Here is a master post for my Millennial Exodus series over at MORF. So grateful to all of you who helped me with the research and development of this project along the way. Hopefully this isn’t the end of the project, but just a catalyst. So here it is, why Millennials are leaving the Church and what makes them stay: Numbers and Faces Depth Authenticity … Continue reading The Millennial Exodus Series

Throughout this series, we’ve talked about reaching out to Millennials with relationships, depth, authenticity, diversity,involvement and styles of worship. I know the question of “why Millennials are leaving the Church” won’t be solved by a blog series, but we can find key issues and examine how those issues affect the teens we minister to. In discussing this, however, there is an important difference in phrasing … Continue reading The Millennial Exodus: Obligations and Movements

Recently I discussed this series on Millennials leaving the Church with a long-time debate coach of high school and college students. He pointed out that the debate students he saw that left the faith weren’t necessarily the ones who felt the Church failed them intellectually, though they were some of the most intellectual of their peers. The students who left were the ones who felt … Continue reading The Millennial Exodus: Involvement

This might surprise you if you were involved in the Worship Wars of the last 20+ years, but style is the least important of all of these “ways to keep Millennials.” Millennials aren’t solely leaving traditional hymn-singing, tie-wearing churches or contemporary radio-hit-singing, jeans-wearing churches. They are leaving all churches (except for historically black ones, according to this recent Relevant article. Rock on.) However, for the … Continue reading The Millennial Exodus: Style

When I wrote about depth in the second post of this series, I first issued a disclaimer about how diverse the Millennial generation is in terms of age. According to the Pew Research Center, Millennials “are the most ethnically and racially diverse cohort of youth in the nation’s history.” This has paralleled a rise in political and cultural diversity, along with religious diversity. We no … Continue reading The Millennial Exodus: Diversity

When I wrote about depth in this series on keeping Millennials in the Church, I promised we’d also talk about authenticity as the bridge to and from depth. When we go deep in spiritual matters with each other, we open up the possibility to be more authentic. When we are more authentic, it provides the necessary trust and respect a healthy deep spiritual conversation is … Continue reading The Millennial Exodus: Authenticity

“The Millennial generation” is actually an incredibly broad name. Many studies refer to Millennials as anyone born between 1980 and 2000. This includes parents of young children, young professionals, college students, and of course, your teens. So to issue a disclaimer on this series before we get in too far: anything that refers to “Millennials” is a generalization that may or may not be specific … Continue reading The Millennial Exodus: Depth

Eight percent. That’s the number Christian Smith found in his National Study of Youth and Religion. Eight percent of Millennials stayed intensely devoted to their faith into young adulthood. These “devoted” disciples were the ones who not only attended church services occasionally, but were actively pursuing a spiritual lifestyle. They stood out from the other 92 percent in the role faith played in their normal … Continue reading The Millennial Exodus: Numbers and Faces