Attracting 18 - 30 Year Olds to Your Church

Attracting 18 - 30 Year Olds to Your Church

Aaron Buer

Digital giving apps and tools

I like statistics and data. Why? Because they don’t lie. They aren’t like opinions or ideas, they just are. You can’t really argue with them.

When I say I like statistics, I should be clear that I don’t always like what the statistics tell us. For example, when we look at the statistics of millennial church attendance (people between the ages of 18 and 30), things get pretty uncomfortable.

At our church, we know the data concerning millennials in our congregation. Although the data isn’t as alarming as we originally supposed, it is still concerning. Over the last few years, the percentage of millennials in our congregation has been declining.

millenials_declining_graph

I’m guessing your church is facing the same data. Most churches are. Let’s be real. Nationally speaking, this is a huge problem. What can we do about it? How exactly do you reach and keep millennials? Well, I’m not sure I can completely answer that question. However, I can share what we’ve been learning through our research.

I believe that when millennials encounter our churches, they are asking four questions. It’s crucial that we answer these questions well.

QUESTION 1: ARE THESE PEOPLE REAL?

If there is one word that captures the ethos of millennials its authenticity. My friend Brad, who leads our church’s ministry for 18-29 year olds says it this way:

“For millennials, authenticity is the language of hospitality.”

Over the last decade, the American church has grown tremendously in production excellence and polish in our worship services. For a lot of reasons, this is a good trend, however, it has created the potential for a problem as we try to reach millennials.

There’s a fine line between a polished worship service and a slick worship service. A slick worship service is highly polished but lacks authenticity.

My friend Brad says that the level of authenticity in our worship services must match the level of production excellence. I think he’s absolutely right.

If we want to attract and retain millennials, we must be real — especially during church. We must share real stories about our lives. We must be perceived as on the journey rather than arrived at the destination. And, we must talk about our failures as well as our successes. This is the language of authenticity.

[tweetthis]For millennials, authenticity is the language of hospitality[/tweetthis]

The first question millennials are asking about our churches is, “Are these people real?”

QUESTION 2: DOES THIS CHURCH CARE?

The millennial generation places a high value on social justice. To their credit, they are typically informed about, concerned for, and active in helping those who are suffering. At the same time, millennials are wary of organizations that appear to be selfishly motivated.

From my observations, Christian millennials are looking for churches that are involved in and serve their communities. They are looking for churches that engage social issues and suffering. They want to be part of a church that truly cares about people.

Here’s the good news: Most of our churches do care! And, we’re involved in serving our communities. When it comes to answering this question well, the solution might be as simple as highlighting what your church is already doing more often during weekend services.

share_what_doing

This strategy might sound a little like self-promotion, but think of it this way: If someone attended your church for the first time last week, would they know that your church cares about your community? This is an important question because visiting millennials will be asking.

QUESTION 3: WHERE ARE MY PEOPLE?

Visiting a new church can be a little like a middle school cafeteria. You get this panicky feeling as you visually sweep the room looking for "your people". If you can spot them, your blood pressure immediately drops. If you can’t... you eat your lunch hiding in your locker.

diary_wimpy_kid_caffetria

Diary Of A Wimpy Kid

Ok, that’s a little dramatic, but when it comes to millennials deciding whether or not they could see your church as a home church, if they can’t spot any other millennials then you’re in trouble.

“Do my people even go here?”

If there aren’t 20 somethings in the audience, there is very little chance a visiting millennial will feel comfortable.

QUESTION 4: CAN I PARTICIPATE?

There is a related question that millennials ask when first observing the demographics of a congregation:

Are my people valued here?

If there aren’t 20 somethings on the stage, on staff or in leadership roles then it is very unlikely that a visiting millennial will feel valued in your church. Why? Because this is a generation that wants to jump in and participate. They want to engage. And if there aren’t millennials visible in the leadership of the church, that’s a clear signal that millennials aren’t invited to participate until they grow up.

So, what do we do? We start by investing in the millennials we have. Care for them, mentor the, value them, and give them opportunities to lead.

Next Steps

So there you go, four questions that I believe millennials ask when they encounter our churches. If you want to get more serious about reaching and keeping millennials, I encourage you to do two things:

First, read Growing Young by Kara Powell, Brad Griffin and Jake Mulder. It’s a great read and contains helpful strategies in becoming a church that is well, growing young.

screen-shot-2017-01-04-at-4-09-10-pm

Second, I encourage you to do what we’re doing. We’re in the middle of a millennial secret shopper initiative. Basically, we’re inviting millennials to come check out one of our services and then give us feedback on what they experienced. It’s helping us understand what our services feel like to a millennial.

secret_shopper_feedback

If you have ideas on reaching and keeping millennials, we’d love to hear them. Leave us your thoughts in the comments below.

Discover how our Groups tool can help you organize and manage one-on-one meetings effectively.

Explore Groups Tool

Looking for an easy-to-use software to help manage your church?

We'd love to show you what we built!

Join 10,000+ happy churches using Breeze ChMS™.

Name
loves Breeze

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat. Aenean faucibus nibh et justo cursus id rutrum lorem imperdiet. Nunc ut sem vitae risus tristique posuere.

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
Name
loves Breeze

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat. Aenean faucibus nibh et justo cursus id rutrum lorem imperdiet. Nunc ut sem vitae risus tristique posuere.

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
Name
loves Breeze

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat. Aenean faucibus nibh et justo cursus id rutrum lorem imperdiet. Nunc ut sem vitae risus tristique posuere.

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
David P.
loves Breeze
St. Pauls United Methodist Church

Breeze has been incredible. Their customer service, commitment to innovation, and their product are top-notch. I love the features, the ease of use and the mobile applications.

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
Karen M.
loves Breeze
Hillcrest Church

All of our database needs have been more than met, it's easier to use than the last database we had, and the price is amazing - what a value this has been to our church! All of our staff can use this software and they do regularly. We use it to track…literally anything a church could possibly need to track regarding it's attenders.

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
Chris K.
loves Breeze
Crossroads United Methodist Church

Breeze has been a great asset to our church and congregation. Especially from an administrative standpoint, it has been the most adaptable and easiest church database I have ever used. The features from blast emails to giving on-line, and texting have been one of our greatest assets. Thank you!

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
Ed R.
loves Breeze
Church Admin

We switched from a major, web-based ChMS to Breeze and our decision is confirmed every day. We are a medium size church and we use Breeze for contributions, member management, event checkin and a few other applications custom to our church. I had trouble getting any staff to use our previous ChMS but almost all staff are using Breeze. The product is very well designed, extremely easy to learn and use and customer service is incredible.

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
Ellen G.
loves Breeze
Grace Church

Breeze has opened the communication highway for our congregation and staff, with very little training. Because members can update their own records and search easily for other members - and map their locations, send emails and text right from Breeze, they love it and our data is more real-time accurate. Our ministries are stronger, because they can trust the data in Breeze, which is easily accessed anywhere, anytime.

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
Steve H.
loves Breeze
First Presbyterian Church of Ramsey

Breeze is the first ChMS my volunteers have actually embraced. That's because it's so easy to use. The software is very flexible and gives us the opportunity to make decisions based on actual data we've collected and not just hunches or stories we believe to be true.

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
Allicia B.
loves Breeze
Ellel Ministries Canada

I cannot say enough about Breeze. Their customer service is so friendly, you feel like you have friends and family helping you get started, they're prompt to reply and will do whatever they can to help you get things sorted out. It's been so easy to learn, our staff is loving it and best of all even our staff who are not computer savvy find it a breeze (pun intended). We are just thrilled by our choice.

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!
Kevin D.
loves Breeze
Central Baptist Church

From the start of our process looking for an online solution, Breeze has exceeded all our expectations. Fast data import, fast and friendly customer support, and we can’t say enough about how much we like the program itself. Very well designed and user friendly. On a scale of 1-10, Breeze gets a 15 from us!

Try a demo of Breeze for yourself!

Rated 4.9 stars – 700+ reviews