{"id":9560,"date":"2017-10-26T13:40:56","date_gmt":"2017-10-26T19:40:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/?p=9560"},"modified":"2017-11-28T15:15:53","modified_gmt":"2017-11-28T21:15:53","slug":"millennial-mindset","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/2017\/10\/26\/millennial-mindset\/","title":{"rendered":"Millennial Mindset"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"page\" title=\"Page 1\">\n<div class=\"section\">\n<div class=\"layoutArea\">\n<div class=\"column\">\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Generation of Change: Millennial Mindset\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/241989426?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"1170\" height=\"658\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Senior Zachary Snedker grew up an agnostic within a family that was mostly atheist and was unable to find a church home during his first three years at Harding. He described most of his trouble trying to find a church as coming from his frustration with the inconsistency he saw between what Christians said, believed and did.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI felt very alienated, like I wasn\u2019t accepted in the churches of Christ,\u201d Snedker said. \u201cI was never able to and a place where I felt at home &#8230; I grew incredibly tired of the racism and sexism I saw in so many churches, as well as the bigotry toward the LGBT community outside of the church community.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In a 2017 article by Fox News, they reported that roughly three-quarters of millennials &#8211; even those raised in homes that were to some degree \u201cChristian\u201d \u2013\u2013 leave that faith after high school. More than 60 percent of millennials who have done just that say that Christianity is \u201cjudgmental,\u201d and 64 percent say that the term \u201canti-gay\u201d best describes most churches today. e problem is not that there are not enough churches pulling millennials in, but rather that there is a disconnect between those churches and the millennial generation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou see Jesus hanging out with tax collectors and prostitutes \u2013\u2013 the absolute worst people of his time,\u201d Snedker said. \u201cBut for some reason, even though we\u2019re told to accept everybody where they are and to help them grow in the church, many of the churches that I\u2019d seen would rather push those people away.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to a survey conducted by e Bison, the top three characteristics students seek in a church are a sense of community, an emphasis on Biblical teaching and a loving environment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"column\">\n<p>Tim Archer, author and preacher at the University Church in Abilene, Texas, gave a presentation at Harding\u2019s 2017 Lectureship. He said millennials have a hard time relating to churches today because of the difference in expectations between generations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t think (millennials) come at the Bible and the world in the same way that their parents did,\u201d Archer said. \u201cI think that a lot of millennials have problems with more traditional logic \u2013\u2013 they want the Bible to make sense in reference to their experiences &#8230; It\u2019s not just about your doctrinal view of justifcation, it\u2019s about what you\u2019re doing for your neighbor.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Archer said that millennials want to see a church that is willing to listen, is accepting of all people and excited to act on the things they profess.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think a lot of them want to be a part of a church that is actually helping people and doing things,\u201d Archer said. \u201cIf they don\u2019t find that in a church, they\u2019ll find it somewhere else &#8230; they want to see real people who don\u2019t just talk about being Christians but live as Christians &#8230; who worship with their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Snedker expressed a similar desire to see churches that take what they say seriously, and set an example of authenticity for younger people to follow.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think a lot of people have felt the same pressures and seen the same injustices I have,\u201d Snedker said. \u201cThey&#8217;re trying to find a place that does the same things in practice that we see in the Bible as opposed to what\u2019s seen in the churches here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to the Pew Research Center, most millennials have the same beliefs about life after death, the existence of heaven, hell and miracles as older generations today \u2013\u2013 yet there is still di culty bridging the gap between generations in the church.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019re very eclectic,\u201d said Todd Gentry, campus minister at College Church of Christ. \u201cHow their (varied beliefs) fit sometimes is very different for my generation to understand.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gentry has worked primarily with millennials in his years as campus minister, and he said that the problem often is not that millennials do not want to be a part of organized religion, but that they do not see a place where they t into organized religion. He also discussed how those in a majority of church leadership positions tend to apply of their beliefs in a completely different way.<\/p>\n<div class=\"page\" title=\"Page 1\">\n<div class=\"section\">\n<div class=\"layoutArea\">\n<div class=\"column\">\n<p>\u201cWe do what the leadership likes,\u201dGentry said. \u201cWe don\u2019t always reach down and ask, \u2018What do you want?\u2019&#8230; College students learn more inductively. They say \u2018tell me more stories, tell me how this applies to my life\u2019 whereas most of our preaching says something like &#8216;here\u2019s what the Bible says, here\u2019s how it applies.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gentry also thinks millennials have trouble connecting with churches because they do not know how to bridge the gap themselves, and are often unwilling to figure out how before they leave the church.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis generation will only be a part of stuff if they know why they\u2019re doing it,\u201d Gentry said. \u201cThey want things to be explained to them, why things are important \u2013\u2013 \u2018why does this have to happen?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to the Pew Research Center, millennials are less likely to be affiliated with the religion of their parents and grandparents because the mindset and practices of the generation before them seem to be disconnected from their own.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI see people wanting to belong, but they don\u2019t always know where to start,\u201d said Abby Dingus, recent Harding alumna and college minister at Fellowship Bible Church. \u201cI hear words like, \u2018I don\u2019t feel like I belong because I don\u2019t know anyone, and I don\u2019t feel connected. I know other college students and I feel good when I go and sit with them; but I don\u2019t feel like I belong because I don\u2019t know families.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This idea inspired Dingus to focus on connecting college students with families in the church with the hope of cultivating relationships that are otherwise difficult\u00a0to facilitate.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"column\">\n<p>\u201cPeople want to be known and to know\u00a0others,\u201d Dingus said. \u201cI\u2019m wanting students at Fellowship to know that they are valued, that we want to know them and that we want them in turn to know the body. I\u2019m seeing that whenever we o er that and people step into it, it\u2019s been really beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Archer also said he recognized the need for students to be included in a group of people pursuing a genuine lifestyle of faith.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe outsiders come and feel like outsiders instead of feeling welcomed,\u201d Archer said. \u201cThey\u2019re not finding authenticity \u2013\u2013 they\u2019re finding people who talk about Jesus, but they don\u2019t feel like that goes beyond the doors of the church &#8230; I think that many (millennials) see a church that seems more focused on what happens Sunday morning and is somewhat unresponsive to the community around them. I think they want to see a church that is accepting of all people, willing to listen to all people and willing to nd a middle ground with all people. I think that\u2019s some of what we have to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"layoutArea\">\n<div class=\"column\">\n<p>This is the second installment of the \u201cGeneration of Change\u201d series. The third will appear in the next edition of The Bison, on stands Nov. 3<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Senior Zachary Snedker grew up an agnostic within a family that was mostly atheist and was unable to find a church home during his first three years at Harding. He&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15086,"featured_media":9561,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15086"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9560"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9858,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9560\/revisions\/9858"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}