We are living in an age of post Christianity. Evidently, the millennials’ social script is not parallel with Christian values any longer in such issues as sexuality, marriage, choosing careers, and parenting. In fact, one-fifth of Americans mark their religious affiliation as “None” or “nothing in particular,” and the millennial Nones have become the fastest-growing cohort. In the last two decades, the growth of Nones has gone from seven percent to twenty percent. However, Tim Clydesdale indicates the demography of Nones and Evangelical Protestant millennials show an intriguing polarization as each group represents 30 percent of the millennial population. Regarding the change in religious preference among millennials, James E. White’s analysis shows that these two cohorts on the spectrum are the only ones who lead others to convert. Amid the growing surge of a churchless generation, some churches, mainly located in metropolitan areas, indicate extraordinary growth of congregations consisting of young professional and multi-ethnic millennials. These churches offer various ministry approaches which are not compartmentalized by the traditional ways of evangelism or form of the church which has been reframed in the appearances of polarized practices and values. The polarized practices and values can be illustrated as a set of intellectualism versus imagination, of ancient spiritual disciplines versus new apologetics, of Orthodox liturgy versus contemporary performing arts in worship, and of contemplative self-awareness versus social justice.
The problem I seek to address is not about the status of Nones among millennials but about the growing chiasm in understanding about the grounds of the Nones’ exodus from the affiliation of the contemporary churches. Rachel Evans’ warning further points out the indication of this chiasm based on Barna Group research on the two primary reasons given by millennials for not attending church: 87 percent say that Christians are judgemental, and 85 percent see Christians as hypocritical. Interestingly, only eight percent of millennials give the reason they do not go to church is due to the church being “out of date”. Evans’ findings indicate that millennials are not seeking out a style of worship or tradition of church, but rather millennials are watchfully looking for a life where Christians practice what they preach. In other words, millennials want to see how Christians conduct their faith in mundane life. Considering the realm of millennials’ religion and spirituality, they are more concerned about life, community, and meaning than what church tells them about how they should feel or act. In fact, Nones have developed new questions related to meaning and significance juggling between life and faith. For instance, “What difference does a relationship with Christ make in a person's life?” “I admit that Jesus resurrected, so what is the matter with my life?’ Another new category of question is about the character of God; “Is this God of yours really that good?” The question used to be, ‘is there a God?’ and now it is, “What I know about God, I do not like.”
The problem I seek to address is not about the status of Nones among millennials but about the growing chiasm in understanding the grounds of the Nones’ exodus from the affiliation of the contemporary churches.
By evaluating the above questions, millennials’ quest for faith gravitates more toward ‘self’ than God. James K.A. Smith, reflecting on Charles Tayler’s view of secularism, explains that this secular age perceives God through the lens of authenticity and the social imagery of expressive individualism. The main ideas of these two notions are the rejection to conformity with a model from the outside that includes religion and the understanding that each one of us has our own way of realizing humanity. Supportively, Jonathan Grant illuminates the influence of the postmodern culture of authenticity and hyper-individualism among the young generation to create their own beliefs and morality. The only rule of this influence is that a person must resonate with who he or she feels he or she really is: self-awareness. Practically, the journey of self-awareness, when left untended, can be easily manipulated by secular notions, so it must be guided by the truth of the gospel. In this regard, Peter Scazzero proposes that a balanced emotion can be developed by effortful self-awareness which leads to transforming people’s livese in the Gospel. For this reason, providing an opportunity as a ministry to reach out to millennials to experience improved self-awareness is a critical path to understanding spirituality apart from the church while communicating with their primary languages: authenticity and individualism.
Millennials'
primary cultural languages: authenticity and individualism.
If we desire to communicate with millennials, we must communicate in their language - authenticity and expressive individualism.