I met with a man yesterday who has a heart for the “Millennial” generation.
Not clear on what that is?
The table below defines it for us as measured in millions of live births:
GI Generation 1904-1924 – 59.6
Silent Generation 1925-1945 – 55.4
Boomer Generation 1946-1964 – 75.9
Gen X 1965-1979 – 51.5
Millennial Generation 1980-2000 – 77.9
Author Thom Rainer states, “The Millennials are the hope for the American church”.
Okay let’s take a look at the scorecard and see how we’re doing with them:
- Only 13% view religion & spirituality of any kind as important
- Just 25% strongly agree that the Bible is the written word of God
- 70% believe the Church is irrelevant
- Less than 20% have a Biblical understanding of Jesus & matters of salvation
- 65% rarely or never attend church
- 72% agree that God is a real being & not just a concept
Hmmm . . . If Millennials are the hope for the American Church we’re in big trouble.
Sean Dunn founder of Groundwire states: “If statistics are true, less than 1 in 5 Millennials have a relationship with Christ that provides forgiveness and the promise of heaven. That leaves over 60 million that are dying in their sin. That is a huge mission field and one that we cannot ignore.”
Yikes that is a lot of kids and grandkids heading for an eternity of total separation from God. Jesus put Millennials on my heart and that’s why I invited Sean to Honey Lake to visit with me yesterday. I realize that this old silver haired goat cannot effectively communicate with these youngsters. Before we can make any headway in turning these figures around, we need someone who speaks their lingo to step up to the plate.
I’ve been searching my network to find others who are connected to them, and I’ve received several promising leads of young evangelists including a couple of young men that are filling up stadiums with Millennials and routinely leading thousands to Christ.
Now that’s what I’m talking about! I’m trying to setup a meeting with those young bucks now in order to get them involved with the Renewal effort.
You see I’m not discouraged by those numbers; it is reminiscent of the prison ministry to me in finding large numbers of lost souls who are desperate to hear the word of God and find peace in their tortured lives. I know without looking at statistics that these young people who do not have Jesus in their lives are miserable and are turning to sex, drugs, alcohol, cutting themselves, and suicide to escape a mean cold world. They need Jesus.
Identifying those 60 million kids is like knowing where to dig for gold. Once we know where lost souls are located in vast numbers, we need only perform the necessary work to mine this mission field and get rich.
Yes the workers are few (always), but the harvest is truly great, (just like Jesus said), but we’ll round up some folks with a heart for God.
Don’t be discouraged by the work ahead of us to change our culture. Though we have made a mess of things, when we turn to God He will make the crooked road straight my friends. Just keep praying and do your part.
Take heart!
Genesis 18:14
Is anything too hard for the LORD?
May 8, 2014 – Click here to listen