friends,” she said.

Interacting with church members outside the church building helps make religion less intimidating for those who aren’t familiar with a structured service atmosphere. Those attending Grace Road for the first time often have friends who are church members and already have a sense of the church's teaching through online resources, said Maloney.

Leaders at houses of worship, such as clergy, have to go out to the people as much as inviting them in, said Stein.

“The more I’m out there, the more successful I am,” he said of how he views his role as a rabbi in the larger Rochester community. A prayer service’s quality could be top notch, but “if I sit in the pews and I don’t have the chance to engage with anyone, then I’m not successful,” he said.

Eager to serve, hesitant to commit

With dozens of activities and obligations vying for millennials' attention, getting them to commit to come to a specific group every week or hold a major leadership role is sometimes a tough sell.

“The tendency tends to be that they’re very passionate but it’s hard for them to commit,” said Horn. “The question is, ‘Can we cast a good enough vision for something exciting that’s happening?’ ”

Volunteerism has been a widely promoted trend among millennials as a whole, but whether volunteer opportunities connected with religion actually draw this age group to a house of worship depends on the person, the topic and the faith.

For West, outreach to the inner city was a top priority while searching for a church — “You have to minister where you are,” he said.

Outreach should happen with a loving, accepting attitude toward those who don't subscribe to the same beliefs, said Orsillo. By engaging with others, you're making them feel welcome in a community first, which may help them feel less apprehensive about any religious group's "constructs," or faith tenets.

In the Muslim community, young people are some of the first to jump in to helping out around the mosque building and at outside events, said Bashir. They’re also willing to discuss peaceful Islam during interactions with outside peers.

“The way that our youth carry themselves, they should be happy that someone knows they’re a Muslim and this is the way Muslims act,” he said.

Houses of worship must be willing to change with the times to touch the young, while not losing core faith values, said Cherry.

“We can’t be so staunch that we can’t move and bend,” said Cherry. “We must understand the day we’re ministering in.”

STADDEO@Gannett.com

Religion by the numbers

150,632,740: Total amount of people affiliated with a religious congregation in the U.S. in 2010 — just under half of the country's total population, which was over 308 million.

51.2 percent: Percentage of New York's population that was affiliated with a religious congregation in 2010 — this percentage ranked No. 24 out of all U.S. states. New York had the third-largest total number of religious adherents in 2010 — close to 10 million — based on its large population.

54 percent: Percentage of Monroe County's population that was not affiliated with a congregation in 2010.

35 percent: Percentage of millennials ages 20 to 35 in the U.S. who said they are atheist, agnostic or believe in nothing in particular, according to a Pew Research Center study conducted in 2014. The baby boomers came in at 17 percent, with Generation X at 23 percent. All were up at least 3 percent from 2007.

About the reporter

Sarah Taddeo covers suburban trends and issues across the Rochester region.

She attends Northridge Church and, as a 23-year-old millennial, loves to meet other young people and discuss faith, social media and travel. She is a vocalist with the Northridge Church band.

She joined the Democrat and Chronicle in 2014 after graduating from Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Public Communications.

Contact her at STADDEO@Gannett.com or at (585) 258-2774.

On Twitter: @sjtaddeo