BLOG 8/1/13. WHY MILLENNIALS (AND OTHERS?) ARE LEAVING THE CHURCH
There has been a spate of Blogs and journal articles of late on why the Millennial generation is leaving the church. Actually, they aren’t saying much that is new. There have been articles and books now for ten years on the unique factors that define (generically) this emerging generation (and even more the iY (or 20/20) generation which follows. The recent articles have been good as far as they go, but, for my money, they are still not an adequate response. The articles tend to focus on response to worship styles, and such.
I think maybe we need to go a bit deeper. The Millennials are, as we know, products of a digital culture, and all of that. But more, they are not idolatrous about church institutions, they don’t know any better that to ask telling questions about the what and why of what goes on in church gatherings—including what is called: “worship”—and we know that they are also relational, and they learn interactively. So to participate in a worship service in which they have no occasion to ask why we are doing these things, or what they mean, or where they came from leaves them a bit frustrated. This not to mention, that worship services can be a confederation of religious strangers in which I don’t really know or have occasion to relate to the people around me, which can also be a bit unreal.
One of the blogs mentions that many millennials are drawn to the more classic Anglican, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox worship because of their depth. Again, however, that leaves some loose ends having to do with origins and meaning.
The classic form, or progression, of worship as we have it in the Roman Catholic mass, and which also comes down to us in many of the Protestant traditions, has its roots fairly early in church history. Its origin is in the episode in Isaiah 6, in which Isaiah was somewhere when he had this overwhelming vision of the holy God, which absolutely blew him away, and ultimately transformed his life and his life’s calling—and that is significant for us to remember. Isaiah didn’t run out and tell folk that he had experienced a wonderful mystical moment. Not at all. What the vision of the thrice-holy God with seraphim flying about calling: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory” did to Isaiah was to make him realize how unclean and incomplete and without ultimate purpose was his life. So he fell on his face in broken-hearted confession of his uncleanness before such a God. Then God in mercy sent an angel with a live coal off the altar and touched his lips and declared him clean. Thereupon, the Holy God gives an invitation: “Whom shall I send, who will go for us?” to which Isaiah responds: “Here am I. Send me” … without even asking what he was being sent to do! It is then that God commissions Isaiah to the mission of being his prophetic voice to his fellow religious kinfolk in Israel, who had forgotten why they had been called by God in the first place.
First, notice the progression: 1) Adoration, 2) Confession, 3) Absolution, 4) Invitation, and 5) Instruction for mission. That is the progression of the classic worship service to this day.
Further, note that Isaiah was not a ‘religious’ or a priest, or a clergy. Tradition has it that he was of royal blood and part of the family of the very monarchy he was called to challenge, along with the Israelite people. Isaiah was a layman. His worship called him to missionary/prophetic engagement and obedience. The instruction equipped him for long years of faithful engagement as an instrument of God’s revelation to his people.
If our experience (Millennials, or anyone else) is not that kind of transformational encounter with God in our worship services, something is profoundly missing, and one might be excused for leaving such an ostensible church with its questionable worship. Worship is to be an encounter with the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ that produces change, obedience, and faithful mission in our 24/7 lives and the “light of the world.”
Got it? [Feed back your comments, if you will.]
