The Lost Generation?
Wired magazine (October 2006) interviewed Dawn Ostroff, the president of entertainment for the new CW television network. Here’s an excerpt from the interview:
Wired: Every channel drools over the 18- to 34-year-olds.
Ostroff: We’re the only broadcast network focusing solely on this demographic. And if you think about it, all the major life events happen to people between the ages of 18 and 34. They graduate high school, go to college, get their first apartment, and buy their first car. We will have the ability to advertise to these viewers when they’re going through all of this.
Here are my observations and thoughts:
- There are several other major life events that typically happen during this season of life. As examples, people get married, buy their first homes, have children and raise those children.
- Most churches focus their ministry on people that are 20 to 30 years older than this demographic.
- This demographic is leaving the church. I recently noted that Agape Press reported that 88 percent of children from evangelical homes are leaving the church shortly after they graduate from high school.
- Sometimes I think television is more concerned with reaching this generation than churches are.
- I’m guessing it will be almost impossible for existing churches to shift their focus to try to target this generation. If that’s true, we probably need lots of new churches to reach this generation.
So, what do you think? If existing churches tried to focus on reaching this generation, how would our ministries have to change?
Great post – the sad reality is that over 80% of churches in America are either plateaud or declining; cul-de-sacs for the Kingdom.
I don’t believe that the majority of existing churches are willing to sacrifice sacred cows in order to become missionaries to this generation (which is where the change begins).
The solution? Welcome to my world – the world of church planting! :)
Ministries I’d like to see…(I’m in this age group)
Financial/Budget help for set up
Parenting help (older parents giving tips on how they raised their children)
Apologetics-learning how to intelligently defend the faith that we believe.
A way to interact with older people and how they have lived their life for Christ in their everyday lives, workplace, neighbors, etc.
How to learn about integrating our faith into our lives, instead of always wanting to do the “church” thing…”oh, i have to try to get this person saved, because my pastor said so.”
How to learn more about people in general…being in college has taught me about different personality types, etc., definitely been key on how to relate to people..I want others to know about that stuff.
Basically ministry just needs to be a place where we can plug in and be accepted with where we are at in life. I feel as a 22 year old, that I just don’t fit into churches anywhere, because me personally, I love to grow and learn, and ask questions…most churches aren’t okay with that…it’d be nice to even have a ministry where we can come and just discuss theology, ask the hard questions, then look at how to answer them biblically…
Just some thoughts…
How are y’all doing at Granger in reaching & keeping these folks? Anything you’ve found especially helpful? Anything you thought would work but didn’t?
The older generation tends to think that the younger crowd (20-40) must fit into a more traditional mold to be for real. They don’t take younger people seriously.
I’m praying that God will use me to reach this under-served segment of our population.
They want more than a wwell-spoken sermon.
They want their lives and their communities to be changed.
I’ve been working with this group for 15 years now. Basically we progressed from student ministry into a church plant within a church (co-location)…
I’ve been thinking about this for a long time, as I see former youth group students growing up and forming part of this demographic.
They may be leaving church, but in my case, it hasn’t been that they are leaving their faith. It is just evolving beyond the “churchianity” that they followed as teenagers.
I think part of ministering to them is sticking with them, although not always easy. Anyway…good post to get some thoughts going.
My church is successfully reaching this demographic. One of the main reasons we have been so successfull is that most of the OLDER generation in our church have said, “We don’t understand it; the music, the visuals, etc. But we do understand the church growing and young people and young families coming to know Christ!” There are those who left for a more traditional style of worship & church. We have been blessed with some SERIOUS lovers of the Word and Will of God in wanting to reach the “unchurched”. The message is sacred, not the delivery.
So many churches think in groups like Singles, Collegiates, 20-somethings. Perhaps try looking for a name that is more inclusive… or not. At 30, unmarried with no kids, but engaged, I find I am too young to hang out with the 30+ group and too old and unsingle to hang out with the 20 somethings. And couples all seem to be with kids or so young. Maybe the secret is we should stop trying to categorize people. But it is so natural to do so… tough questions Tony, I would like to see it working for real.
Another comment. Back int he days when I was in youth ministry, I frequently felt guilty for not being one of the hyper energetic charismatic overgrown junior high guys who had a booming, exciting youth group. That just wasn’t my personality. Sometimes I was tempted to fake it, but whenever I was about to give in, I’d think, “Nah, it’s not worth it.”
So we spent lots of time in bible study – some pretty heavy duty. We took about a year and a half to work through a book of the bible (the curse of having a PHD student as their leader). One of our youth retreats was centered on a detailed discussion of Colossians (though we also had fun playing on the mountain!); another centered on training in evangelism – including extended prayer sessions for their pre-Christian friends; another was just for graduating seniors and focused on preparing to live as a christian at college (when they had the freedom to do and be whatever they wanted). I couldn’t judge the quality of my youth ministry by the quantity of kids showing up (though I sure did want a large quantity!). I told the church leaders that the best way to judge a ministry was to see where the kids were in ten years.
I feel good about that ministry. It’s now 11 years since I left that church. 2 youth from the group who married each other were pastors for a while and are now bible translators in the South Pacific. His brother is on staff at the church. Another is a pastor at another church. Another has left her job at Boeing and spent the past year in Iraq and is preparing for a life of mission work. A couple of others are teachers and musicians and see themselves as being “in ministry” even though it’s not their title.
In light of this experience I’d argue for two things.
1. Think long term.
2. Have high expectations. Don’t sell your people short. Give them your best and expect their best.