This is not your grandfather's church

A number of years ago  General Motors ran a series of ads trying to save their Oldsmobile line of cars. The slogan was "This is not your father's Oldsmobile." Young people were shown driving the car to try to impress upon people the Olds line was no longer a luxury line of cars just for the middle aged and older. The commercials did not work, and within a few years the Oldsmobile line of cars was gone.

I've gone back another generation in this blog title. The church is no longer your grandfather's church although many seem to think it is. Many churches haven't changed a thing since our grandfathers attended there and wonder why they are not attracting younger people.

This thought came to me as I began reading Marshall Goldsmith's book What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful. As the title indicates, this is not a book about churches. It is a book about how successful people can become more successful by working to change the things that might be holding them back. Still, the concept is valid for churches.

For a long time many declining churches believed if they just worked harder at the things that helped them grow in the past, that growth would return. These churches did not believe they needed to change anything; they just needed to work harder and get the few younger people who did attend there to become more committed. Unfortunately, that mindset was not effective.

Churches that have remained healthy, and have even grown in recent years, are convinced they just need to continue doing what they've been doing. After all, it's been effective so there surely can't be any reason to change anything. Again, that mindset will prove ineffective in time.

We are being called to reach a generation of people who are nothing like our fathers and certainly not like our grandfathers. Their mindsets are very different. The Builder generation and even the early Boomers (like myself) had a high regard for institutions. Millennials do not share that same regard. We had a fairly high regard for the denominations in which we were raised. Millennials also do not share that mindset. The list of differences could go on and on, and we cannot expect to reach this generation until we understand these differences.

Your church may be doing a lot of things right, but until it engages the new generations it will not reach them. It may just be one small thing that needs to be changed before you can effectively engage the new generations, or it may be that a lot of things have to be changed. But, until you make those changes do not expect to have much impact on Millennials and the generations that follow. Remember, what got you here won't get you there.

Millennial leadership in the church

There will soon be a paradigm shift as millennials begin stepping into leadership roles in every organization including churches. Many of us currently in church leadership were trained to manage organizations. Millennials will not be content to manage. They want to lead. They want to make a difference.

According to a study reported in a U.S. News and World Report 2015 article, 91 percent of millennials aspire to be leaders. Sixty-one percent of these aspiring leaders "want to challenge and inspire their followers with a sense of purpose and excitement." This is exciting as we continue to lament the lack of true leadership in many of our churches. At the same time, many currently attending church are pretty comfortable with the status quo. Although many claim they want to see new things happen in their churches, many do not react very well when they are challenged to do new things. It will be interesting to see how this will play out.

These leaders are impatient. They are the generation that was raised to expect instant gratification. They also seek to collaborate with others. They like consensus, and we know that it's not always easy to achieve consensus in many of our churches. We definitely know that churches, and especially smaller churches, do not make quick decisions when it involves change. Again, it will be interesting to see how millennial leaders deal with the realities of working in many of our existing churches.

Millennials are also not real excited about preparation. As one millennial leader put it: We like playing in the game, but we hate practice. You can read the entire article here that looks at this in more detail.

When I read this article I immediately thought about a Facebook post I responded to yesterday. A church consultant discussed a growing trend he's noticed. Many of the churches today who contact him seeking his help in finding new pastoral leadership no longer ask about what seminary the potential candidates might have attended or indicate that a seminary education is even required.

On the one hand I am not surprised. Smaller churches in particular have been more interested in whether or not the person can do the job than if they've earned a particular degree. Based on my FB friend's experience, some larger churches are now in that camp as well. If the article above is true, and I believe it is, this will fit in well with the millennial mindset.

On the other hand, I am concerned about the future of the church if we completely discount theological and ministerial education. A good leader can grow a church, but what kind of church will it be if it lacks sound doctrine? I'm excited about the passion that millennial leaders often have, but I also want them to be solid in their understanding of Scriptural truths and be able to present these truths to those who sit under their teaching.

There is no doubt the church is going through a transition right now, and I don't think anyone at this stage really understands what the church will look like when it comes through the transition. I do believe it will look much different than it does today. I also believe that we will see many churches coming through this transition with millennial leaders as their pastors, and I believe that will be a good thing. I just pray that sound doctrine and theology are not lost in the transition. If it is, whatever comes through will no longer be the church.