The Real Reason Millennials are Leaving the Church

And what the church needs to do

loud music and emphasis on relationships are hardly enough

but first, another comment this week on the economy and the markets

The crypto fiasco

“Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it.” Prov.13:11

The bankruptcy of FTX and some of the crypto exchanges that were involved will go down in history.

The consensus is that at least 90%, maybe 99% of crypto currencies and non-fungible tokens ( NFTs) will go down the tubes. The few that survive will be the ones that actually have useful functions rather than empty promises. The lesson for investors is to use a little common sense and watch out for get rich quick schemes. Besides not putting all your eggs in one basket, a good principle is to take a look at the risk/reward ratio. We knew crypto currencies were new and untested and very high risk. Yet they were tempting because the potential reward was great if they worked out. So it was worth a shot. But common sense should have clued everyone in to keeping anything invested in it small enough so that you could afford to lose it. At least until more was known.

Interestingly, bitcoin and ethereum and some others seem to have weathered the storm. In fact, they have gone up over 40% in about a month. Why? Because they have some actual use, and therefore some actual value. Bitcoin can be used as an international currency that crosses borders without all the bankers getting their fingers in it, thus eliminating the middle men and loads of red tape, making international transactions cheaper and quicker. Ethereum and a few others are platforms for software developers to use the blockchain to greatly improve many different kinds of daily transactions. Non-fungible tokens have the potential to protect identity and ownership records permanently on the blockchain. Eventually we won’t even need title searches or title insurance.

Now on to our main topic…

One thing lacking

Our churches are doing so well in so many ways. The worship is freer and less stilted than in the old days. The words are not as familiar as the old hymns, but they are usually very spiritual and scriptural. Service to the community is much more emphasized. Tolerance and friendly outreach to all visitors, regardless of their appearance, is a good thing. The gospel is for everyone. The sermons I’ve heard are scriptural and often powerful enough (‘spirit filled’) to have enough impact to change lives.

Yet I see one thing lacking.

Sensory overload

I guess I’m more sensitive to loud noises than most folks. When my wife and I and another couple went to Disneyland and Universal Studios, by the time we got to an outdoor session of the Blues Brothers, I had to sit as far away as I could get, because the loud music was giving me a headache, or worse- some kind of sensory overload. I just wanted to get back to some blessed peace and quiet.

Recently, I was sitting in an evangelical non-denominational Christian church. The guitar playing songleader and his singers and band were up on a stage. They were lit up with spotlights while the rest of the room was darkened. The stage was backed by a large screen that played visuals like gigantic moving, color-filled, almost hypnotic screensavers. The powerful amplifiers for the instruments hit me like a wall. I was stressed out by the awful loudness, and having trouble concentrating on the praise and worship even though that’s why I came. For me, it was an assault on my senses. If the words of the song hadn’t been on the screen, I wouldn’t have known what was being sung, because the instruments were drowning out the songleader and the voices of everyone around me, most of whom didn’t seem to be singing anyway.

The problem

Why? Why were the instruments so loud? I guess it was to make church attractive to young people, who like very loud rock concerts, so they say. But there were only about four young people! There were several hundred old people, all of whom were pretending to like the music. I wonder what a survey of the audience’s real opinions would find?

It’s not working. Young people aren’t flocking to churches. The music is not bringing them in. Loud music is not the answer. They can get that elsewhere if they want. They don’t need church for that.

The few young folks that were attending are coming because their parents are churchgoers. Most of them were in another room; ‘junior church’. They come up through Sunday School and then into a youth group. The emphasis is on relationships. The thinking is that if they have good relationships and friends in the church, they will continue in the Faith. But that isn’t working as well as it should either. Like loud music, they can find relationships elsewhere.

The most important relationship, of course, is with Jesus Christ. And that would certainly be more than enough, if it wasn’t being constantly undermined by the culture. What happens when the teens in the youth group, who were brought up in the church, leave home and go into a career or on to college? They’re slammed with atheism and ridicule by a multitude of unbelievers. Their faith is put to the test, and most of them don’t come back to church after they’re out on their own.

Culture

Let’s back up a bit. These same youth who are brought to the church by their parents for an hour or two every Sunday are being indoctrinated by the culture during almost all of their other waking hours. Allowing for 56 hours of sleep a week, it’s about 100 hours of culture saturation versus two hours of church. Which do you think will have the most influence? Social media interaction starts when they’re 8 years old. In some schools, teaching on evolution and gender nonsense is starting in kindergarten. Most of their friends in public school won’t be Christians. When they get to college, they’re confronted with professors who openly ridicule Christianity, teaching that evolution is a “proven fact”, and presenting sophisticated arguments in support; arguments that the young students are completely unequipped to refute, because the church spent all the time on building relationships but failed to give them a solid foundation with answers to defend their faith.

Instruction

“These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. ⁷ Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” Deut.6:6-7

“When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?” Psalm 11:3

Parents have an awesome responsibility. Instruction starts in the home. That’s the ideal. Shuttling children off to public school and even Sunday School does not fulfill the above verse in Deuteronomy ch.6. It’s not enough. Children are a gift from God. They are precious, and deserve our full commitment to teaching them all about Jesus and our Creator. That includes teaching them how to defend their faith, by giving them answers to questions about the bible, the miracles, the resurrection, and any other questions they might have. It includes teaching about the cutting issues of the times. There’s only one race - the human race. There are only two genders - male and female.

If they have a solid foundation from an early age, they won’t be easy prey to false ideas.

So the first line of defense, the cornerstone of the foundation of faith, is the family and the spiritual parenting of the children in the family.

Home schooling is the best way to do this. It accomplishes more than just a platform for proper instruction. It also significantly isolates children from the negative and destructive influence of the ungodliness in our culture.

They’ll meet the culture soon enough – when they finally leave home for work or college. And the whole point of parenting is to prepare them for that. Christians are in a spiritual battle. You don’t send soldiers into battle without thorough preparation, equipment, and training. In this kind of battle, the equipment needed is a sharp “sword” made of the best and strongest steel – the sword of the Spirit – the word of God. See Eph.6:10-17

If it’s too hard for you alone to schedule home schooling, consider joining with some other families that you trust, and spread and share the work among the group.

The second level of defense is the church. Class instruction should be a priority for the church. Proclaiming the gospel, fellowship, praise, worship, and serving the community are important, and many churches are doing a great job at it. But without biblical teaching, the foundation will be weak. The reason so many churches are filled with old people and few young ones, in my opinion, is because most of the old people had many years of earlier instruction. Their faith is strong enough to withstand the onslaught of the culture. Even though most churches have gotten away from serious, regular, in depth bible class teaching, the old folks had that in earlier years. But the young and the new aren’t getting that kind of foundation.

Jesus used a lot of parables. One that comes to mind is the parable of the sower. When Jesus explained the meaning, we see that the ones who have “no firm root in themselves” (no foundation) are “only temporary; then, when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall away. That’s what is increasingly happening to our young people.

I’m also reminded of the letters to the churches in chapters two and three of Revelation. Some of the churches were doing well in some ways, but Jesus pointed out the areas where they needed to change.

There are two kinds of teaching we need in the church. The first is plain, straightforward exposition of the actual words of the scriptures. We need to know the Word, and study it and repeatedly be reminded of it, so that we know how to apply it to our lives. The second type of teaching we need is apologetics. That’s from a Greek word meaning defense. We need to know how to defend our faith. This is especially important for young people and those new to Christianity. Otherwise they are way too vulnerable to the arguments of unbelievers who want to tear down the Faith in order to justify the un-Christian lives they’re living. It’s not just defense against false arguments that we need; we also need to know the Truth because it is so often suppressed by the ‘cancel culture’.

A strong foundation is needed to withstand persecution. This is an age of tolerance for all views except one: Christianity. Sincere, active Christianity will always be persecuted because all other philosophies and religions are condemned by it. There is no other way to forgiveness and heaven and eternal life except by believing in and following Jesus; therefore, all other ways will fail. Most unbelievers, instead of accepting that truth, are offended by it. When our Christianity is tested by persecution, we need the strength to stand firm, regardless of the consequences, even imprisonment or death. The Holy Spirit is our Helper and Comforter, but it will be hard for Him to help us if we don’t spend daily time with Him in the Word and in prayer, calling on His name.

Next week: how to find answers for every question you have about the first eleven chapters of Genesis - like “Where did Cain get his wife?” and “What about those long ages?” and “Was Noah’s flood global or local?”