How Millennials Can Strengthen Your Community
Millennials can make your church community better, helping you to grow in faithfulness to the calling you have in Christ.
How?
Millennials are Open to Collaboration
Millennials want to work with others, and this may require changes in how your church functions organizationally. Geil Browning observes, “This generation is all about collaboration; wants to impact the greater good; and is not too interested in how things were done in the past. In fact, the top-down approach that characterizes many companies may be one reason for the high turnover rates associated with Millennials--the square-peg-in-a-round-hole problem.”
But collaboration can strengthen your community. If Millennials, Gen Zers, Boomers, and Xers are working together for the good of your congregation, there will be a greater diversity of ideas, a higher level of ownership and investment, and the potential for God to do something new.
While fostering a collaborative leadership environment may be challenging for churches that are more hierarchical, it may help you to live more fully into what it means to be the body of Christ. Millennials can help lead the way.
Millennials, Mission, and Purpose
Why does your church exist? How do you articulate your mission? And how do you take action? The clearer you are regarding your mission and purpose, the more enthusiastic Millennials will be.
Christine Comaford writes at Forbes, “For millennials, work must have meaning. They want to work for organizations with a mission and purpose.”
Does your church have a mission statement? Is it memorable, clear, concise, and concrete? How do you articulate to your people why you exist and what you’re about? How do you invite people to participate in your mission? How do you celebrate milestones and instances where God brings your congregational vision into reality?
If you are clear on your mission and purpose and invite Millennials to share in the work, they will be some of your most enthusiastic evangelists in your community for Christ. They will be excited about ways God is making a real difference in the world through your local fellowship, and they will tell others.
Millennials Value Service
Ryan Scott writes at Forbes, “Millennials have grown up in a world where community service is often integrated into schools, where MLK Day and September 11th are now tributes to volunteering, and where the number of nonprofits has exploded over the past 35 years.”
Scott notes these additional insights and trends:
“Millennials engage with causes to help other people, not institutions.”
“Millennials support issues rather than organizations.”
“Millennials prefer to perform smaller actions before fully committing to a cause.”
“Millennials are influenced by the decisions and behaviors of their peers.”
“Millennials treat all their assets (time, money, network, etc.) as having equal value.”
“Millennials need to experience an organization’s work without having to be on site.”
Millennials have unique gifts that can help your community grow, change, and serve. God can work in and through Millennials to strengthen your congregation. Give them a chance. Invite them to help your congregation foster a healthy environment for collaboration. Show them ways they can contribute to your mission and purpose. And give them opportunities to serve.
The body of Christ will be better off.