2nd Opinion: Are Millennials different than Boomers 40 years ago?

Back in the 1970s, a lot of congregational prognosticators warned the church, in general, was in the process of losing a whole demographic generation known as baby boomers.

Existing congregations, new congregations and denominational approaches to ministry were losing the ability to appeal to the largest generation ever born in North America. Generally, the birth years of this generation were 1946 through 1964.

George BullardAs this generation approached their 20s during the 1960s, they became known for their rock music, pursuit of mind-altering drugs, guilt-free sexual love and demand for peace. While not nearly all—or even a majority—of this generation connected with all these issues, the segment of the baby boomers who did was loud. They rejected institutions and authority and saw the church, in general, and congregations, specifically, fitting into their perception of irrelevant.

I was part of this generation but missed out on most of the experiences. The only parts that infected me were a pro-peace bias, a belief popularized by Jacques Ellul that institutions do violence to individuals, and some teachings from Saul Alinsky about community organizing that have helped me work with congregations to organize them as social systems.

As the public crescendo of warnings by the prognosticators reached its full volume, a new style of congregation known as contemporary was gaining traction. The most well-known of these were Saddleback Valley Community Church and Willow Creek Community Church. Since you know exactly who I am talking about when I name these two congregations, it is obvious their approach worked.

The power of the response to these contemporary congregations was so great that with some modifications, many of them adapted to the next generation, known as the baby busters. Generally, the birth years of this generation were 1964 through 1982.

Millennials are Different!

When we move to the millennial generation, who generally were born from 1982 through 2000, do things change radically? During their birth years, we saw the emergence of the postmodern age, in which paradigms shifted and many understandings of reality returned to zero and reset.

The heavy focus on vision during the last two decades of the 20th century has shifted to a focus on relationships with God, one another and the context in which congregations serve. Absolute truth has morphed into the story of each person’s truth consistent with the overall written and living Word of God. Connecting with missional causes about which they are passionate that make a significant difference in the lives of others is a higher priority for the millennial generation than loyalty to fulfillment of limited goals to which everyone is requested to connect.

The computer chip and the Internet morphed our communication from a centralized or decentralized pattern to a distributive or networked pattern. Information previously imparted only by experts is now free on the Internet.

The shape of congregations, particularly in relationship with denominations, has changed. The fastest-growing denomination beginning around 20 years ago is called nondenominational. The fastest-growing type of congregation is the multisite church. Some researchers are telling us up to 8,000 congregations that primarily are nondenominational are involved in multisite ministry. Of course, that means more than 340,000 congregations in North America are not.

Some things definitely have changed. The voices saying the millennials are different are louder and broader. Not only are the congregational prognosticators telling us things are different, but the blogosphere, eBooks and events to which they swarm give voice to a significant number of millennials telling us they are different. Baby boomers did not have these communication methods, so they took to the streets.

But are they?

Let’s remember a situation often seems more severe if you are in the middle of it and being impacted by it than when you figuratively can go to the balcony of the North American church and look at the larger picture. Further, let’s remember if someone shouts, “The church is on fire!” they get more attention than someone who sees the fireplace is smoking up the gathering area of the church, and we need to ventilate the area immediately to get more fresh air—or in this case, fresh dialogue.

Are millennials that different? Are they really that much different to the current culture than baby boomers were to their culture? Maybe yes. Maybe no.

In either case, they are worthy of dialogue and a significant response from the church to their life situations.

George Bullard is president of The Columbia Partnership, which seeks to transform the North American Church for vital and vibrant ministry. He also is general secretary of the North American Baptist Fellowship, one of six regions of the Baptist World Alliance. This column was distributed by ABPnews/Herald.