The article is written by Donald E. Miller and Richard Flory of the Center for Religion and Civic Culture at the University of Southern California. I encourage you to check out their website. They have done a tremendous amount of research in a variety of areas in the religious/cultural arena. These studies include the genocide in Rawanda and pentecostalism in the southern hemisphere, which happens to be one of the fastest growing religious movements in the world!
I wish I could link this article on Millenials...unfortunately Worship Leader does not offer an online edition of their magazine. You can purchase the September issue, which contains this article, individually for about $5. Since you probably don't want to buy the issue, I'll give you a few highlights from the article.
The main idea of the article is that culture is changing with the influence of the Millenial generation and if the church is going to reach them they a.) need to understand their world view and background and b.) need to adjust their strategy in how they will reach them. Here are some characteristics of Millenials:
- They percieve religion to be a choice and not an obligation.
- Religious labels, including denominational identifications, are relatively unimportant to them.
- They are typically tolerant of other peoples beliefs and, in fact, enjoy the variety of different religious practices that they see on campus (colleges & universities).
- Religious authority is internal rather than located in some external source, such as the hierarchy of a church.
- They see more value in religious experience than in a codified set of beliefs.
- They affirm the idea of being on a religious journey rather than embracing a static set of beliefs and practices.
- If they join a religious group, they are more interested in the authenticity of the people - their honesty, openness, and humility - than they are in an authoritarian presentation of the truth.
- They have no problem being eclectic in their religious taste, which sometimes includes creating their own hybrid religious identities.
- They want to make a difference in the world and therefore believe that religion should address issues of justice and equality.
(from Worship Leader, Sept, 2007)
Millenials take globalization as a matter of fact, they are more likely to be cynical of politics and religion than not. They have lived their entire lives with the reality that the U.S. is no longer the superpower that it used to be, which was underscored with the 9/11 terrorist attack. Millenials live with the reality of school shootings, the war in Iraq, hurricane Katrina and the Virginia Tech massacre. They are more technologically sophisticated than ever. However, because of this savvy they would rather communicate via text messaging than face to face.
How do we reach this generation? I don't think there are any quick and easy answers. But Miller and Flory suggest that the church will respond in one of four ways: 1.) As Appropriators - embrace the lates cultural fad, 2.) as Resisters - As the name suggests, they will ignore culture and embrace truth only, 3.) as Reclaimers - This group will embrace historical/liturgical practices of the Anglican & Orthodox church, and 4.) as Innovators - who will seek ways to "embody the message of Christianity in genuinely authentic ways that relate to culture."
It will be interesting to see how my own congregation responds and with which we will find ourselves best relating. This is a broad and complex issue and many of us Worship Minister/Leader types are going to spend a lot of time trying to figure out the best way to reach this generation in our worship serivces and congregations. Oh well, no one said ministry would be easy!
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