Why the Church is Losing a Generation & What We Can Do About It

I have been ministering to young adults for the last 10 years and there are some needed paradigm shifts we have to make in order to bridge the widening generational and cultural gap that is splitting our churches down the middle. Here are a few:

1. Change from they must come to us (to the older) to we must go to them (to the younger)
2. Change from thinking what we are doing is the complete mission of God to getting a broader view of the mission of God through the NT, especially Acts. I have a whole diatribe on this one but I will spare you. The gist is this. Make a list of the verses in Acts that are “in” the church and those that are “outside” the walls. Then look at the activities and ministries of the church you are a part of and figure out if the proportions are even close to similar? We are out of balance and spiritually obese because we consume everything in the corporate assembly rather than expending our resources outward.
3. Change from Institutional to Relational
4. Change from thinking the problem is with them to the problem is with us (older/leadership)
5. Change from assuming we are relevant to actually being relevant to a dying world (worship and Bible study don’t cut it).

There are more but you get the point. These shifts are not made easily. These shifts are not made by leadership if the leadership doesn’t know these guys or love these guys and spend time with them. We cannot continue to isolate ministries and ages and hope that they will spontaneously connect with the larger church on their own. We have to build the bridge to them within the church but we also have to go with them outside the walls to where the mission is and live it out with them. Otherwise, we are dying a slow and painful death.

It is a blessing they are disengaged from ‘Christ’s chuch’ as it has been presented to them, because it hasn’t offered the engagement God has desired or bears fruit that lasts. God creates every generation in their time and place so that they may seek him and find him. When the church realizes again that Jesus wants to engage as Himself only, through people that have let go of their lives and thus bear the fruit of holy spirit only, then the generation of seekers can find Him.
God has been shaking to ruins what man has built and it may look like ruins. Restore walls and streets to dwell in with the simplicity of love, mercy, and true justice of His grace thus offering the testimony of Jesus not organization, tradition ect. When people see the church as its been disengaged from their ways ( repented, changed) then there is opportunity for the New generation to engage . Let’s desire the new wine that each new generation or people groups desires, like it is the best for the last. Gods got a generation to marry and if we admit we don’t have the wine left, he will provide. Thank God our own wine has run out and it seems we don’t have anything for those coming so they can hear His best, not ours?

I am from Malaysia. I am involved with undergraduate Christian fellowship as a leader. I have been in this ministry for more than 10 years. I observed that Malaysia is losing our next generation as well. It seems like this is a global issue.
In 10 years time, our church and neighbor churches have lost approximately 70% of the memberships or total attendance numbers.
I do not have a solution and have been trying different approaches to gain their interest. It seems like conventional approach of “lecturing” or “seminar” styles are no longer suitable. They don’t like to listen and think, I guess. Since last year, I have been using “experiencing learning” approach in my cell group (fellowship). At least from my experience, learning by playing approach can gain some interest from young generation. From there, I tried to introduce the Word.
Just to share, from Goh.

As an Episcopal Church parish priest, one of the things I am certain of is that so-called “contemporary worship” (which is usually anything but contemporary, it’s more like 1970s folk-rock) is not going to attract droves of young people. At a recent youth event geared to raising awareness of the plight of the homeless in our community (we had a good turnout out of teens and young adults), the worship was designed and lead by the participants. The Compline service offered late at night before they retired (to sleep outside in cardboard shelters they had built) was authored and led by four teens (one 14 y.o., two 15 y.o., and one 16 y.o.) It was a very traditional service and included ONLY traditional hymnody – every one of those present took part, joined in all the prayers, and sang all the music with gusto. Tradition works when it’s meaningful and combined with social justice ministry.

What you are saying is very true, in fact obvious. Indeed, I heard, that the church is on the way out, meaning believers would meet in small groups. The leader of our mission group, Crossworld, is on to something. In fact our new motto is, “There is a better way.” Note the great commission in Matthew 28:18-20 says “go and make disciples of all nations”, but it doesn’t say “go and plant churches in every village”. Yes a church is a group of believers in Christ. Yes each believer is a disciple-maker wherever that person is, in all the market places of the world. So please connect to Crossworld, There is a better way. Try to connect to Dale Losch for good open helpful discussions on this subject. Sincerely, Suzanne Doriot in Manado Indonesia en route to Papua Indonesia.

Jonathan: I am a 65 year old member of the United Methodist Church. I am seeing the same problem in my local church. Looking across the congregation from the choir loft I see mostly gray haired people with a smattering of young adults and their young children. What is missing is a group consisting of 30-45 year olds. Like you, I don’t have a concrete answer, but I do know the outcome, closed church buildings. I am sensing three problems: (1) Those people see no relevence to what is going on in the church to what is going on in the outside world; (2) Many of those people who are working hard to climb the corporate ladder feel Sunday morning is the one day to “sleep in” (If there was a feeling of relevence they would force themselves out of bed and into the church); (3) We don’t make them feel a part of the body. The United Methodist Church’s slogan “Open hearts, open minds, open doors” is perceived as nothing more than a slogan. Please, if you have an aha moment and find “the answer” share it with the rest of us.

It’s trick of the enemy in this generation the devil knows he only has a certain amount of time and he’s targeting the youth