One thing Millennials are looking for …

I almost can’t believe I’m writing a blog post about Millennials.

Don’t get me wrong, I love them as much as anyone else, but I’m sick and tired of the plethora of articles, blog posts, and podcasts about Millennials churned out in such incredible volume as if they are the only human beings on this planet. The focus on Millennials, in just my own opinion, has been overkill, and we’ve been acting like their leaving the church is the single greatest tragedy since Eve sank her teeth into forbidden fruit.

BUT …

… let’s dig out one helpful point about Millennials. When you analyze all the study, interviewing, pondering, and writing about Millenials, there’s something that stands out, which is this:

Millennials are looking for an anchor.

So many of the reports pertaining to Millennials include one specific common claim, which is they don’t want the church to be some kind of cultural chameleon vying for their loyalty, they want the church to bring some religious tradition, to be an anchor in the faith for them.

They are tired of the church attempting to be the religious version of Apple, Starbucks, and a nightclub all rolled into one. Instead, they want the church to be their source of ancient richness in Christian tradition that is tried and true, a stable source for instruction in the faith and truth.

Young people both fear and cherish their leaving home to venture into the world to make their own way. But they have the courage to do so because they trust there is a home base they can go to that is part of the bedrock in their lives.

They can go home.

At home, they find the parents who have loved them unconditionally and have shaped their lives and values more than anyone else. They need to know home is always there.

In like fashion, Millennials aren’t attracted to a church that is constantly trying to reinvent itself to attract them. They want to think of church as spiritual home, that place that offers cherished traditions in the faith, a place that adjusts its methods for the time but maintains that same Gospel message that has shaped and influenced their lives more than any other message.

They want the church to be an anchor for living out their faith. They can get all the fads they could ever want from the world, but they cannot get steadfast truth, love, and faithfulness from this culture. They need to trust the church to be that anchor.

Read all the the studies, listen to the interviews, do your homework from the pile of reports about Millenials, and you’ll see it jump out at you. Millennials want the church to be the anchor to their faith that it should be.

Try being that, and maybe they won’t leave.

Scotty