While Baby Boomers, Gen Xers and the older generations tend to profess a faith aligned with some kind of Christian church — 70% and up identify as Christian — only six out of ten Millennials, those born after 1980, describe themselves as Christians. Indeed, Millennials entering adulthood have much lower levels of religious affiliation and less connection with Christian churches than older generations, with more than 35% of younger Millennials in the 18 to 24 year old age group having no religious affiliation and almost as many (34%) of those aged 25 to 33 stating the same.
So while there are over 173 million Christians in America and over 80% of all Americans identify as Christian — only 13% are non-religious and just 4% are associated with non-Christian religions such as Islam and Judaism — the question then becomes how can we bring the youth back to an active faith life and to the church?
Many Christian churches around the world are adopting new technologies to help them reach the young people who amy have no faith history and those who have strayed from the faith at some point. While traditional means of reaching believers and non-believers alike are still powerful, these new technologies — such as church services streamed over the Internet, virtual faith communities that meet online, and accessing faith readings through mobile apps — can provide vital links and support resources for all of the faithful, while also potentially having an evangelical aspect.
The community church still has a role to play in calling these young people back to the church and to their Christian faith, but it is also up to the body of the church, its people, to live the faith in such a way, both offline and online, that is speaks to the experience of young people and inspires them to seek out God.
