Where Have All The Millennials Gone?

The Legacy of Second or Third Priority Youth Ministry

              Among the mainline churches, the cry echoes through their increasingly vacuous buildings “Where have all the millennials gone?”  The question that often follows is “Why are they down the street in the more evangelical churches?”  The answer to these is not as complex as we may think.  The mainline churches have placed ministry to youth and young adults as a secondary priority while many evangelical churches have infused substantial resources of treasure and time into their ministry to the “future” generation.

              I began my ministry as an associate pastor to children and youth with other “senior minister” duties as assigned – once a month preaching, occasional general pastoral care to the membership, and committee coverage – by the REAL minister.  Well something happened in my career progression.  The “real” minister retired and by some workings of the Holy Spirit, I was called to be the SENIOR minister at 27 years of age to a 1,000-member church.  And the reason for the call was a significant portion of the congregation felt youth ministry should be the trade mark of their church.  Yes, my preaching and pastoral duties increased but the church believed they were making a statement by affirming that our senior minister is our youth minister.  And, oh yes, the compensation reflected their commitment to their new senior minister!

              My story is shared humbly but is a parable about what most mainline churches, their judicatories and their seminaries have not done – make youth and young adult ministry a TOP PRIORITY.  And what does making youth and young adult a priority look like?

·       Compensate those who are called to it with a fair and livable wage so that youth ministry is not seen as a stepping stone to becoming a real minister.  With low salaries and a perceived secondary from many lay leader stoo many with youth ministry gifts and aspirations must move on to “real” jobs with better compensation.

·       Seminaries increase the scope and scale of their Y and YA ministry offerings.  Seminary curriculums currently attest to the low priority given to ministry with youth and young adults.  After a recent review of seminary curriculums those with a more evangelical theology clearly offer more substantive courses in Y and YA ministry.  The reality is that most seminarians will end up in smaller church where there will be expectations of youth ministry leadership or coordination on their job descriptions.

·       Judicatories review their staffing patterns and challenge all staff members to devise programing in their particular sphere of ministry that focuses on youth and young adults.  Judicatories often relegate youth to a part-time ministry.  Often they have delegated much of this ministry to their summer camping programs.  However, the feeders for those programs are the places which continue to struggle with Y and YA ministry.  Thus decreasing registrations in summer programs.

·       In smaller local churches, leadership should select either volunteer or part-time youth ministry leaders who have gifts for youth ministry as well as the “connections” to youth programs in the community and the respect of both youth and their parents.  The basic theological training can be easily acquired.  Some community educators are often looking for supplementary income.

·       The national and regional judicatories should create model on-line (You Tube / Webinars) youth ministry training courses for gifted lay youth leaders.

·       Local churches should be encouraged through grant money from judicatories and foundation funding to create Y and YA ministries in light of the increasing competition of school system and community youth programming.

·       Placement resources should be written that include insightful ways of ascertaining a pastoral candidate’s interest in and gifts for Y and YA ministry.

·       Local churches should be encouraged to do self-studies that would indicate their willingness to bring about the necessary changes that would be a catalyst for youth, young adult and a new generation of young families to become involved in the life of the church.

·       Local churches should strongly consider partnering with community need, local educational entities, and social service agencies in a shared ministry with youth.

·       Y and YA programs should be built on the gifts and interests of the potential participants rather than on a preconceived agenda of the church.  We need to start where they are!  Successful youth ministry should not be judged by youth group attendance only but rather through the participation of Y and YA in all facets of ministry.

With the mainline church’s relegating youth and youth adult ministry to a second class ministry of the church for so many years I hope we have not lost the present and future generation’s interest in following in the footsteps of Christ through the ministry of a local church.  Enough excuses – sports, community activities, etc., etc.!  It’s time to put youth and young adult ministry as a priority!  THE FUTURE OF THE LOCAL CHURCH DEPENDS ON IT!     

Returning to a Tent Ecclesiology - Church Buildings and Declining Memberships

A Word to Immovable Christians - It’s Time for a Tent Theology – Ecclesiology Again

            We just relocated.  The move was a catalyst for a moment of reflection on the places I have lived.  Noble St., Buttonwood St., James St., Breeze Hill Rd., Silcam Dr., Spruce Hills., Higate Lane, Woodside Circle, Maple Ave., Gloucester Rd., Falmouth Rd. – these are the streets where I have lived!  The places I have called home are many -  Norristown, PA; Lancaster, PA; Danbury, CT; Lewisburg, PA; Fairfield, CT; Simsbury, CT; Greenwich, CT; Hilton Head, SC; Mashpee, MA.  My parish and national staff ministries were lengthy….houses in the same community were changed.  Where is my home?  From birth until the present I have lived in 11 houses.  I have been deeply involved in 7 hometown communities.  I had significant community longevity – 21, 10, 14, 7, 10 years.  But I had to leave the security and comfort of the familiar for new adventures.

A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous.

8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; and he set out, not knowing where he was going. ⁹By faith he stayed for a time in the land he had been promised, as in a foreign land, living in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.

²⁰ Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”

As I mused on the places I have called home, I remembered these passages from Scripture, and the realities of many of our churches – I could give you numerous statistical data on the state of many struggling churches -, a few foundational thoughts on local church vitality came to mind.

·         Many Christians are stuck with a theology and ecclesiology of immovability.  Immovability runs counter to the foundational truth of our Judeo-Christian heritage.  We are wanderers, like Abraham and Sarah and Jesus.  We move out chasing the new adventures in seeking and building the realm of God.  We live in temporary tents along the way.  It is on the journey that we find tastes of God’s realm.  This “settler” – “stay put” belief directly effects the vitality of our local church ministries.

·         Church members are often more committed to past ministry programs and historic buildings than to the journey and the call of the adventuresome God.  This stifles our ability to bring new ways of proclaiming the Gospel for new days. 

·         Along with an openness to new and fresh ministry programs, we are choking Christ’s ministry and mission because many of our churches have structures that suffocate and repress the empowering of our ministry with enormous maintenance costs.  Our ability to hire creative leadership, develop dynamic worship, spiritual development, and outreach witness ministries is smothered by having miniscule financial resources left after for building maintenance.  This reality is particularly true for most “mainline” churches that have buildings that date back to the 19^th and early 20th century.  In one of the churches I served the maintenance costs required $300,000 for buildings and grounds before any staff or program or wider mission dollars could be allotted. ,

·         In many parts of the country because of a lengthy community history “mainline” denominational churches have over populated towns and cities.  100 and 200 years ago with the torpid speed of transportation and limited roads and bridges, churches sprung up within a small radius of each other.  Thus was born the circuit rider preacher.  Also, the history of many churches is filled with theological and interpersonal disagreements which led to new churches created by disgruntled members which were in close proximity to a former church.

·         Church leaders often see endowment funds as a stop gap measure to keep the building maintained while waiting for a turnaround rather than seeing them as a resource for creative ministry.  

·         Downtown / urban / small membership church leadership often fail to analyze the community surrounding the church in an effort to shape its ministry in light of the community’s spiritual and outreach needs.

·         Church future envisioning plans are perilously too short term.  While 3-4 year planning and goal setting is a positive step in strengthening the witness of the church, an honest and candid 10-20 year view of cultural and local demographics as well as the church’s spiritual and financial health is positively essential.

In these challenging times of ministry many mainline churches fail to address these realities and in doing so jeopardize the long term health of their ministry.  The component parts of the equation are “ church maintenance cost + an unwillingness to let go of the past and think outside the box for the future + too many churches of a similar theological viewpoint in close proximity + a settler / immoveable mindset = the long term death of a church.

There are some avenues to renew the vitality of these immoveable Christian / settler mentality churches.

·         Have a serious theological reflection on the journeying nature of our Judeo-Christian ancestry.  Return to the “real” good-old-days when the tent was the worship and community gathering structure of the faithful.  Reflect upon faith being a pioneer (Hebrews proclaims Jesus was the pioneer and perfector of the faith.) rather than settler community of faith.

·         Implement a serious discussion about the long term – 10-20 years - realities of and challenges to the church’s ministry. 

·         Discard the notion of seeing the church as a building rather than a community of believers.  Remember that for many of us the geography of home changes many times in our lifetime.

·         Study the geographic placement of churches of the same denomination or similar theological ilk.  In light of the long term realities consider discussing with those churches a shared approach to ministry.  Shared ministry, union and federated churches of the same and similar denominations have been a model for ministry for a long time.  At the appropriate time be open to the discussion of “whose” or “new” building will become the physical church home. 

·         Consider endowment funds not purely for building maintenance until we “die” but also as a creative program funding resource that may bring increased vitality and renewal to the church.  Spend the last dollar on faithful and joyful ministry rather than funeral expenses.

·         Consider new, less expensive overhead places for gathering as church……rental spaces, houses, storefronts, unoccupied business or factory space, schools.  If the structure you call your church home is strangling its ministry and you decide to seek a new home, consider what physical objects, symbols have deep meaning and give identify to the church.  Think creatively how they could be used in the new church home.

·         Consider times of ordained ministerial transition as opportunities to examine shared ministry possibilities.

·         If the merging of the community of faith and the selling of one of the buildings consider ways a portion of the money received could be used for the welfare of those in greatest need or creative ministry opportunities.

·         Pray for the Holy Spirit to help in the discernment process and to free you and others from an immoveable Christian theology and ecclesiology.

To use the Biblical tent image, in our lives almost all of us will pull up stakes several times and move to a new place that we will eventually, sometimes reluctantly, call home.  As we journey on through life we will cherish important spiritual landmarks from each of our homes.  Let it be so with our church homes.  How quickly we forget the innocent theology of a children’s song – “I Am the Church, You Are the Church”:  “The church is not a building; the church is not a steeple; the church is not a resting place; the church is a people.”  Let us be the people with the Spirit of the journeying Abraham and Sarah and of Jesus, the pioneer of the faith whose home was where his ministry was most needed.        

      

White Man’s Last Stand!

I am a white male…..an aging white male.  I am a diminishing breed!  As I observe the craziness of the current political scene and the rise to political predominance of Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, I have now dubbed their campaigns “White Man’s Last Stand!”…….particularly older white men.  They are a significant voting block for Donald and Ted.

It used to be “a man’s, man’s world!” - a world where women were not heads of Fortune 500 companies but homemakers.  It was a white man’s world where might made right and where country clubs were the playground for white men.  It was a world where the white male political leaders knew that God blessed the USA and that those other counties with leaders that were not Caucasian males felt blessed to receive the white man’s kindness and aid.  And the white men felt good because they had been “charitable.”

Then something happened.  The truth came out and the census statistics told US white males that they were in the minority.  And then women started to “break up” some of the old boys’ clubs – business, social, and political.  And people of different skin tones seemed to be increasing in number.  And white males began marrying African American and Hispanic and Asian women.  And countries with few white males began to ask for less charity and more shared power in deciding the fate of the world.  It even got worse for white males – people with names like Madeleine and Hillary started being global negotiators.  And then things really got bad for white men – a man with black and white parents became president of the United States.  White men then realized they had to do something!  So they tried to plan for the failure of the bi-racial President.  They had to do something to protect the race and their maleness.  And then came along a white man with orangey hair and a man of Cuban ancestry who looked white and who spoke of putting women back it their place by asserting that they had no freedom of choice over their own bodies.  These new white male political novices think they will make this country great again by empowering white males and limiting the liberties of non-white males.  Cries of might makes right became the mantra again.  White men had dreams of the good old days.  How sad and how very dangerous for our country!

My fellow white men………the times are achangin!  GET OVER IT!  THIS IS YOUR LAST STAND!