I received my auctioneer license 11 eleven years ago. Like most people starting a new business, the first few years were rather slow. When Covid shut everything down I began conducting my auctions online, and it is amazing how the business has taken off! We offer an online auction every two weeks, and we struggle to keep up with the items that are brought to us to sell. We ship to buyers all over the US, and my consignors bring me some of the most interesting items to sell. It's a lot of hard work, but it's fun especially when I have to research something just to find out what it is!
One thing I hear often from my sellers is that they asked their children to come and get what they wanted and were told that they didn't want anything they had. These are people who are downsizing or moving into assisted living. They may have beautiful glassware, antiques and other items they have collected for decades, but now they learn that their children have no interest in those items. I've read many similar stories from across the country. Many younger people are simply not interested in the things their parents and grandparents have. As a result, many auctioneers report that the prices for antiques and vintage items are down as much as 80 percent from just a few years ago.
This mindset among the younger generation also impacts how we do ministry today. Churches that continue to function as if it was 1950 will reach few of the younger generations. Styles of music and worship that were meaningful to their parents and grandparents do not have the same impact on younger generations. I sometimes tell churches that, if we still had record stores, you would not likely to see young people going in to buy pipe organ music. The taste of music has always been different for different generations, and this is no different for worship music. 18th century hymns do not speak to younger people like they do to those of my generation. Younger generations are also more visually oriented so simply having a talking-head on a platform doesn't really appeal to them either.
A few years I saw this played out at a conference I attended at a Christian university. The middle-age speaker pointed out that while many of us in the audience was watching him as he spoke, the college-age students sitting on the front role were watching him on the screen. Even though they were the closest to him, they still were watching him present his material on the screen above him.
For a few decades now the church has been involved in a worship war. Some have tried blended services, but many of them simply made everybody mad half of the time. Many went to two services with one offering a traditional service and a second serving which was more contemporary. Many traditional churches refused to do anything different than what they had done for the past 100 years and wondered why their attendance kept dropping.
Let me make a very unpopular statement that some churches will not want to hear. We either have to change the music and worship in our churches or we will lose this younger generation. Some churches that offer a blended service provide an excellent worship experience. I was fortunate to serve one such church as their Transitional Pastor and was greatly blessed every week by the worship service.
But, I am convinced that it is time for many churches to put away their hymn books and change both the music and format of their worship services. I can hear some of you complaining now that Dennis is wanting to offer entertainment to try to bring people into the church. NO. It's not about entertainment; it's about worship that is meaningful to those we are trying to reach for Jesus Christ.
My daughter attends a church in Florida when she goes there for 2-3 months every fall. This past year we spent a week with her and I attended this church. The numbers I'm about to mention are not exact, but they are close: in 2023 they saw over 2,000 decisions for Jesus Christ and baptized nearly 300 people. The message that was presented the Sunday I was there was theologically sound, and over a dozen people gave their lives to Christ that day. The worship was energizing, and the service reaching a large number of teens and young adults. And that was just the first service!
Either we are serious about fulfilling the Great Commission or we are not. If we want to reach the current generation we need to speak their language, offer them a worship experience that allows them to connect with God and present a clear Gospel message that points them to Jesus Christ as the only way to salvation.
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