On April 3, 2009 a Newsweek article entitled “The End of Christian America” floated some pretty startling facts about the traditional makeup of our nation. “The number of Americans who claim no religious affiliation has nearly doubled since 1990.” The question then arose, if the national average of nonreligious people doubled in 10 years, will we still be able to call ourselves a Christian nation in a decade? As Newsweek put it, “America’s religious culture was cracking.”
People who study church growth... say that 80 to 85 percent of the churches in America are in decline. As many as 100,000 churches could close in the next 5-10 years. That is a startling prediction, since there are about 314,000 traditional, conservative and evangelical churches in America, that would mean nearly one-in-three will close their doors in the next decade.
Well it’s 2016 and sure enough, many many churches are nearing empty. Millennials are the largest generation of Americans to date and according to a fairly recent Pew Research polling... “millennials are less religious,” and the least likely to be found warming a pew.
At one point, the church experience offered young adults everything they needed: community, networks, a common lingo, automatic friendships, structure, discipline and a place to be social. Think of it. Once upon a time Robert, the bible toting, blue collar worker married Lisa, the budding pianist because they both went to and met at the same church. Today there are dating and match-making apps like Tinder and OKCupid. As for community and social events, we read our news on our phones and keep track of the world around us on Facebook and Twitter.
We find everything we possibly need in venues that aren’t the church. We take classes online and work from home offices. This is all to illustrate that those structures that used to be necessary to bring us together are all as invisible as the internet waves and as ephemeral as pop up beer gardens.
Pew Research identifies that while Millennials are much less religious than their parents and grandparent’s generations, they are no less spiritual. In fact spirituality is on the rise.
“Millennials are more likely to have a “do-it-yourself” attitude toward religion.”
What does “do it yourself” spirituality look like? Well maybe it looks like an app. To date, Bible apps have been downloaded around the world more than 1.2 billion times. These apps are unique in that they offer many versions and translations of the Bible. They’ve partnered with publishers and conservative media outlets to offer devotionals.
Millennials are critical of the Bible apps, saying the media is pointed at Christians only who identify as the alt-right or conservative. The apps project an idea of spirituality surrounded by too much religious packaging like dogma, church denominations, rigid moral consequences and theological interpretations. That is so not millennial thinking. Millennials don’t want to be told by an institution what to believe about abortion, gay rights, and the death penalty. They don’t want to be hit over the head by yet another person’s personal beliefs. Try telling a millennial that the institutions... the Church... is only passing on what God says about living in harmony with Him, and they will turn a deaf ear to what they see as out-dated, old fashioned, irrelevant dogma.
This generation, walking away from the church, are counter culturists, independent thinkers, self-starters, off-the-grid entrepreneurs and anything but conventional.
Millennials are trying to understand their identity, their worth and where they fit into this world. They of course want to do it morally [self-defined of course] and with the sense that they are not alone in their quest. They want to know less about religious structure and more about spiritual application. That sentiment is more about self and feeling good about who they are, what they do, what they believe, i.e. mutual validation... akin to another generations deception... “You’re okay... I’m okay.”
Church becoming accessible by an app on a phone maybe a radical idea, but it’s NOT a replacement for a relationship with God. Nor does technology offer any semblance of grounding in the blueprint for His Church... how it is to be and how it is to act. (Acts 2:41-47)
The mobile Bible is just that, only words in digital form accessible anywhere. Convenient, yes, but it is NOT an assembly of like-minded believers in God who seek to conform their lives to Biblical ways and means of living. If one does not apply what those “words mean” to their lives, then one’s efforts to be spiritual will be a big waste of time.
Technology does not replace the fellowship and community of a church assembly.
YOU... no matter your age or generation –– are the Church! You don’t get there, by self-declaration that you are “spiritual” and interested in spiritual things. YOU get there, by giving your life over to Christ... in total and complete unwavering commitment. (Acts 2:38) YOU accept God on His terms, not yours! Then you live for Him, guided by Him! YOU do Church, YOU be the Church... HIS way, period!
