This post is the second post in a three part series on identifying who the next generation is and how the church is to reach them.
In describing the religiously unaffiliated, James Emery White prefers to use the term “none.”[1] White claims that a snapshot or portrait of the average none shows that a none is (1)
Male (2) Young (3) White (4) Not necessarily an atheist (5) Not very religious (6) A Democrat (7) In favor of abortion and same-gender marriage being legal (8) Liberal or moderate (9) Not necessarily hostile toward religious institutions (10) Most likely a westerner.[2] According to Pew Research, the percentage of nones rose from 5 to 15% from 1940 to 1990 but exploded from 21 to 34 % between the years of 2008 and 2012.”[3] White believes this marked difference is due to the secularization, privatization, and pluralization of the modern world.[4]
Why is it that the next generation is shying away from church in larger numbers than years past? The unchurched offer many reasons as to why they avoid church. The unchurched claim church is boring (15%), they are not sure why they do not attend (13%), or that they are too busy (11%).[5] The unchurched perceive church people to be anti-homosexual (91%), judgmental (87%), hypocritical (85%), old-fashion (78%), too involved in politics (75%), and out of touch with reality (72%).[6]
In You Lost Me, Kinnman says that the disconnect with the church that the unchurched experiences is due to the fact that the unchurched perceive the church to be overprotective, shallow, anti-science, repressive, exclusive, and doubtless.[7] “The younger unchurched believe the church is too critical about lifestyle issues, full of hypocrites, and not necessary for spiritual development.”[8] Church refugees also claim they dropped out of church because they wanted a break, they moved to college, or they did not feel connected to the people in their church.[9]
Finally, other reasons given for not attending church come from those who say they do not want another lecture or that God is irrelevant in their life.[10] Katie Galli speaks for many younger adults when she says, “We’re especially disillusioned with the church.
Somewhere between the Crusades, the Inquisition, and fundamentalists bombing abortion clinics, we lost our appetite for institutionalized Christianity.”[11]
The first step for any church that is even mildly interested in next generation ministry is to identify who the next generation is. The second step is to seek to understand what appeals or methods are best utilized for successfully reaching the next generation. Gabe Lyons believes that the next Christians will be (1) Provoked, not offended (2) Creators, not critics (3) Called, not employed (4) Grounded, not distracted (5) In community, not alone (6) Civil, not divisive (7) Countercultural, not relevant.[12]
The idea that Lyons presents concerning the next Christians is one of restoring the culture and the cosmos. The idea of creation restoration is appealing to the next generation not only because they are taken up with social issues but because creation restoration explains in a fuller sense the intent and scope of the gospel and the kingdom of God.
But before the next generation can be creation restorers as God originally intended them to be, they must first be Christians. And in order for one to have his or her soul restored, he or she needs a Christ-follower to share the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ with him or her. The church calls this event and process evangelism.
Unfortunately, White says that the church is avoiding these spiritual conversations thus figuratively closing their front door.[13] “Evangelism is fine in theory but not in practice.”[14] This amounts to the church saying we want the unchurched in heaven but we act like they can go to hell.[15] White claims that a church’s evangelism approach to reach the unchurched must be like an incubator: “Every approach, every program, every service furnishes a particular environment that will either serve the evangelistic process or hinder it.”[16] In reaching the next generation, White also believes the church must offer a cause, be full of grace and truth, establish a new apologetic, be unified, invite the unchurched to church, and renew their own commitment to church.[17]
[1] White, The Rise of the Nones, 13.
[2] Ibid, 22-23.
[3] Pew Research, “Nones on the Rise.”
[4] White, The Rise of the Nones, 45-46.
[5] Ibid, 53.
[6] Kinnaman and Lyons, UnChristian, 34.
[7] Kinnaman, You Lost Me, 92-93.
[8] Stetzer, Stanley, and Hayes, Lost and Found, 65.
[9] Rainer, Essential Church, 3.
[10] Schultz, Why Nobody Goes to Church Anymore, 23-27.
[11] Galli, “Dear Disillusioned Generation,” Christianity Today, April 21, 2008.
[12] Lyons, The Next Christians, 67.
[13] White, The Rise of the Nones, 84
[14] Ibid.
[15] Ibid.
[16] Ibid, 93.
[17] Ibid, 99-165