Millennials and evangelism

For years churches have focused on reaching millennials with the gospel. This was the age group many churches wanted to reach. For some, it was the desire to carry out the Great Commission to this age group. For others, their efforts to reach this age group was for the hopeful survival of their church.

In a recent Barna study nearly three-fourths of millennials believe they know how to respond if someone asks about Christianity, However, nearly half of the millennials who responded said it was at least somewhat wrong to share their faith with a person of another faith in an effort to convert that person to Christianity. This was four times higher than Boomers who responded the same way.

This reflects the mentality that many millennials have that if someone disagrees with you it means they are judging you, and young people do not want to be accused of judging anyone. This makes evangelism a challenge to many in this generation.

It also reflects a serious problem. Our culture and educational system is having a greater impact on the thinking of young people than the church. In a society in which there is no absolute truths how can anyone justify professing that they have the truth. It becomes even more difficult to tell others that they not only have the truth, but they know the Truth, and His name is Jesus. This type of conversation isn't acceptable in our politically correct society that values diversity more than truth. When everyone has their own truth, to make such statements does come across as judgmental.

Many Christian millennial leaders place the blame for their generation's views on evangelism on the church. They believe the church needs to do more to disciple this age group so they have a better understanding of their faith and the importance of evangelism. There's been a great deal of emphasis on getting them in the church and less of an emphasis in discipling them. As one millennial wrote, "The data here strongly suggests that Christian millennials are being catechized by their colleges, not churches."

For several decades we have seen a steady drop in the number of people coming to faith in Christ and becoming members of churches. The latest studies do not suggest that this is going to improve unless the church recaptures the mission God gave it which is found in the Great Commission. Until the church takes this mandate seriously and begins to teach its members the importance of evangelism and equips them to do it, this decline is unlikely to improve.